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

 A long time ago, a young veterinarian not long out of college  opened an office on Lake Street in Owego. We on the farm had not been keeping large animals. We'd had pigs and sheep and poultry, but not cows as yet. Not long after we started with some Jerseys we had occasion to need a vet. Somehow Ag called on the new doctor on Lake Street, Dr. Harold Phelps. Over the years after that we've had many occasions for his help. I don't remember what that first call was for, but I do remember him telling someone that if it hadn't been for Aggie Brown and her dogs and cats and Jerseys he would have had time starting in Owego. 

 According to Dr. John Ayres, who when he came out of the service became veterinarian for large animals for the City of Binghamton, had worked for Uncle Sam for the last five years. Dr. Phelps had been sent to Burma right in the midst of all kinds of jungle related diseases. Whether he brought any of these home or not I don't know. He did tell Sally Petzold, who worked for him for many years, that he tried to get a Purple Heart for getting kicked by a mule, but it didn't work. But he was awarded a Bronze Medal for his work over there. 

 Our daughter Pat tells of a time, you see I worked forty-three years in the tannery in Endicott so some of these incidents are second hand, Dr. Phelps had been called for one of our cows. It was winter and when he got to the foot of the hill at Wishinsky place, there were no more tracks. In our early days on the hill, the road men did not have machines strong enough to battle big drifts, so they would drag a plank plow behind a Ford truck up from Owego, look up Lisle and Gary Hunt roads, shake their heads and go back to Owego. Dr. Phelps took the instrument bag, took out what thought he wouldn't need, put in some more stuff and started mogging up the hill. Pat says the cow got all better.

 One day when the doctor's two older sons, Gary and Craig, were old enough to work on a farm, he came up to our place and asked Ag if she couldn't use those two boys that summer. He said she didn't have to pay them a lot but he wanted them to know what it was like to have things to do every day whether you felt like it or not, in other words, to do chores. For as Billy Welch used to say "If a farmer was going to be sick, he better do it between 9 in the morning and 4 in the afternoon, for he couldn't miss chores. The doctor didn't ask about his third son, Rick, for he was too small but he soon got over that, I think he got to be the largest of the three. 

 I don't think the grind of chores scared Gary for he now has a large berry and fruit farm at Campville. Everyone knows what Craig does, he and wife Cathy operate Everybody's Country Store on Main Street. He was one of the most congenial helpers I ever knew. Say the cows broke some fence and it needed two to fix it, he wouldn't say anything if we had to go out after supper and work by flashlight. He and my grandson John have the faculty of making me feel I'm the same age they are when I'm with them. 

 Speaking of age, a fellow down at Joe's place keeps reminding me I've got five more months to reach 100. I feel like asking him if it'll be all right if I last a few more days?