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LEAVING THE RANCH
It was the first week in Sept. 1932 that we left the ranch. Verna's parents returned from York [sic] Nebr. The Land Bank will now renew the loan on the ranch for $11,000.
We will move to their home in York. Verna, Dale, and Peggy can live there, and I can go back to college. My former job is available for me at the Engineering Department at 25 cents per hour, in the tractor testing laboratory. I can get my degree in two years, and the Metzgers will get a new start. Verna will keep house for her brothers, Oliver and Weston, and I will return on week ends, to be with the family.
It is difficult for me to describe my feelings as we leave the ranch. I knew that we had lost every thing we owned, and were in debt more than $3000.00, but my real problem was, that I felt a complete failure. I had never had an experience like this, I did not always succeed in what I was doing, but there were usually alternatives, but there was none this time. I had lost.
We took with us only what we could get in a small 1932 Ford pickup. Verna's parents would leave their furniture and we would leave ours. When the loan was completed we could make an exchange.
I can feel again the pain, as we left the ranch headquarters. It was a bright September morning, The hired man waved to us as we turned into the road. WHAT IS HE DOING ON MY HORSE? He knew that I didn't want anyone to ride that colt until he was better trained! Is he going to turn the cows and calves into the meadow? He knows that they should stay on summer pasture for another month!
The sun is shining thru the cottonwood trees, the light is dancing on a small branch of yellow cottonwood leaves, that are changing to fall colors. The entire tree will be a bright yellow in a few more weeks! We cross the bridge to check the mail box for the last time, and then we turn and sit for a few minutes to watch the cows and calves as they drink at the river.
Is it like this to die? Do we have to leave this now? I start the engine, shift into low gear and climb the hill past the Shumaker Ranch. We turn right onto the main road to Kearney, Grand Island, and then to York. An era in our life, had come to an end. Will we pass this way again? How will we ever repay the money we owe? I heard this morning on the radio that the dairymen were pouring milk in the streets. What is happening? Has the world gone crazy? I think mine has.
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Metzger Memories
