Fathers Fingers
After breakfast on a Sunday mornings, when all the essential farm work had been done, father would tell us tales of when he was young, and as with this one, the more blood and pain the more we enjoyed what he told us. He lived and worked for his uncle Dan, a single man with a house keeper, he must have been around thirteen years old when this happened.
The mowing machine blades had to be very sharp, a blade that had gone dull would make it very heavy pulling for the pair of horses pulling it, one slip and the fingers were off.
 |
| This is my father in 1940 mowing grass for hay with his pair of shire horses. It was with the same sot of outfit that he lost two fingers as a school boy in the mid 1920's |
Father lost two
fingers, while mowing hay one day,
He was helping Uncle
Dan on the meadows, not at all at play,
Only thirteen started
working, horses in the shaft,
The mower blocked
with grass, clearing it by hand (how daft)
He lifted blade and
went round back, it was still in gear,
One horse did stamp
his foot at flies, gave the blade two shithers,
This was just enough
no doubt, cut two fingers in one go,
He never said how he
stopped the blood, there must have been a flow,
The little finger it
was off, above the lower joint,
The next was off
above second, clean cut to a point,
Hospital took one off
at knuckle, and stitch the flap of skin,
Tuther left half a
stub, of finger what a sin.
No safety men to
bother them, it was get him back to work,
They healed so slow,
it was a blow, but not a time to shirk,
A motor bike he
bought one day, to get about much quicker,
It had a belt to
drive, hand clutch, and blow up tyre,
Mother he did find
one day, while he was out on bike,
He gave a lift and
she did find, how cold the bike could be,
Knit pair of gloves
did she, to fit his fingers short,
Then regularly did
see her out, and then began to court.
Round the table
Sunday breakfast, father told us tales,
Of how he helped his
uncle Dan, less fingers and no bales,
We had to always
asked him, to tell us that again,
Of how he lost his
fingers, and all about the pain.
Owd Fred
