Right after High School I attended Oswego State Teachers College. The very first person I met when I got there was Ed Bolton. He was from East Rockaway, an Industrial Arts Student, a Junior . . . . . so I married him. What else?? I had completed 3 semesters before we married but, naturally, didn't get a degree. I did my "Mrs. Beaver Cleaver" thing and we had two great children, a son Ted, then a daughter, Randi.

My husband quickly left teaching and was in sales and we moved several times but always in the Upstate NY area: Camillus, Chittenango, East Glenville and Cobleskill.

The only saleable skill I had acquired during all this education was from a half year college prep typing class with Miss Anderson so occasionally I did Office Temp work. My other skill was horseback riding and eventually the word got out and I began teaching horseback riding and training horses, it was that which led to our moving out of suburbia and into the country. That was also the time our marriage ended.

The children and I stayed in the country in Cobleskill and he went back to the suburbs. For about two years I worked at office work and with the horses then married my neighbor - a dairy farmer.

Roy Bradt had never married and was still on his family's farm. It was not big enough for everyone so we sold my place and bought our own farm a few miles away. I couldn't be happier!! We have remodeled our old farm house, milk about 60 cows, have chickens, ducks, a great dog, I drive big tractors and still have two horses. One of my friends recently said "Ruth, your life is full of kittens"

The down side is that we have trouble getting away from all this "Bliss", good help comes and goes, retirement is a "Do It Yourself Project" and the children are not nearby - son is married with 3 children in North Dakota and sells advertising for a farm magazine and daughter is a veterinarian in Aspen, Colorado - specializing in horses - surprised? We don't get to see them often. Thank God for computers and old friends!!

We are located very near a major tourist attraction - Howe Caverns. We are a mile and a half straight up the road from there, and if you have been there in the last 27 years, it is our heifers (young cows) that are in their pasture as you drive up.
Small world 'eh?

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