The windmill. A symbol of . . . I wonder how many children know what about the purpose of a windmill's. It's a beautiful backdrop or center stage for a landscape picture, used many times for illustrating the west, ranching, farming or simply the rural lifestyle. It is all of those things for me, as well as symbolic of home, my home, right in the front lawn.

My dad climbed to the top all the time. Once, he dropped some baby mice to show us that their bones were soft and that they could withstand the impact. Sure enough, they bounced and then scurried off into the shelter belt. My dad also used to climb up to throw our balsa wood gliders off. He and my older brother, Jesse, used to make and fly airplanes together. Dad dropped a few cats too, not from the very top, but from about half-way up, to show us kids how they could right themselves and land on their feet. They did. I can remember climbing up the windmill at least once a day in the summer just to have a different look of the land. It seemed that my heart raced just as fast every time. The most rickety wire steps were at the top, of course. A few bolts that always spun, a few steps that always creaked.

The top of the windmill was the best place to see what vehicle was coming down the road, where the smoke on the horizon was coming from and, most importantly, the best way to show off to your city visitors how brave you were--the oooo's and ahhh's and the "be careful" yells from the ground made the climbing experience that much fuller. When I was 6 years old, I felt this, with or without an audience. When I was 13, 17, 20 and now at 27 years old, I still get this incredible rush when climbing to the top of that windmill.

I was always told that this windmill was used by the old timers to pump water for the entire homestead. This water was the only water used for cooking, cleaning, bathing, watering, and drinking. Basically, windmills take advantage of a completely free source of power, the wind. Windmills harness the wind and use that energy to lift underground water to the surface of the land. When the wind blows, it turns the big fan at the top of the tower, which moves a large rod that is stuck in the ground up and down. This rod, in turn, powers a small cylinder pump located deep in the ground to move the water to the surface, where it can be hand pumped into buckets and carried for use or stored for later.

I have only seen water come out of this windmill a few times, but I sure loved pumping the big metal arm when I was a little girl. The pump arm made a great clank, real loud, and I could easily pretend water was gushing out the nozzle. It was fun until dad told us that we could ruin the underground well mechanism that way because there was no water.