No stump left unturned
RD: As Ripley might say, “Believe It or Not.” I’m now in my 73rd orbit of the sun and I’m still at it! But, as the monkey said when he got his tail caught in the lawnmower, “It won’t be too long now!” Because, when the four stumps behind me (see photo above) are behind me (figuratively!), my stump-digging days are done! Taberduker! I will no longer be a “stump-knocker” – not to be confused with the Spotted sunfish (a.k.a. a stumpknocker). Many of your rural readers will surely remember the old song’s lines:

“I’m just a plain old country boy
And I love to do what’s right
I go to the dance on Saturday night
And I go to church on Sunday
And I’ll be looking over the old gray mule
When the sun comes up on Monday!”
Sunday - and I promised Mom ...
D.C. Butterfield
Kilburn, N.B.
I Promised Mom
by D.C. Butterfield
There’s lots of things I know I do
That I know I really shouldn’t
Some of them, the sort of things
I promised Mom I wouldn’t ...
A lot of them are “weekend things”
That stick like ticks on Monday
For sure I’ve done my share of “stuff”
But - I don’t dig stumps ... on Sunday!

Mistaken identity (the yoke’s on us)
RD: We really enjoy your magazine. Cover to cover, every issue. As one of your avid readers, I have a small correction to make. On page 42 of the last issue of Rural Delivery (“My yoke of steer,” by C. Russell Elliott), there is a photo with a caption that reads: “The author during his early years....” The photo is actually of my father, Ralph A. Hughes, also of New Ross, N.S. The photo was taken by my mother with her Brownie camera in the mid- to late 1930s. It was in a photo collection at Ross Farm Museum about the oxen in the New Ross area. Once again, thanks for the great little magazine!

Faye Hughes
New Ross, N.S.

Second-hand typing
RD: Regarding my typewriter subscriber classifieds (for ribbons and/or a typewriter), I thank you. I received three replies, two of them a year and more later, proving people keep RD and hand it around. That may prove the worth of ads.

My ribbons dried out, but I got carbon paper instead of ribbons. So I utilize a “writer” of type that I got near Truro, from a couple. The man was 90 and in great shape.

Another reply I received from someone in Belleisle Creek in New Brunswick, and another from around the road linking Windsor to Elmsdale, around Rawdon – if you need a typewriter (haw).

Old RDs might be stored in a display such as a hanger onto a door. Arty display? I met great folks too!

Dan Hogan
Lawrencetown, N.S.

All in
RD: I found this piece by Johnny Cash. I thought the readers would enjoy it. I found this on an old tape of Johnny’s. He recites it as “Just as I Am” plays softly. Johnny Cash wrote this in 1959.

Esther Bradley
Dorchester, N.B.