{"id":21314,"date":"2024-08-21T00:44:18","date_gmt":"2024-08-21T06:44:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/?p=21314"},"modified":"2024-08-19T14:47:03","modified_gmt":"2024-08-19T20:47:03","slug":"work-from-yesteryear","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/2024\/08\/21\/work-from-yesteryear\/","title":{"rendered":"WORK FROM YESTERYEAR"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Bryce Angell – The outdoors has always been a large part of my life. My father was an outfitter and guide for 35 years and I was there to shoe and care for the horses and help him do the cooking. We took many great trips into the Yellowstone area. Even now that I\u2019m older, we still ride into the Tetons, Yellowstone and surrounding areas. My poems are mostly of personal experience. I am now retired and enjoying life to the fullest. I plan to do more riding and writing.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I learned to work when growing up. My father taught his way. The farm demanded of your time and hard work every day.
\nBack then the work was arduous. Did we do our bodies harm? \u2019Cuz work weren\u2019t for the sissy, laboring on the family farm.
\nThe summer heat would find us hauling bales of alfalfa hay. We bucked \u2019em high up on the truck. For us, the only way.
\nThen we\u2019d throw the bales from off the truck onto a large haystack. That night we\u2019d lay there dreaming of hay bales rolling back.
\nWe always used a shovel and a pick to dig postholes. We dug through rock and gravel, planted posts then spiked the poles.
\nEquipment was expensive so our bodies did the work. Life for us weren\u2019t all for fun and no one dared to shirk.
\nNot one of us had even known what posthole augers were. Our backs bore all the brunt from work. It took its toll, for sure.
\nBy five a.m. we\u2019d be up milking Holstein cows by hand. My grip was like a vice. Now arthritis reprimands.
\nOne day while helping Uncle Clarence lift a trailer hitch, my foot gave way and then I felt the sting of low-back twitch.
\nHe said, \u201cYou won\u2019t feel pain right now but dang sure when you\u2019re old.\u201d I\u2019ve heard folks say their pain is worse, especially when it\u2019s cold.
\nNow after fifty years I feel the sting and twitch all day. My Uncle Clarence got it right, his experience I\u2019d say.
\nI wake each morning, climb out of bed, my joints are stiff and sore. The experts claim I\u2019m getting old. I say, settling up the score?
\nThe sharp pains are reminders of hard work and how we played. Back then we were invincible. Never thought the word \u201cAfraid.\u201d
\nAm I sorry for the life we lived? Work wore our bodies out. I don\u2019t make lame excuses \u2019cuz hard work I brag about.
\nAnd about those aches each morning, they\u2019re a pain right in my rear, but always a reminder of the work from yesteryear.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I learned to work when growing up. My father taught his way. The farm demanded of your time and hard work every day. Back then the work was arduous. Did we do our bodies harm? \u2019Cuz work weren\u2019t for the sissy, laboring on the family farm. The summer heat would find us hauling bales of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","_pvb_checkbox_block_on_post":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160,2],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-21314","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-cowboy-poetry","7":"category-commentary"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21314"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21314\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21315,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21314\/revisions\/21315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}