Third cutting
Fine and bright
I had mowed raked hauled and stacked it
With schoolmates just
Two months before
Also that summer
We had dug a deep well
Run a pipe to the barn
Plumbed in a frost-free spigot
Through it we now filled buckets of H-2-0 for the ewes
Just as we were leaving the barn
To go back for the cows
I felt a whack
To my derrière
Flew through the air
And into the manger
The old ram had been lying in wait
He nailed me
Thank goodness the soft hay caught me
“Are you all right?”
Pops called out in fright
As I crawled out of the manger
All 100 pounds of me
I was
Bruised but not broke
Save for my pride
Which was shredded
I strained for my breath
Then recalled the cause of the old ram’s anger
In June I had wrestled that fat Hampshire ram
As I sheared him in 4-H class
Australian style
With the clippers
I had badly nicked him
He out weighed me double
Was mean as a snake
Now he had got even
How bad was that storm?
383 people died from it
Over 22 states
It cost insurers $893,000,000
In 2025 dollars US
More than any storm or hurricane before
That’s true—Google’s AI just told me
What did I learn
From the Great Appalachian Storm of 1950
Just this:
Do not turn your back
On a ram