Memories at the Spiker Farm

With the passing of Tom this year (2006), one of my many memories must include cousin Tom Miller. Tom visited with us quite frequently and spent many nights at the farm reading comic books, catching lightning bugs and crawl dad, among other things. One of our chores was to help with washday. This particular washday, Paula was there, and back then we used a wringer washer to do the washing then we hung the clothes on the line. Tom and I were running the washer or so we thought. We’d take the clothes out of the washer and run them through the wringer into a washtub before they went to the line. Tom got his hand too close to the wringer and clothes and his hand went through the wringer together. Paula saw Tom’s hand come through the wringer and she was gone. She ran from the back porch through the kitchen, dining room, through the front screen door and before we got her stopped she was past the submarine bridge headed toward Pullman. We ( I believe Brada, Briana, and maybe Mike and Mom) calmed her down by showing her that Tom was alright by holding his hand up as he stood on the front porch. To remove his hand, I reversed the wringer washer and his hand came out just like it went in . To this day we’ve always had trouble with that screen door.