The Hay Barn....................

Anyone who has been reading my blogs will know that the joy of my youth was spending time on my friends farm. I think Margaret and I met when we were about 4 or 5. In any case it was when we began school. She lived on a farm a few miles out in the country, it's drive was 1/2 mile long to reach the road. There she had to get a bus to the village and then walk to my house. This was because the bus came much earlier than school started. So we spent just about every day together because I would go to her house on weekend. When we got old enough to date, then the roles reversed and she spent the time at my house so we could go out on weekends. She was as close to a sister to me as I could get. This is me aged about 15 or maybe 16 sitting on the gate to the sheeps field. One of our special places to play was the hay barn. We loved it in there. We could climb the bales for one thing but we could also swing from the rafters and play Tarzan. I suppose these days it would be Spiderman. The barn was huge and never empty that I recall. There was a window looking out over the woods and fields, not really a window but the hole that bales were lifted up and down with one of those huge hooks and pullies. We would sit there when it rained and look out wishing we could be out there. Very often we found kittens hidden there. We would catch them best we could and hide them from the dad. He would drown any that he found prior to the eyes being opened. So if we could hide them for awhile we were all set. We would put a blanket or something for them and put bales all around, the fear was that when really small they could fall between the bales never to be seen again. This is similar to our barn but an American version no doubt. Our barns were the real old ones, hand made from sturdy oak with huge beams. That was why we dare swing from them and walk across them. The free range chickens also took a liking to the hay barn and so sometimes we found eggs, or sometimes chicks. We got to raise any chicks we found and the kids got the egg money from them later to spend. One way for the Dryden kids to get pcket money. I have very very fond memories of laying in that hay in that huge old barn and I bet the other kids do too..........nothing like it these days.