Working From Home

As the phrase “working from home” has been bantered about during the COVID-19 era, I reflected on my grandfathers and my father on this Father’s Day. Both grandfathers work predominantly from home as farmers most of their lives. My preschool days found my father farming, enabling him to be at or near home during my early years until, as he would say, "took up carpentering."

Both grandfathers worked a variety of jobs prior to marrying my grandmothers. Grandpa Gates served as an assistant to his relative who installed lighting in Fairfax, Oklahoma. He also worked on the construction of the Gunnison Tunnel in Colorado. To read the blog posting of his early jobs, go to: https://bernadeanjgates.blogspot.com/2014/02/early-jobs-of-edmund-gates-sr.html

My maternal grandpa, Calvin Callcayah Smith, used his carpentry skills in the lead mines in Picher, Oklahoma, not far from his rural home in the Cherokee Nation built on his father's original land allotment. Grandpa served as a medic based in St. Paul, Minnesota, during World War I. After his father’s death, he transplanted to Osage County and began building wooden oil derricks during the oil boom of the 1920s. Here are links to previously-written blog posts: https://bernadeanjgates.blogspot.com/2018/02/almost-one-hundred-years-ago-flu-was.html and https://bernadeanjgates.blogspot.com/2015/01/did-warmest-january-in-oklahoma-during.html

Following his marriage to Grandma, Edmund Gates, Sr., my paternal grandfather, worked on his less-than-100-acre farm on the Arkansas River. Grandpa worked and planted his farm ground with a team of horses or preferably - mules. In fact, in his 70s and 80s, he had a great desire for a team of mules, a wish my grandma vetoed.

Not only did Grandpa Gates work from home, but Grandma, Mamie Tripp Gates, often worked right beside him unless they had a hired hand and until my father, the oldest son who lived out of infancy, could work alongside his father. Again, I am indebted to Brenda Gates for the photo of Grandpa and Grandma below. 

Grandpa began clearing trees in 1917 when he bought the farm in the northwest area of the Bend. My father found himself on the other end of a crosscut saw when he “goofed off” at school. To read more about it, click on this link: https://bernadeanjgates.blogspot.com/2015/04/maybe-it-was-spring-fever.html

            Calvin Callcayah Smith, my maternal grandfather, worked from home also as a farmer. Even after my mother's birth, Grandma, Gladys Rainey Smith, labored right next to Grandpa in the fields whether raising field corn, wheat, kafir corn (sorghum grain), cotton and oats. As a baby, my mother accompanied them in the field. Here is an account based on a previous blog that told about this:

      Grandma was a working mother. Grandpa drove the team of horses while Grandma rode the cultivator. Before Grandma left for the field, she always put on her meal of pork to cook. That took care of lunch preparation.

      Childcare for my mother, Bernyce, was imperative. Grandpa “repurposed” a little seat for my mother as a toddler to ride on the cultivator. It had been taken from another implement. What resourceful parents she had!

     The same cultivator was stolen and later located around Skiatook. My grandparents could easily identify it. Even though the thieves cut off Mother’s little custom-made seat, they could not disguise where Grandpa had originally attached it.

To read the blog from which the above came, go to: https://bernadeanjgates.blogspot.com/2015/04/when-grandpa-and-grandma-got-parrot.html 

My own father farmed cotton and cared for his herd of cattle for the first few years of my life. I liked his working on the farm because, if possible, I accompanied him. He and Grandpa allowed me to ride to town with them if they were buying cattle feed or picking up chicken shale or getting a part for a farm implement. I even hung around as they built the barn, chicken houses, put in the yard fence, and cleaned out chicken houses. When he and Grandpa Calvin constructed the barn in 1961, on the farm Mother and Dad purchased – where Mother and I continue to live, I spent each day on site with them. I persisted in playing with the kittens in the hay for hours – until one afternoon, Dad noticed my eyes were almost swollen shut due to my allergic reaction. He headed me back to the house. Even though I could hardly see, I arrived at the house successfully. As a little five-year-old, once I got to the back door of the house, I thought Whew! I made it!"

As I recall my father and grandfathers on this Father’s Day, I am thankful they were willing to work hard to provide for their families. I am thankful my grandfathers recognized the value of their wives. All three men celebrated the power of commitment since each of them marked over fifty years of marriage. They were men who held to the principles and commandments of the Bible and conveyed them to their children.
Here is God’s formula for fathers to teach their children from Deuteronomy 4:9

You must be very careful not to forget the things you have seen God do for you. Keep reminding yourselves, and tell your children and grandchildren as well.