Growing Up on 5th Street - "The Harvest"
Updated: Jun 11, 2020
By Butch Hurford
As I got older Mama let me go next door to play with my first friend. His name was Doyle. Doyle and I played together every day. We played with toy cars and trucks. We also played cowboys and Indians and rode imaginary horses around the yard. None of the front yards had grass. We kept the grass worn off as we took hoes and made roads for our cars and trucks. After we spent the first grade together, that summer, Doyle told me they were going to Michigan to the harvest. I ran home and asked Mama if I could go!!! She explained to me they were going to stay all summer and work. Other people in the neighborhood went to harvest in those days. One of the men in the neighborhood was asked, how did he know how to get to Michigan and he said “just follow the bologna wrappers”!
When the summer ended, and they returned from Michigan, Doyle told me he was moving to St. Louis, MO where his dad had a good job waiting.
I didn’t see Doyle much after that. Every year or two they would come home for a visit with his relatives. It was a good move for his family. Later on Doyle owned his own construction company.
