Blog Post #3

Milking Freeport

In 1942 my grandfather Tom Bardall remembers milking cows being only 6 years old. He had his own designated stool. “We each had 6 cows to milk, 36 cows total. My 5 brothers and my father.” He remembers getting up early every day, and they would go to the barn to get their morning chores done. After getting the cows milked, they would carry the milk from the parlor down to the spring house where they would keep the milk cool, until it could be taken around the surrounding town of Freeport, to supply the small community with milk. They were the supplier and had a milk route that was ran.

“Those were hard times for some people, they traded for what they needed or couldn’t afford.” This was a post depression era when the nation was still recovering from the downfall of the economy. My grandpa said that one particular time: “They had their ration of potatoes to feed their family. They had all of the potatoes set out by the manger where the cows were fed and did not think the cows would hurt them, but when they came back the cows had eaten all of the potatoes. That was a particularly hard struggle for the family.”

My grandpa’s job on the milk route was to collect the money. One thing that really caught my attention when my grandpa told me: “One lady that lived in town did not have very much, but gave me some very antique coins. She told me not dare spend them because they would be worth very much one day.” Against his wishes, he had to turn the money in because that was their milk money and used that to live off of. He wonders how much they would be worth almost 75 years later.

This is extremely important to me and the community because my family served such a large part in the Freeport area. I really enjoyed hearing what he had to say.

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