Uncle Leo’s Farm: Chapter 1…Morning Mist
There stood in the early morning mist between the farmhouse and the barn an elderly concaved little man wearing a ratty straw hat that he won at a local carnival two years back.
At his feet was a bucket of corn on the cob.
First, he would stretch his arms upward, then sideways, then his arms would disappear within his weekday coveralls.
In moments his right foot would begin a tapping.
Then his shoulders would start bobbing.
One spit to the left.
One spit to the right.
Throat cleared, deep breath, right hand comes out of his pocket and upwards to his mouth.
And then in the early morning mist of a century old Canadian farm came music.
Music played on a harmonic his daddy gave him as a child.
There is no greater sound than a harmonica played in the morning mist.
And soon you would see a nose, then two, then several pink noses, all smelling the mist for safety.
Right foot tapping, shoulders popping up and down, skinny hips in oversized coveralls swinging back and forth.
Then came his audience out of the barn and up to the old wooden fence.
Harmonica now on full.
Wait for it wait for it…
…and then it began on every high note the pigs would answer back in squeals.
With the squeals the harmonica player started to dance.
He would move to the right, and the pigs would follow.
Move to the left, and the pigs followed.
And then the harmonica player would spin, and the pigs would back up.
When the music ended as if by magic the mist cleared, the harmonica was put back into a pocket, the bucket of corn was picked up and carried to the fence and one by one an ear of corn was tossed into the pen.
Every morning all summer there drifted into my bedroom window a breakfast concert for the pigs.
A different song every morning.
Same bucket of corn.
His name, Uncle Leo, my Uncle.
Same old concave man in a carnival prize straw hat and baggy britches.
As a child I spent several summers on his farm.
Depending on the time of day he called me Donnie, or Son, or Lil Pecker.
Oh, the only other time he played the harmonica was in the farmhouse kitchen at breakfast when he was cooking…
…bacon.
Uncle Leo’s Farm
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