
My grandfather, Anson Rogers, bought the seven horses by mail. Their train, from the west, arrived at the Rochester, New York, freight station in the dark, as he'd arranged.
At that hour, Anson knew, the constabulary slept.
He was a huckster. He bought low and sold high.
Problem: how to transport the horses twenty miles to the family's rundown Bristol Hills farmhouse. Solution: free labor.
Grandpa loaded his pickup truck with his seven sons.
My father, Art, was oldest, at fifteen. Next came Andy (14), Herbie (13), Stanley (12), Billie (11), Jimmy (10), and Bobby (9).
Anson had moved the family from Rochester to that weathered country house—no running water, no electricity—to avoid regulatory eyes. He knew the child-abuse laws. Only when no one watched did he enforce discipline with a bullwhip. Once, he and my grandmother drove to Florida for the winter, leaving their seven sons and seven daughters to shift for themselves, which got him arrested.
He figured endangering kids to move horses would be okay, if he did it in darkness.
With Anson hissing orders, the riders mounted, the bigger boys boosting their littler brothers aboard.
I assume the horses had been working steeds, accustomed to riders, because my father—who told me about this adventure—said no kid got bucked off.
They rode bareback, clinging to the horses' manes.
Anson drove ahead, the horse riders following his red taillights, hanging on, mile after mile.
At some point on that twenty mile journey, one rider, Herbie, fell in love with his horse.
I'm guessing that in a household crammed with fourteen children and a work-weary mother, Herbie got little love. His horse loved him.
As the weeks passed, Herbie fed his horse special. He taught the horse many tricks, like picking up a dropped handkerchief in his teeth and handing it to Herbie.
Every day Herbie hurried home from school to be with his horse.
Anson watched the horse's growing portfolio of tricks with a calculating squint.
One day Herbie hurried home from school and his horse was gone.
Sold.
My father said his little brother spent the rest of the week sobbing.
I guess my grandfather decided a trick horse could sell for a few pennies more.
I do know one thing for sure.
Anson Rogers was a bastard.
--Joyce