(The stories you heard your parents or grandparents tell that you don't want forgotten!  The first four are from Howard Bilger Jr. of Seneca County, Ohio\Howard Sr.\Isaac A.\William I.\Isaac\John George\John George Adam\Johan Ludwig)

The Tractor and the Plow:
In the spring of '48 or '49 Howard was involved in an "incident" involving the Ford tractor and mounted plow. As he recalls he was just about finished plowing the corner field which runs along Franks road, with a ditch running just to the south. He climbed down, just in front of the back wheel to avoid some low hanging limbs. As he was attempting to climb back on, his foot slipped off the step and he fell onto his back, into the furrow, just behind the right front wheel. By this time, the back right wheel was beginning to run over his left leg and up his stomach. As he fell, he pulled on the steering wheel just enough to cause the tractor to veer right, so that it allowed the back tractor wheel to just miss his head, which was in the furrow, as it came up over his left shoulder. As if he didn't have enough to worry about, as he fell, the first thing he thought of was the following plow with it's coulters which could have easily cut off his arm on the right side. (Coulters are the disks that cut the ground just ahead of the plows). Although dazed, he kept his arms in and as the plow passed by him, it gently turned him over onto his face into the newly plowed ground. Fortunately, the tractor was moving very slowly, moving only 20 or so feet back toward the previously plowed field before he caught up with it. He raised the plow, backed up and continued on with his final pass. Howard Sr. who was in the same field was never aware that this had happened. He apparently suffered no adverse effects from this, although, he bore some marks on his chest for a few days which bore the uncanny resemblance to the treads of these tires. As he remarked, they could have been "steel" wheels with lugs! He did cancel his date with Marilyn and Howard Sr. offered to take him to the hospital, but he refused. Stubbornness, a typical Bilger trait, watch for more of this in later stories!
The Bull and Marilyn:
It was late winter of '51, Marilyn was 8 months pregnant with Alan at the time. Howard had just left for town to get some feed ground. Marilyn noticed that the bull had gotten in with the heifers and at that time they didn't want them breeding as they were too young. So Marilyn went out to the barn and crawled under the electric fence to try to get the bull out and back into his stall. The bull however, had different ideas that were not to changed by some human. He began to chase Marilyn and she ran back to the fence quite quickly for someone so heavy with child, where she dove and rolled under it. This is not the best way to induce labor and despite rumors to the contrary, Alan was born with no ill-effects! Needless to say the bull remained with the heifers until Howard got back!
More Bull with Howard:
More that once Bulls and Bilger's locked horns. This same bull once again got loose and was this time discovered in Charlie Meisner's field with his cattle. Howard, however, was home this time and walked over to retrieve his wayward bull. He had no real problem getting control of him, as Howard placed a chain wrapped around his horns and through the ring in his nose as well as a cane to help keep some distance between Howard and those horns. Halfway back across the field, however, the bull became rambunctious and one of his horns came back and rapped Howard's newly bandaged finger, having just been partially cut off (ask Uncle Bill about this one). To say the least the thought of giving the bull a VERY smart rap on his head crossed Howard's mind, but given the weight advantage the bull had over him, Howard thought better of it and just continued to lead him back to the barn! Stubborn, but not dumb!
Come Bossy....Not!:
Then there was the time when Howard was leading one of the heifers from the farm on Hensinger road to Howard Sr's on Franks road. Howard had the heifer in question completely in control as he lead her out of the barn with the idea of leading her across the field to her temporary home. The heifer had other ideas and she promptly bolted toward a line of pine trees that made up a windbreak along the the west and north sides of the pasture. You have seen the Olympics and the event called hop, skip and jump,....well, nobody could have held a candle to Howard that day! There was a good ten feet between steps as he held on for dear life as they gracefully(?) sailed across the field. Howard did manage to stop the errant heifer, no thanks to Marilyn, Mary, his mother-in-law and Clarence, his father-in-law, who were too busy laughing at Howard's predicament to offer any assistance. Howard might have ended up with his face in the dirt again if he had not held tight to the heifers back. Once the heifer ran out of pasture, Howard regained the upper hand and a more human gait.