H is for Harmonica and Hooey Sticks

I remember growing up and going to my Grandpa and Grandma's house in Pawnee City Nebraska.  My grandpa loved playing the harmonica.  A lot of the times we went to Grandpa and Grandma's house, we would sit around the piano and sing songs.  All of a sudden grandpa, would leave and grab the harmonica and start playing it.  He loved playing the harmonica.  I remember we always looked forward to see when he was going to break out the harmonica when we were there.

My grandpa was so inventive as well.   He liked to carve and make things out of wood.  One of the things he made, he called a hooey stick.  It was basically a little piece of wood, a little bit bigger than a pencil.  He carved little notches in it, and put a little propeller on the end of it.  When you rub your pencil against the notches of the wood, the propeller would start moving, and then you yelled "HOOEY!" the propeller would spin in a different direction.  It was like magic!  It took us a few years to realize the trick.

Another thing my grandpa would show us was what you called water witching.  You would grab two sticks and hold them straight in front of you toward the ground, and when you would run across where there was water, the sticks would move together.  There was no trick to that. 

I look back on those times and realize how lucky I was to have Grandparents like these.