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    Poems, Song Lyrics, Essays, and Short Stories
    Poems, Song Lyrics, Essays, and Short Stories
    Poems, Song Lyrics, Essays, and Short Stories
    Ebook199 pages1 hour

    Poems, Song Lyrics, Essays, and Short Stories

    By Nina Hatchitt Duffield

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    Life on the farm in Minnesota was not easy during the early 1900s. All family members had to work long hours as a team to maintain an adequate supply of food, clothing, and shelter the basic necessities of human existence. A trip to the annual County Fair was a treat beyond the comprehension of today's leisure-burdened Americans. Why, then, would a talented and attractive young woman named Nina Hatchitt leave a successful career in the heady cultural environment of Washington D.C. to marry a Minnesota farmer? Nina's decision was driven by love of a particular man and by love of family in the broadest and purest sense. Her choice was between the probability of new sensations of pleasure and more money to spend on things, and the promise of life-long heart happiness. She made her decision at a time when her already successful career was about to soar to higher levels. But by becoming a farmer's wife, she simply added a second career to an already impressive resume. Somehow she managed to continue writing poetry, song lyrics, and prose while giving birth to and raising six children under the difficult conditions of farm life. She was able to get a few of her pieces into print, but most have gathered dust in family archives during the eight decades since her death. By compiling and annotating Nina's writings, Wendell and Anne Duffield record a bit of early-1900s farm-life history while documenting engaging literature of broad and universal appeal.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisheriUniverse
    Release dateJan 26, 2005
    ISBN9780595791132
    Poems, Song Lyrics, Essays, and Short Stories
    Author

    Nina Hatchitt Duffield

    Wendell Duffield is the son of Ward, the oldest child of Nina Hatchitt and Arthur Duffield. He and his wife Anne spend summers in the beautiful lake country of northwestern Wisconsin and winters in Flagstaff, Arizona, where Wendell is an Adjunct Professor of geology at Northern Arizona University. Having listened to her husband?s tales of Nina Hatchitt Duffield?s writings, Anne has happily lent her literary talents to the anthology project. Wendell is also the author of fiction and non-fiction books that can be viewed at http://oak.ucc.nau.edu/wad3

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      Book preview

      Poems, Song Lyrics, Essays, and Short Stories - Nina Hatchitt Duffield

      Copyright © 2005 by Wendell A Duffield

      All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any

      means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording,

      taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in

      the case of brief quotations embodied in

      critical articles and reviews.

      iUniverse

      2021 Pine Lake Road, Suite 100

      Lincoln, NE 68512

      www.iuniverse.com

      1-800-Authors (1-800-288-4677)

      ISBN: 0-595-34346-5

      ISBN: 978059579112(ebook)

      Contents

      Foreword

      Brief Biography of Nina Hatchitt Duffield

      A Few Words of Explanation

      Acknowledgments

      FRIENDSHIP FAMILY LOVE

      THE HOUSE THAT PETER BUILT

      I—PETER’S PROMISE

      II—PETERS HOUSEBUILDING

      III—PETER’S PARTY

      THIS DAY IS MINE

      TRUANTS

      SIGNS OF SPRING

      TWO LITTLE FARMERS

      JANUARY ROSES

      CROPS

      THE OVERALL BRIGADE

      FUNNY OLD APRIL

      FISH TALES

      FRIENDLY CHORES

      DAD’S LANTERN

      VIOLETS IN A LETTER

      THE OPTIMIST

      THE SPIRIT UNDISMAYED

      A POEM WITHOUT TITLE

      PROGRESS

      A DAUGHTER’S TRIBUTE TO HER MOTHER

      TRIBUTE

      JUST AWAY

      KIDS AT PLAY

      MY KITE

      PONYPRANKS

      INSPIRATION

      RULE OF THREE

      GARDENING AND HOUSEWORK

      A GARDENER’S GRIEF

      MOTHER WIND CLEANS HOUSE

      A BOY’S PROBLEM

      COUNTY FAIR TIME!

      BOBBYS PIG

      FINNEYS TURNIP

      FINNIGAN AT THE FAIR

      VALENTINE MESSAGES

      VALENTINE VERSE

      A VALENTINE LETTER

      VALENTINE VERSE

      VALENTINE VERSE

      VALENTINE VERSE

      CHRISTMAS

      CHRISTMAS

      CHRISTMAS

      CHRISTMAS VERSE

      MISTLETOE MAGIC

      FIDO’S CHRISTMAS

      WISE OLD SANTA CLAUS

      OTHER SPECIAL DAYS

      BIRTH CONGRATULATIONS

      WEDDING ANNIVERSARY

      BIRTHDAY VERSE Mother

      BIRTHDAY VERSE Dad

      MOTHER’S DAY (To Mother)

      NEW YEAR’S VERSE

      EASTER

      BIRTHDAY VERSE

      THANKS TO PETER

      THAT FORTY-ODD FEELING (A Birthday Ballad)

      BIRTHDAY ABC’S

      THE WASHINGTON D.C. CONNECTION

      TO THE BUSINESS GIRL

      TO THE STENOGRAPHER

      POOR GEORGE

      A WASHINGTON ACROSTIC

      OUR GREAT LEADER

      CANCELLATION

      THIS AND THAT VERSES

      PROUD LITTLE BOAT

      OWLISH WIT

      THE ATHLETIC ALPHABET

      THE SAVAGE COMPANY CONTEST

      SONG LYRICS

      YOU CAN’T FOOL OLD ST. NICK

      OUR BABY’S STOCKING

      WE CAN’T BE GOOD MUCH LONGER

      WE’LL NOT FORGET TO GO TO SUNDAY SCHOOL

      WHEN MELISSA LISTENS IN

      SON OF THE SOIL

      THE OLD LAKE TRAVERSE SHORE

      HA, HA, HA, ISN’T IT GRAND

      SALLY

      MY MOTHER HAS NO GIRL TO DO THE DISHES

      A MOST TALENTED YOUNG POET

      TO MOTHER

      MOTHER’S BIRTHDAY

      SUNRISE

      CHRISTMAS

      THE OLD OAK TREE

      THE SEASONS OF LIFE

      GRANDMA

      THE MOUNTAIN

      EASTER

      RECORDS

      REPROOF AND RECOLLECTION

      WASHINGTON

      SCHOOL DAY MEMORIES

      A STORY WITH A MORAL

      MY DREAM

      AFTERTHOUGHT

      ESSAYS AND SHORT STORIES

      JANEYDECIDES IT

      PIONEER PEANUTS

      HOW WE SOLVED OUR LABOR PROBLEM

      BURIED TREASURE

      A SQUARE DEAL

      ABOUT THE AUTHORS

      Foreword

      Life on the farm in west-central Minnesota was not easy during the early 1900s. In this sparsely populated land of small family farms, physical and intellectual iso- lation was commonplace. Roads were gravel at best; most were just plain dirt and were thus often impassable when soaked by summer rains. Deep drifts of snow that came with winter storms also made roads impassable, sometimes stranding families in their simply furnished houses for several consecutive days.

      Rural electrification had not yet brought incandescent lamps, appliances, pumps, winches and other labor-saving gadgets and machines that we take for granted today. After sundown, light was provided by kerosene lamps or a few watts of electricity flowing from a noisy gas-powered exhaust-fume-spewing gen- erator located in the basement or under a lean-to roof built against an outside house wall.

      The life span of perishable food, which in summer might quickly spoil at room temperature, was extended by storage in an icebox, whose effective func- tioning required that a new block of ice be delivered every few days, unless the family had an ice-storage shed of its own, from which replacement blocks could be retrieved when needed. Some summertime mild cooling for foodstuff was pro- vided by the insulating properties of basements and cellars. A family’s wintertime food cooler might simply be an outside crate secure enough to keep out dogs, coyotes, skunks, raccoons, and other scavenging creatures of the night.

      Tractors and their many labor-saving attachments were simply unavailable, or practically unaffordable. Horsepower was still measured by the number of healthy equine steeds a farmer kept, not by the cubic-inch displacement of multi- piston internal combustion engines.

      The bottom line was that all family members had to work long hours as a team to help maintain an adequate flow of food, clothing, and shelter…the basic necessities of human life. Time for relaxation and just plain fun was limited. A

      trip to the annual County Fair was a treat beyond the comprehension of today’s leisure-burdened Americans.

      Nonetheless, some talented and energetic farm-family pioneers of the early 1900s found time to add a layer of creativity and culture to an otherwise rather drab manual-labor-intensive existence. Nina Hatchitt Duffield was one such remarkable person. She gave birth to six children during the first fifteen years of her marriage to Arthur Duffield. In spite of the responsibility of raising a family whose number increased so quickly and in spite of having to carry out the house- hold chores expected of a farm woman of the times, she wrote numerous poems, songs, essays, and short stories, some of which she managed to get published. As writers who have experienced and thus understand the frustrations of how diffi- cult and time-consuming it can be getting pieces published, we find it remarkable that this woman succeeded in getting anything into print, given the many other mundane day-to-day demands on her energy. Perhaps because of these demands, rather than any lack of writing talent, most of Nina Hatchitt Duffield’s writings never were formally published. Yet they have survived the intervening years in family archives.

      These pieces deserve publication as records of farm life of their time; as records of one person’s love and devotion to family, friends, and place; as poignant state- ments of uplifting universal themes; and as examples of fine literature. We have gathered all we could find and have organized this material under a few broad topics. We have also added notes to help the contemporary reader understand a message, where confusion might otherwise reign. For example, how many twenty-first century readers can describe from memory the distinctive pattern of color that decorates the body of a Hampshire hog?!

      Not surprisingly, the messages of Nina Hatchitt Duffield’s writings relate to her life experiences, mostly life after her marriage. A few hark back to pre-mar- riage years, some of which were spent in Washington D. C. as a secretary within The Bureau of Animal Industry (now called The Department of Agriculture). She also wrote poems as a child growing up in rural Illinois. All of her writings reflect remarkably upbeat optimism and love of family, friends and life in general. Unfortunately, the world will never know the extent of its loss of additional entertaining, educational, and emotionally moving literature that probably would have flowed from her pen had this talented woman not died at the young age of forty-two.

      E:\Jacky Kun\_10Oct2014\Oct08\FR\105062\media\image2.jpeg

      Arthur, Nina Hatchitt Duffield’s husband, at Leveland Farm

      Brief Biography of Nina Hatchitt Duffield

      Nina Hatchitt was born in Abingdon, Illinois, on July 4, 1884, to Dr. Livy and Julia Givens Hatchitt. The Hatchitt family (once spelled Hatchett)

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