Remnants of a Dream

By Richard Janulewicz

The cycle of life is a process that includes birth, growth, sometimes a family, dreams of your life, work to accomplish those dreams, and eventually death. After death if there are any remnants of your life, it gives a clue as to what your dreams may have been. What you accomplish during your life may, or may not, be apparent to others after death. However, don't worry, if you have no other remnants left after your life, you will have a tombstone to identify your past existence. Remnants of a Dream is an eclectic mix of short stories based during the period of the agriculture expansion in the early 1900s, created from their remaining remnants.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Richard Janulewicz
• Release date: May 31, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301887460

Book preview

Remnants of a Dream

Richard Janulewicz

Copyright 2013 by Richard Janulewicz.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from Richard Janulewicz.

Smashwords Edition

Licensing Notes

This e-book is licensed for your personal use and enjoyment only. This e-book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or if it was not purchased for your use only, please visit Smashwords.com and purchase a copy for yourself. Thank you for respecting this author’s work.

To Order Print Copies of Remnants of a Dream

Order Online at:

www.amazon.com

Or by Phone at:

303-482-2060

E-book by e-book-design.com.

Dedication

I dedicate this book to my wonderful wife Connie, who assisted me in gathering the photos used in this work, along with her excellent constructive criticism and editing. I would also like to acknowledge my good friend, Robert Waldrop for his editorial review on this work and his long enduring friendship.

Contents

Preface

Foreword

A Local Attraction

The First Stone House

Old Glory

Phillips Brothers Auto Repair

Buried to the Axles

A Miners Haven

The Raven Haired Beauty

Wyoming Homestead

Last of the Farmstead

My Aunt Mildred’s Home

The Feed Store

The Micek Homestead

The Threshing Machine

House Water

The Lazy Rocking K

The First Tire and Repair Shop

Rest Haven

Remnants of Time

Charlie’s Garage

The Mail Holder

The Filling Station

Aunt Ira

The Railroad Buggy

The Rose

The Big Improvement

The Last Ride

The Futurity Race

Groceries a la Carte

Faucet Water

Work to be Done

Pepe’s Place

A Modern Convenience

The Milkin’ Barn

Rural School House #13

Steam Power

District #5’s School Bus

Wheat

The Corn Crib

Liquid Hope

Engine #24

Grain Storage Extraordinaire

The Bull Shooter

The Final Chapter

Preface

We are brought into this world without any preconceived notion of who we are, what we are or what the world has in store for us. Our parents most likely had some thoughts of how they might have liked us to be as we grew older, and a dream of what we might become as adolescents and as adults. Whether we will fit that mold is dependent upon a multitude of factors that surround us daily. Influencing factors are like the weather and the wind: hot with a south wind one day and cold with north wind the next day. There are too many factors for us to analyze here.

Life is a complicated series of events that will make their mark on us and eventually mold each of us into the person that those around us recognize. Regardless of who we become, what we do, where we live, we all end up with one indelible mark – a headstone. The headstone is your last remaining remnant and in most cases tells us nothing more about you than your name and age. For those who did not know you, they have no concept of what you looked like, what you accomplished or why you died. This is a small consolation for having spent a good period of time among many individuals – some who cared deeply for you and others who didn’t know you and couldn’t care less about you. As a group, we humans come and go with little fanfare, except for a few, but primarily leave with nothing to view of our lives except our headstones.

Normally there are other parts of our lives where we create, we sometimes receive objects from others, or we buy or build. This fills the gap between birth and death. These things are usually of solid composition and often are found long after we have left this world. These objects are part of the remnants of our dreams. Most often no one would recognize them as remnants of our life if they did not know us, and even if they did, they may not know the story behind them. Regardless, the remnants are there and are the parts that tell the story of our lives, our hopes and our dreams. Thus to know the story of a person’s life, one has to find, study and interpret the remnants of their dreams.

Foreword

Remnants are generally considered the leftovers or what’s left after we are done with something. The following stories relate the fabric of a life. Leftovers are all around us and each object, whether special or insignificant, has a story to tell. When the object came into being, there was a special dream formulated by the owner that might have succeeded or failed. Like everything, it reaches the end of the line for one reason or another and soon becomes a remnant. As long as it remains, the remnant withholds a story with reminders until someone recalls and tells the story or the object is removed.

I am sure that many times you have seen something—a tool, an implement or a piece of machinery—where you have said, I wonder what that is, or I wonder what that was used for, or I wonder who the person was that used it? Objects of antiquity generally are remnants and if they could talk, I am sure they would have many stories to relate. Some stories may be personal, some may be funny, and some may be sad. Each story has created a piece of history; but sadly, in most cases, it is history that is forgotten. Each of us creates a piece of history, but most likely it will never see a history book much less be retold. However, it may provide memories to our families and loved ones, at least for a short period of time.

In this writing, I have taken pictures of all kinds of remnants and have framed a story around what you see, to help bring the object back to life and allow you, the reader, to indulge yourself in a story that may be a half truth, but with a twist that hopefully you will enjoy. Some stories are funny, some stories are sad, and as with all of our lives, our dreams are full of twists and turns; though not always to our liking, they become an indelible part of our history.

A Local Attraction

Burlington was just like every small town in Mid-America in the early 40’s. That means none of the modern day conveniences, but things were about to change.

There was talk of the railroad running a track up here and also the state improving the highway. This would more than likely mean more people coming through town and perhaps some looking for a place to stay overnight. We didn’t have many attractions, but we were the only town around to have a park and ours was really a nice one. Many folks would stop and look at the flower gardens while having their picnic. Jan Burger, a recent German immigrant, prided himself on his ability to raise flowers and he did a bang-up job in the park.

Ned Fellows, a friend of Pa’s had a small farm east of town across Plum Creek. He and Pa were talking one day when Ned told Pa that he thought he’d sell the farm and build a motel in town. Pa told him that he was absolutely nuts, he was no businessman and that he should stay on the farm. Pa was always trying to tell Ned what to do, and other folks as well, it was just his nature.

Ned Fellows built his new motel in ’43; he then put this sign out by the road. It caused quite