Over the course of the ten years
since their marriage, with the optimism of youth fading like the exciting dream
one awakens from and wishes to never lose, they became resigned to their fate,
accepting the farm life they lived.
Oscar managed some pieces of mechanic jobs here and there, but all were
simply more routine work he could have performed in his sleep. Nothing ever presented him a challenge – even
if he would have known the time with which to engage it.
His entire life was farming,
farming, farming; day in and day out.
That which he loathed consumed his strength, many times leaving him
passed out in the middle of his living room floor. Whenever any of his kids found him in such a
state, they knew they were not to disturb.
Walk around. Walk over. Just do not wake your father up.
It was clear to Anna Jane her
husband was not happy. Therefore, when
he, the Holt boys, and a cousin or two began erecting a new farm building to
store the larger equipment they began acquiring for the farm, she suggested he
carve out a portion of this new building to use as a garage.
And of the required farming?
Dean and Gene could handle the
farming. Yes they were boys, but they
were managing the farm already as it was.
Such was true. The boys could indeed handle the responsibilities
of the farm. They, in fact, already
were. And this new building? There was room for a garage – easily. Those clouds lingering over the horizon might
be starting to finally break.
Oscar’s father passed away in 1931,
followed by his brother Burt in 1932.
Burton Sexton succumbed to the condition that brought down their brother
Alvin. His appendix burst, leaving his
widow Naomi to care for their children still of the home. Their eldest Earnest and Ivan, were of age
and married. Their daughter Glenna
appeared soon to follow into marriage herself.
This left the three youngest: Lloyd, Thelma, and Carl still requiring
their mother’s care.
Naomi shared one unusual
mother/sister-in-law trait in common with Anna Jane. Her youngest child Carl was born on the same
day as Anna Jane’s second child Gene.
While this occurrence did not initiate their agreeable relationship with
one another, it did serve as an exclamation point marking approval that Oscar
foresaw back on day one. The two ladies
got along, just as Oscar and his brother Burt got along.
Family troubles were fairly well
muted by this juncture in time. Oscar’s
mother, for some reason, expressed a measure of discontent with all the k ids
Oscar and Anna Jane seemed to continuously be having; and Oscar faced
difficulties, at times, being paid for his mechanic work by family members who
argued over the cost; but nothing and no one was as egregious a thorn in his
side as his brother Harvey.
There were various instances over
the years where the two brothers butted heads of contention – Oscar attempting
to get rightful pay for mechanic work done being one; Harvey attempting to pawn
off sick farm animals being an example of another – but the most intense fight
came over Harvey’s continued insistence on taking away the land which brought
Oscar and Anna Jane to Kansas in the first place.
Everything came to a head one day
when their mother was out of town visiting their sister Lillian in
Emporia. It was anticipated her stay
would last for a month at the minimum; thus Harvey arrived at the farm one
evening, believing he held the upper hand, and confronted his brother within
his family kitchen. He tried, with his customary bombastic flair, forcing Oscar
and his family off the land; to which Oscar grabbed a nearby butcher knife and
began waving it in his brother’s direction.
Anna Jane immediately stepped in between the two, holding her husband
back and demanded, with the same fierceness in her words as could be seen in
Oscar’s eyes, for Harvey to leave.
He did so, never to return.
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