Red Ants and Black Ants
When I was a little kid, about 1952 or so, my grandpa and grandma lived in a small village about 12 miles from where I grew up. There wasn’t really much difference in our village and my grandparents village, except that they had people near their village that had really unusual names. Now I was used to names like John, and Tom, and Bill, and David. Those was the names of school chums I knew at my public school. ----Down at grandmas, they had a couple of fellows who I had never met, but their names were really strange. One guy was named Black Ants and another was called Red Ants.—Now you have to admit, those were mighty strange names to a six year old. My uncle would say “I’m going to take a run over to Black Ants and see if he has a part that fits this carburetor.—Or—“Go over to Red Ants and see if he’s finished with that chainsaw he borrowed.”-----------It wasn’t until I was about 12 or 13 years old that I began to understand what was going on here.
------Seems there were two cousins, who lived about three miles apart, both named Anson Baumgartner. One had black hair, and one had fiery red hair. To differentiate between them, they were called “Red Anse’” and Black “ Anse’’.
--I was relieved to find this out, because you have no idea what goes thru a six or seven year old boys head when he hears that his uncle is out dealing with red and black ants.---Brian Rupnow--2019
When I was a little kid, about 1952 or so, my grandpa and grandma lived in a small village about 12 miles from where I grew up. There wasn’t really much difference in our village and my grandparents village, except that they had people near their village that had really unusual names. Now I was used to names like John, and Tom, and Bill, and David. Those was the names of school chums I knew at my public school. ----Down at grandmas, they had a couple of fellows who I had never met, but their names were really strange. One guy was named Black Ants and another was called Red Ants.—Now you have to admit, those were mighty strange names to a six year old. My uncle would say “I’m going to take a run over to Black Ants and see if he has a part that fits this carburetor.—Or—“Go over to Red Ants and see if he’s finished with that chainsaw he borrowed.”-----------It wasn’t until I was about 12 or 13 years old that I began to understand what was going on here.
------Seems there were two cousins, who lived about three miles apart, both named Anson Baumgartner. One had black hair, and one had fiery red hair. To differentiate between them, they were called “Red Anse’” and Black “ Anse’’.
--I was relieved to find this out, because you have no idea what goes thru a six or seven year old boys head when he hears that his uncle is out dealing with red and black ants.---Brian Rupnow--2019
