When I was around nine years old I was hired out to Pete Hamiel (north of Reliance) to sit with Mrs. Hamiel while he worked in the field. I had probably never been north of Reliance. Our farm was to the south. I had no idea where I had been taken. My father just told me to go with Mr. Hamiel, so I did. I swear, I just knew I was at least 47 miles from town and would never see Reliance again. Mrs. Hamiel was wheelchair bound, if memory serves me right. That didn’t seem to be a major problem, she was so sweet and kind. It seemed like a HUGE house and very quiet. One of those quiet ones where you can hear a clock tick, and tick, and tick, and tick, and … We would visit and I was her little steppinfetchit.

While she napped, I would stand out on the enclosed front porch, wave at passersby and silently pray that one of them would look over and see me and rescue me and take me back to town. Town? Heck, I couldn’t even SEE town! I knew it was south, but there was a small incline that hid Reliance from view. After two or three days

(seemed like 47) Pete had to go to town and I went along. Once we got into town I ran like hell for the safety of the café and hid upstairs.

My father was  building feed troughs, or something along that line, in the now closed café and wasn’t aware that I had snuck in and gone upstairs so when Pete came looking for me, of course, no one had seen me. I remember laying on my stomach and looking down through the 12-15” grating (that allowed heat to get upstairs) and watching those two men wonder where I was. My heart was POUNDING like a scared rabbit’s and I was practically gasping for air as I attempted not to breathe for fear they would hear me and look up. I was sure I would be a gonner. When I was bigger … well, older and I saw this (I thought it was) HUGE house maybe a mile and a half, tops, outside of town I was sure they had removed half of the house and moved it closer to town.