A childhood memory named my farm

When I was trying to figure out a name for the farm, I just couldn't come up with anything. Then someone told me that it would come to me one day and I would know. Well, it did and it has a very special place in my heart from my early days on the farm. When I was very young, maybe 4 or 5, my Grandfather used to call me his "little Indian princess", his prettiest girl in seven counties. As I was growing up on the farm in central Illinois, he knew I was fascinated with Indian culture and folklore. He told me stories of the Indians who lived in Central Illinois and one was the maiden Red Wing (later I found out she was actually Red Wing from the old song and probably not really from Illinois). We used to dance the polka in front of my grandparents fireplace to the music and song of Red Wing. "There once lived an Indian Maid, a shy little prairie maid......"

One time, he and my Aunt Lena took me to a pasture that we used to call an Indian mound. He gave me a shovel and said, "let's look for Indian arrow heads". Of course, I dug around and didn't find anything. After a while, he said "why don't you try over hear behind the truck". Sure enough, I dug up a beautiful Indian arrow head. I was excited for weeks, probably months. It wasn't till high school when I was sitting in study hall daydreaming that it hit me --- my grandfather had planted that arrow head there for me to find.

Thus, I was thinking of my grandfather one morning and how I was special to him, he believed in me. The name Red Wing came to me out of no where. It actually took my breath away and I started crying. I knew that was to be the name of my farm.