Flying
Jenny
The
idea must have come
from
one of our parents
but
when it took root
in
our girls club, The Sunflowers,
it
was our own and we took after it
like
a bulldog to a bone.
We
claimed an old piece of farm machinery
lying
abandoned in the weeds.
Our
Uncle Jim, who often helped us
with
his tools, cut the axle in half so we could
have
a big wheel, about three feet in diameter,
with
the half axle as stem.
After
procuring Pappap’s permission,
we
proceeded to dig a hole under his willow,
not
too deep, but deep enough.
Then
my sister and I took Sunflower money,
walked
the mile to the feed mill
and
bought a sack of cement.
It
was twenty pounds or so
and
we paced ourselves, counting
out
the steps and taking turns
carrying
our burden back to Pappap’s
where
the oldest of us mixed it up,
put
the axle in the hole and let it set.
We
painted the wheel from leftover paints
in
Pappap’s basement: mostly blues, greens
and
whites avoiding his beloved battleship gray
and
had Uncle Jim make us some
wooden
seats so the metal spokes
wouldn’t
wear ridges in our bottoms.
When
the cement was set, the paint dry,
we
gave the wheel a spin
and
eureka it worked!
We
took turns riding and spinning
till
the trees, the road, the houses all blended
together
in a smear of colors.
The
kids passing by on the school bus
were
inquisitive when they saw our Flying Jenny
and
some even came for a country visit to try it out.
We
whirled about on our wheel until we got older
and
didn’t notice when it became so neglected
Papap
dug it up and threw it away.
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