Just a Country Boy from Kansas
My Life Story
by
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During my summer vacation after the third grade, I acquired some new pets. One day, I was exploring along the west branch of the creek with one of our dogs. We were just north of the highway bridge, where the roadside park is today. I noticed our dog was sniffing around an old box elder tree near the creek bank. Then she started barking and scratching on the trunk of the tree. I looked up into the tree, and I couldn’t see anything that would get her excited. Then I noticed a hole in the tree about eight feet above the ground. I crawled up to the hole and looked in. It was dark at first, but when my eyes adjusted, I saw seven pairs of eyes staring back at me. The tree was hollow and down inside the tree was a nest with a mother raccoon and six baby raccoons. I decided to walk home and get an axe and see if I could get the raccoons from the tree. When I got back to the tree, I crawled up and looked in the hole again. The six babies were still there, but the mother raccoon had left, while I was gone. I proceeded to chop a hole in the trunk of the tree, so I could reach the raccoons. When the hole was large enough, I reached in and pulled out the six baby raccoons one at a time. They were pretty small, but were really lively. I got them all rounded up and headed for home. It was difficult to carry all of them at once, because they kept trying to crawl away. I would leave three of them and then carry the other three for a little distance. I would then leave them and go back and get the first three. By repeating that over and over, I covered the half-mile to our house with the six little raccoons. I fixed a cage for them west of our house. At first I fed them cows’ milk with a medicine dropper. When they got a little older, they would drink milk from a bowl like a cat. I would let them play outside during the day, but I always put them in their cage at night. When they were still fairly young, some people came by the house one day and asked if I would sell some of the baby raccoons. So, I sold three of them. I think I got $5.00 for one of them and $2.50 each for the other two. One of the raccoons had a fight with one of our dogs and unfortunately, didn’t survive. So, I ended up with two pet raccoons of my own. My favorite one was a female. I called her "Coonie". She also had a fight with our dog and the dog bit off the end of her tail. So, she had a short tail. The other raccoon was a male. He was bigger and darker colored than the female. So, they were easy to tell apart. When they got a little older, I would take them for walks down along the creek. They would play in the water and climb trees, but would always stay with me and follow me back home. When they out-grew the cage, I moved them to a shed on the southeast side of the barn. By that time they would eat almost anything. They especially liked sweet things, like cookies and candy. They also liked eggs and got into trouble a few times because of that. "Coonie" learned how to open the screen door on the south porch with her front feet. Once or twice, she opened the door and helped herself to the eggs that we stored on the porch. Mom didn’t like that very much.
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About the Book
The book describes the recollections of the author, Harold Riechers, starting in the mid 1930s and extending through the end of the year 2002. The author’s early years were spent on a family farm in north-central Kansas. He describes family life on the farm during those difficult depression years, including both fun times and sad times. The author recalls interesting and unusual incidents that happened during his grade school and high school years in a rural Kansas community. After high school he attended college on a football scholarship. He recalls a number of amusing incidents that happened while he lived in a football dormitory. Later, he married his high school sweetheart and they began a promising future together. The author describes his devastation when his young wife suddenly becomes ill with cancer and dies, leaving him to raise three young children by himself. After raising his children to adulthood, he married again and began a new phase of his life. The book will be interesting to both youth and adults. Youth will be intrigued by the author’s childhood activities on a family farm and adults will enjoy reminiscing about the "good old days" of their own youth.
About the Author
Harold Riechers is a retired chemical engineer. During his engineering career, he worked for several chemical and energy companies in Kansas and Oklahoma. He is a member of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers and is a certified Professional Engineer in Oklahoma. Mr. Riechers received a BS degree in Chemical Engineering at Kansas State University in 1959 and an MS degree at the University of Kansas in 1966. Born in north central Kansas during the Great Depression, he spent his early years on the family farm. After receiving a good education in the public schools, he attended Kansas State University on a football scholarship. Following graduation from Kansas State, he worked thirty-four years in the chemical processing industries as an engineer.