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October 30, 2003
I tend to be a person that remembers things by smell or taste.Or one (or several)little freeze frame visuals that would mean nothing to you. So,we left for the Farm after Christmas of 1977 in our little orange-red VW superbeetle (know wonder I love our SUV so much now!)How young was I?Now I cant imagine riding in those hard VW seats pregnant but then I didnt give it a thought! We were armed with our VINYL (it would be totally banned now) carbed and our cloth diapers and baby clothes. The first day we drove about 6 hrs,got to Tallahassee and the car broke down.We got a motel room and had the car towed to a garage and of course it ended up being something thatinvolved a part that had to be ordered from somewhere.Keep in mind,no computers & no fax back then.These things took time..... So,there we sat in this motel room,eating each meal at the buffet in the rest. downstairs.I think it went on for 4 days and finally on the 5th day we took off.It was very dark when we arrived January 1st 1978 in Franklin TN,home of the Farm.I remember getting on this unpaved road that seemed to go on forever until finally we saw the twinkle of lights in the "gatehouse" .The building was warm & cheery and smelled of woodsmoke. It was like checking in to some strange kind of hotel - Uhhh,we are Catherine & Charles,Ina May is expecting us! There was a lot of illness on the Farm that winter and there was some discussion/confusion about where we were actually going to be staying.Finally,they decided to temporarily put us in the visitors tent.yes,tent.Not a missprint.The early Farm buildings were framed up houses but instead of regular walls they had this thick,army surplus canvas stretched over,windows and doors and tin roofs.The visitors tent was made up of a big common room downstairs,complete with woodstove,kitchen,huge dining table,some private "rooms" and 2 lofts on either side of the place upstairs for sleeping.There were no private rooms avaiable and we headed to one of the lofts.I almost lost my nerve right then.The idea of sleeping communally in a loft with strangers didnt appeal to me in the least but I pretended that it felt like a European hostel.And then there is the bathroom issue - did I mention there were none? Only outhouses.Suffice it to say that trudging up & down stairs in the middle of the night to go outside in the freezing cold to the outhouse several times a night was not my favorite part of the Farm.... Different married couples who lived at the farm would take turns moving into the visitors tent witrh their kids if they had them ,for a week at a time,to kind of be the dorm parents and oversee things and organise the visitors as far as cleaning and that kind of thing.The couple that was doing this when we were there were Don & Corey and they had one toddler son named Kopi.Pregnant couples were not supposed to stay in the Visitors tent for more than a week but because of the sickness and other factors,we were there for over a month.I had developed severe hip pain at night - I think a combination of the long car ride,and all of the climbing up & down stairs and being in my 3rd trimester was too much.After about a week of sleeping in the loft,a "private" room came open downstairs.The couple leaving had come to have their baby and the long car ride brought on labor a little more than a month early.Their son was under 5 pounds but healthy.The midwives had them stay until he reached the 5 lb mark.It was a happy day when we moved downstairs to our own little nest.I could also start using a chamber pot at night instead of the dreaded outhouse visits.Boy was it cold,tho.How they had a baby in there,I will never know! The lofts stayed nice and warm because the heat from the woodstove,of course,rose right up there.We would prop our door open after everyone else had gone to sleep,to get some of the heat in our room.thankfully,we had brought sheets & blankets and sleeping bags.There was a bed in the room built on a platform.I made up the bed with the sheets & 2 blankets and then used one of the sleeping bags spread over the top as a comforter.Even at that,I slept every night in long underwear with a flannel nightgown over,2 pairs of socks and a knit hat.Don & Corey kept everything running smoothly but were there for weeks,again,the sickness kept others from being able to take their turns.They finally needed to go back to their own place and a single guy was sent to run the show.This is when it started getting a little dicey.The woodstove went out on more than one occasion which means when we woke up in the morning,things in the kitchen were frozen solid - it was that cold.I ended up doing all of the dishes every day during this time.I didnt mind really,the hot water felt wonderful... Speaking of hotwater,we had to get in the car and drive to the "bathhouse" when we wanted to bathe,which was part of the "laundrymat".I kept my long hair braided in 2 braids,it stayed cleaner that way,and got hot water from the kitchen to take sponge baths every day in our room, brrr..... because at that rate,we were going to the bath house about 2 or 3 times a week.It felt sooo good when we did go.I was beginning to so appreciate little creature comforts I had taken for granted my whole life.Lets see,the food...The food was pretty grim while we were in the visitors tent.There was a kitchen on the Farm that was kind of like a take-out rest. where women would cook every day for the guys on the work crews and whoever else needed it,so someone would go at lunchtime and dinnertime and pick up food for the visitors tents which always consisted of:Cooked soybeans,cooked greens,fresh baked bread,soymilk.Every time.Then we would just eat leftover bread w/margarine & soymilk in the mornings,although some ate the soybeans.I had started having my prenatal visits at the clinic they have there.Each time,the midwife would ask:Are you STILL in the visitors tent? The visits were wonderful and very thorough and felt a lot like visiting a large midwifery practice anywhere.There was a waiting room with magazines and lots of pregnant women.Someone would weigh you & check your blood pressure,then you were given a cup and directed to the bathroom(indoor toilets here!).One time,I got a call that Ina May was in town and wanted to personally see all of the pregnant women.I was honored to have a prenatal visit with her.Well,this is going to have to be a two-parter,may God richly bless us all until next time,Catherine
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