A bucket of steam

A bucket of steam

If anyone had told me I’d land up working on farms during the war, I’d have thought they were off their rocker. But that’s precisely where I did “land” when I was called up to join the WLA (Women’s’ Land Army).

What a contrast to city life! My thoughts at the time were: no evening classes, no going to the cinema, no dancing, no boys to go out with, only cows, pigs chickens and fields galore. How wrong I was, but that’s how a teenager from the city felt at the time. It turned out to be most rewarding and humbling too, seeing all the hard work that country folk do on the farms.

Of course, we had jokes played on us as simple town folk by the experienced farm workers. During the harvest season we had threshing machines, run by steam engines, and the farmer decided to have a bit of fun. He called our smallest land girl and said, “I want you to go to the farm house and get me a bucket of steam for the engine, because we’re running out.”
“But I’m only little and it will be too heavy for me to carry!” she said.
“No, my wife will see to you, off you go! Here’s the bucket, and there’s only two fields to cross.”

When she arrived at the farm with the bucket, she explained that the farmer had sent her to fetch the steam.
“Did he now?” said the farmer’s wife, keeping a straight face. So she boiled a kettle of water, pretended to let the steam go in the bucket, then quickly covered the bucket with a metal plate and said, “There, that should do it, so hurry back!” which she did, at top speed. She gave it to the farmer, who quickly tipped it into the engine with a very straight face. Then he couldn’t contain himself any longer, and he just burst out laughing.
“What’s he laughing at?” she said, and we all started to laugh, and one girl said, “He’s got such a funny laugh, hasn’t he?”

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