Or Wink-em, Blink-em and Nod as we called it.

During my growing up years on the family farm, we lived in a basement house that Pa had built not far from the old house which stood closer to the road. The basement was built with the labor of Pa and my older brothers who harvested stones from the property and built the walls of the basement. Pa had constructed the barn walls from stones as well, so he had experience in this artisan craft before starting construction on the basement.

When Ma met Pa, he was playing fiddle in a three-piece dance band. She was 18 years old, and he was 33 – tall, dark hair and handsome. They married soon after and lived in the old house. They had six children while living in the old house. Water was carried from the pump house by the barn to the house for dishes, drinking and laundry. There was an outhouse, and a commode inside the house. I don’t remember living in the old house.

The plan was to live in the basement until he could afford the lumber and materials to build a wood-frame house on top. I believe we moved into the basement house in 1956 when I was about two years old. The basement was approximately 20’ x 38’ with stone walls, a poured concrete floor, and six small basement windows (three on each side of the house). You entered the house by walking up a few cement steps and through a wooden door that stood higher than the basement tar paper roof. It was like a small cupola. Once inside, you descended the wooden steps into the basement.

The basement had electric light bulbs screwed into sockets in the ceiling, a cold water faucet, and a flush toilet. This was a huge improvement from the old house that had no water faucet or flush toilet. There were three make-shift bedrooms with curtain doors along one side, a small toilet room on the other side, a big wooden table at the bottom of the stairs with wooden kitchen chairs, a wood heater, a wood cookstove, refrigerator, sink with a faucet and drain, a large chest freezer, and an old upright piano.

It seemed Pa was on a quest to find a church community that shared his religious doctrine. The neighbors around us were mostly conservative Mennonite. The Mennonites were instrumental in Pa’s salvation after Pa and Ma were married.

Pa’s religious belief was much like the Mennonites. Women were to dress modestly, never cut their hair and wear a head covering. Wives were to be submissive to their husbands and children were to obey their parents in all things.

The Mennonites, however, had a couple doctrines Pa was unable to agree with. They observed Sunday as the Lord’s day of rest, and that is the day they gathered for their church service. Pa believed that when God created the heaven and earth in six days and rested on the seventh day, it was a Saturday that was ordained to be the day of rest. We observed the Sabbath from sundown Friday evening to sundown Saturday evening.

There were Sabbath-keeping churches in surrounding areas – the Seventh Day Adventists and the Seventh Day Baptists. Pa couldn’t align with their traditions of allowing women to be leaders in the church, cut their hair, wear short dresses and pants.

After we would visit a church, often the local pastor would come to our home to encourage us to join their church family. He would often bring another elder of the church or a visiting revival pastor with him to assist in the religious debate that would always result from these visits. Pa was well-known for his knowledge of the bible. He had memorized hundreds of verses, and knew the exact Biblical book, chapter and verse.

In the springtime, our basement house would have water bubble up from the cracks in the floor. It would be an inch or two deep in some places as the floor wasn’t perfectly level. I remember hearing Ma let out a screech in the early morning when she put her feet on the floor and unexpectedly step into a cold puddle. Then I knew the floor was covered in water. I didn’t mind. I would go barefoot, jump from one puddle to the next, or try to step only on the higher dryer areas of the floor. It was a springtime ritual.

One Sabbath during the spring, three well-dressed pastors came to our house to visit with my dad and discuss religion. They arrived in a new, shiny car. They were all wearing suits and ties and polished leather shoes. After descending the basement stairs, it always took time to adjust your eyes to the dimly lit basement. It wasn’t immediately obvious the floor was wet. As Ma heard the visitors arrive in the yard, she hurriedly swept the water away from the bottom of the stairs and started sopping it up with towels.

The three men sat with my dad and opened their bibles to begin the usual debate. One man led the conversation and did most of the talking. Another of the men had a strange blinking twitch in his eyes. The third man seemed completely bored and kept nodding off to sleep. At some point they became aware that the water on the floor was reaching their feet. They didn’t mention it, but not wanting to get their shoes wet, they raised their feet to the rung on the wooden chairs. It was an awkward pose for these tall, large men on these little wooden chairs. Soon they decided it was time to go. They had been unsuccessful in persuading my dad to accept their doctrine. They never returned. We would always burst out in laughter recalling the visit from Wink-em, Blink-em and Nod.

A poem by Eugene Field, 1850-1895

Wynken, Blynken, and Nod one night
   Sailed off in a wooden shoe,—
Sailed on a river of crystal light
   Into a sea of dew.
“Where are you going, and what do you wish?”
   The old moon asked the three.
“We have come to fish for the herring-fish
   That live in this beautiful sea;
   Nets of silver and gold have we,”
            Said Wynken,
            Blynken,
            And Nod.

The old moon laughed and sang a song,
   As they rocked in the wooden shoe;
And the wind that sped them all night long
   Ruffled the waves of dew;
The little stars were the herring-fish
   That lived in the beautiful sea.
“Now cast your nets wherever you wish,—
   Never afraid are we!”
   So cried the stars to the fishermen three,
            Wynken,
            Blynken,
            And Nod.

All night long their nets they threw
   To the stars in the twinkling foam,—
Then down from the skies came the wooden shoe,
   Bringing the fishermen home:
‘Twas all so pretty a sail, it seemed
   As if it could not be;
And some folk thought ’twas a dream they’d dreamed
   Of sailing that beautiful sea;
   But I shall name you the fishermen three:
            Wynken,
            Blynken,
            And Nod.

Wynken and Blynken are two little eyes,
   And Nod is a little head,
And the wooden shoe that sailed the skies
   Is a wee one’s trundle-bed;
So shut your eyes while Mother sings
   Of wonderful sights that be,
And you shall see the beautiful things
   As you rock in the misty sea
   Where the old shoe rocked the fishermen three:—
            Wynken,
            Blynken,
            And Nod.