Dale McFarland
Biography
Practiced with handguns in the back yard with the narrator and Dad. Described as a good shot. Tallish, lanky, slow moving, with a sweet smile and a soft-spoken southern accent. Told Bernard he could have leveled the driveway faster with a shovel. Named as probably one of the neighbors who helped with the well. Later called Dale and described as helping Dad lower the narrator into it. Bernard recalls occasionally hearing him complain that black men coming from the south were taking jobs at the plant.
Timeline
date not given
Backyard handgun target practice
Robert practiced with handguns with Dad and Dale McFarland, both of whom he describes as good shots.
Bob's Chaptermost of the summer
Building Floyd Guild’s Well
After choosing a site with a willow divining rod, Floyd cast a dozen concrete rings, each three feet high and three feet in diameter with approximately eight-inch-thick walls. He excavated beneath successive rings until the well was thirty-three feet deep. Bernard and Bob helped winch dirt; Dale McFarland and Tom Johnson are tentatively identified as neighbors who later helped. One unused ring was rolled to the orchard.
Bernie's Chaptera hot day, just before Dad hit water
A Secret Descent into the Well
Dad and Dale lowered shirtless Bernard into the well using a rough rope halter. He recalled painful rope, intense cold, and seeing stars in daylight from the bottom. Dad required secrecy under threat of the razor strap.
Bernie's Chapterdate not given
Dale McFarland's work at Farmall
Worked in mechanical maintenance.
Bernie's Chapterwhen we first graveled it
Leveling the driveway and digging a ditch
Bernard drove the homemade tractor while Daddy guided a heavy scoop behind it to level the driveway. They used the same method to dig a ditch behind the garage for used washing machine water. Dale said a shovel would have been faster.
Bernie's Chapter
Stories mentioning Dale
- Floyd Guild’s Well and a Father-Son SecretBernard recalls Daddy locating water with a forked willow divining rod near the kitchen door, then spending much of a summer casting a dozen massive concrete rings. Daddy dug inside the stacked rings as they sank into the ground, creating a secure thirty-three-foot well. Bernard and Bob played in the rings and helped haul dirt until neighbors took over. A leftover ring became a play space in the orchard. Before water was reached, Dad and Dale secretly lowered Bernard into the cold well in a rough rope halter. Bernard recalled seeing stars in the daytime sky from the bottom. Threatened with the razor strap if he told Mom, he kept the secret until late in life; she claimed she had already known, which he doubted.
- A Mother's Lessons in EqualityBernard recalls discriminatory songs and limericks performed by his grandfather and father. His mother repeatedly countered them, out of his father's hearing, by teaching that no person was better than another. He believes her teaching, his own experiences of discrimination, and his liberal education helped him reject prejudice. He also recalls Dale McFarland's complaints about black workers at Farmall and abuse directed at Swedes and Belgians in Moline, ending with a hope that prejudice would end with his generation.
- Rabbit Hunts with Dad and Backyard Target PracticeRobert recalls Dad buying a twenty-gauge shotgun when Robert was around thirteen or fourteen, taking him rabbit hunting, and teaching him to clean rabbits safely. Dad told of hunting rabbits in Minnesota and filling a car's back seat with them; Robert wonders whether a photograph exists. Robert also remembers quail and pheasant hunting, backyard handgun practice with Dad and Dale McFarland, his favorite Red Ryder BB gun, and childhood fights using homemade slingshots and green grapes.
- Daddy’s Pride-and-Joy Tree SprayerDaddy built an elaborate tree sprayer from an old Willys chassis, a homemade pump, and eventually a wooden tank from King’s Apple Orchard. Despite wearing a mask, he often became drenched in DDT or Malathion, as did Bernard. Daddy hoped to sell spraying services but never asked the neighbors, leaving the machine chiefly to serve the family’s dozen orchard trees. Bernard also drove it while Daddy guided a heavy scoop to level the driveway and dig a wastewater ditch behind the garage. Dale McFarland thought a shovel would have been faster, but Daddy insisted his machine saved work.
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