Some Observations from the Hill
by H. H. "Hub" Brown 

Yesterday we had another Brown reunion. We met in the 4-H building at the fair grounds. This is a dandy place for such a gathering. My sister Lucille,  is the last surviving, along with me, member of our branch of the Brown family. One reason it is such a handy place for such a gathering is that my son Jim and granddaughter Monica were working horses along with the young woman, Kim, that Monica works for.

 Lucille, accompanied by her grandson, flew from Minneapolis to Buffalo, and then they got a rental car.  Peter, who is an excellent driver with an unusual ability to find his way around, has been taking us all around the local country and down into Pennsylvania. The other day, we went in search of the house in Susquehanna County where she was born some eighty years ago. Things change a lot in that amount of time. But we pulled into Tunkhannock and then up the Montrose Turnpike and by Peter making some inquiries, we finally got into country where I knew my way around. Peter and his camcorder are making sort of a record of their trip out here. Because the car he rented rides so nice and because we have always wanted to see first hand the country that we have both flown over several times, we have most everyone's permission to ride back in the car. It will be a different experience.

 Several members of my family spend a lot of their time taking care of Standard bred horses. Jim has six or seven of his own, his son Kevin has always worked with horses and now Monica, my granddaughter, even though she has a broken wrist, has been jogging and taking care of Kim's horse. Jane Graham, even though she has several Appaloosa mares and young ones, has gotten to help with the race horses. One thing that strikes me about people driving harness horses, especially when the horse is really stepping out, and there's a plume of dust coming from the cart wheels, and the horse's tail is streaming back, there's a certain contented, rapt look on their faces that you don't see other places.

 One time down at the fair grounds, George Pike was telling me about keeping his son out of school so he could go to a horse race with his father. Mrs. Pike said to him, "You know, George, you're not supposed to keep a child out of school unless it's something real important or educational." George said, "I told her, ‘There's nothing more educational than a good horse race!'"

 The other day I read an article about mules. This man claimed that mules aren't stubborn but just too smart to do some things that people want them to do. Dad used to haul coal down in Schuylkill County in Pennsylvania. He said there was a long, steep hill that they had to pull up at the end of the day. He said the mules would be pretty well beat by then so the drivers would unhitch and unharness the mule teams and turn them loose in a large dusty area and they would roll and paw in that dust and when they were through and had shaken all the loose dust off they would act as though they had had a real good rest. Dad said they would take that hill just like fresh horses. This mule lover that I read about said that mules really appreciate kind treatment.