1ST CLAIM TO FAME/STORY PUBLISHED

  
       My first published stories were published in the Iowa Barn Foundation Magazine Spring 2009 edition. I was previliged, at the time, to have known the Editor, Jacqueline Schmeal of Zearing, Iowa, who published my work. 


                                       VIGNETTES FROM RURAL IOWA by Dennis Laverty

           Dennis Laverty, Marshalltown, has been writing vignettes remembered from growing up in Iowa. Here are two involving barns. 
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                                             FALLING OFF THE BARN

         Never, ever would I wish that I lived somewhere else but on the farm where I was raised. Although there was a certain isolation it also could be referred to as more of a peaceful experience. No busy highways or streets. No railroad traffic. No pollution. 

         There were places where I could think my thoughts in peace. I could walk the soft dirt lane  west of the corn crib. In the summer I could feel the soft mud unning through my toes after a summer rain. I could climg up the elevator on the corncrib and sit and look west at the beautiful sky. 

        The same could be said for climbing to the peak of the barn. I could reach this peak by climbing up on the wooden cattle laoder parked by the barn. Then I could scoot up to the peak. Usually, I could sit there with my legs spread over the peak just like sitting in the saddle on a horse.

         The shingles on the barn were wooden with an occasional nail sticking out. One had to be careful going up and especially coming down. Those nails and a little moss here and there could spell disaster. Yes! You guessed it. One time a nail got me and down I went head first. 

        At the same time, a nail saved me and caught my pant leg just before I was headed over the  eight to ten foot drop to the ground. Living on the farm could be peaceful, but, danger lurked once in awhile. 

-----------------to be continued.