In 1951, my husband and I were living in a rented house on a farm by a creek. One day, we had a heavy rain, which caused the creek to overflow and completely surround us.
My husband had to drive the tractor through the water to feed our pigs.
When he got back to the house, there was a knock at the door. It was the sheriff and another man with a boat. They were prepared to evacuate us. I was seven months pregnant with my daughter, and I couldn’t swim, so we decided not to go.
The water receded, but two weeks later we had another hard rain, and once again we were surrounded by water. This time we left on a tractor with the pigs in hayracks behind us.
When it was time for the baby to come, we started to drive to the hospital. However, the driveway was so muddy we had to abandon the car, and instead used a tractor with a 2-wheel trailer attached.
It’s not surprising that when our year’s lease was up on the farm, we packed up and moved to higher ground.
Ashland, Neb.
