When the noon meal was ready to eat--we called it dinner and the night meal supper--Momma would go out to the back porch and whistle for Daddy.   Sometimes Daddy was working in the pastures down the lane and couldn't hear Momma.   Then Momma took the big mirror off the dining room wall, stepped out onto the back porch, and held the mirror in her hands.   When she saw where Daddy was working, she would turn the mirror in his direction.   The sun reflected off the mirror and shined right in Daddy's eyes.   Momma would see him wave his hand and know that he was on his way up for dinner.

Sometimes, on a nice summer day, or if Daddy was working so hard in the field that he didn't have time to stop and come up for dinner, we would take dinner to him.   On those days, Momma packed our dinner in a picnic basket.   She also took a big jug of cold lemonade or iced tea.

I carried a blanket and Momma carried the basket and the jug and we walked down the lane to the pasture where Daddy was working.

Momma spread the blanket out under a hickory tree and watched to see when Daddy turned the tractor at the other end of the field.   She waved to him and pretty soon, he would drive up to us, hop off the tractor and sit down on the blanket.

Then we would have our picnic.

Afterwards, Momma, Daddy and I would lie on the blanket in the shade and take a nap.   Daddy always took a twenty minute nap after dinner, before he went back to work.

When he woke up, Daddy would give Momma and I a kiss and hop back on his tractor to go back to work.   Momma and I would gather everything up and walk back up the lane to the house.   I really liked the days we had our picnics in the pastures.

Sometimes, Momma let me stay on the blanket in the corner of the pasture and watch Daddy riding on his tractor.   I would read my book, or play with my doll, or just lay on the blanket and look up at the clouds.

Sometimes, I even got to ride with Daddy on the tractor.   I sat very carefully and hung on very tight because Daddy said, "You must hang on very tight so you don't fall off."

When Daddy was cutting hay from the pasture, I got to ride on the seat of the hay mower that he pulled behind the tractor.

The hay mower had a long blade off to the side that laid on the pasture and cut it off at ground level.

Around and around the pasture we went, cutting the hay, until I got too hot and tired.   Then Daddy stopped the tractor and lifted me off the seat of the mower and I'd walk back, through the pasture, up the lane, to our nice, cool shaded house.