Paint Stick

During the mid sixties the am stations were playing the sounds of Elvis, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Johnny Cash and Roy Orbison. And of course who could forget B.B. King, Nat King Cole and the Beatles and the Beach Boys. as well as those other Artist of the time. There was a radio in our milk barn and it blasted day and night when the cows were in. I remember Dad telling me that Rock and Roll made the cows nervous so when he milked he either shut the radio off or tuned it to the Big Band station.  That was cool too.

Uncle David milked full time when I was a kid and he always worked on the side of the barn that overlooked the houses and the yards. His and Aunt Peggy lived right next to us and we saw the every day.

Uncle David was an antagonist though, always harassing us kids, or maybe it was just me. As I played outside he would taunt me and call me names. If I got close enough he would turn on the power hose and try to get me wet. It seemed to go on like that all the time. Frankly as a child he scared me.

One day I was going across the back of the milk barn minding my own business and Uncle David snuck up on me and grabbed me. He pulled me into the barn to the blasting sound of “I Want to Hold Your Hand”. Every time I hear that song it reminds me of this event. I really was not sure what he was going to do. I was only about eight and he had over powered me with a head lock.
 

He got a paint stick.  (An oil based paint marker commonly used to mark livestock for management purposes. They come in a variety of colors. At our dairy we used orange on the cows tail head, the top part, if they were not pregnant. and green is they were. Now the next thing that happened really made me mad. Uncle David took a piece of orange paint stick and colored my entire face with it. It was awful! It smelled bad too! My face was as orange as a carrot.

“JACKASS”

I came home crying to Mom about what had just happened. My Dad laughed at the site. It was hard to wash off and it seemed to take forever to remove. He did it again about a week later, but his time he just painted my nose and pulled up my shirt and covered my stomach. Once again I ran home crying. Dad must have said something to Uncle David because I don’t remember him bothering me any more. What a jerk he was!go