Green

This is what the garden will look like soon......

I mentioned to you earlier that all at once, one day soon, we would see green and buds on the trees here in Duluth. Yesterday was beautiful! We reached 62 degrees on my drive home from work. The lawns are green, and I see the buds are coming out on the trees. The lake was that beautiful shade of blue again.

Today it was 71 degrees on my way home. I stopped at the Rose Garden down by the lake, and I walked. I’ve been doing that some evenings before coming home, and sometimes at lunch time I take a drive there and walk. I thought it would be a good place to walk, because I can see the lake, and I will be able to see the awakening of the roses and flowers in the gardens. Also, until I get more used to walking, it has beautiful marble benches that I can sit down and rest on! Last week the rose beds were all covered with leaves and bags, as they do for the winter. Tonight the rose beds were all uncovered and I saw that some beds were starting to be dug up. One of the beds has some purple crocuses blooming. Our rose garden is a beautiful spot, and the tourists always stop there. A lot of Duluthians take it for granted and often don’t even stop in.

The rose garden connects with the Lakewalk. I figure when I get in shape walking around the garden, I will then be able to advance to the lakewalk! Maybe by the end of the summer I might be able to walk the whole way to Canal Park??

The New Frontier

This evening my husband and I attended an interesting program. The keynote speaker spoke about China. He told us how the opening of China is fueling our US economy due to the demand there for products used to fill the needs of their growth. There is an industrial revolution going on there. For more than 20 consecutive years, China’s economy has grown by more than 9 % a year, one of the fastest rates of economic growth in history. There will be a demand of the world’s commodities, aluminum, iron ore and copper. There is a city the size of Boston being created there every two weeks! China’s industrialization parallels the US industrial revolution of the 1890’s. It’s possible their modernization will be accomplished in less than one generation, because they are using the technology that we already have. Two large airports are to be built in western China, which will be larger than any in the world, Caterpillar has a contract to deliver 1500 cranes at over million dollars each. The airports are to be in place for the anticipated growth of cities in that area that is mostly rural now. It is like our western frontier was in the 1800’s! Fed Ex and UPS are financing the airports so that they will be in position to move products. China will be encouraging the unemployed to move to newly urbanized areas that will be built in Western China for employment.

Three interconnected themes – from industrialization to modernization – population, consumption and growth, are speeding China’s transformation from an industrialized to a modern economy.

All of this will be affecting the economy of The United States. We are, indeed, in a global community!

Homesick

I think I was homesick this past weekend. Saturday I called my brother Tim to see how the remodeling is going on the farm house and to chat with him. He was in the middle of painting the “parlor”, but took time out to talk to me. We had a nice visit.

Yesterday I called another brother, Steve and had a long chat with him. I called my niece to wish her Happy 18th Birthday, and her Mom was home too, so I talked with her. Then I called two of my cousins, neither was home, but I left messages to let them know I was thinking of them.

I called my sister Julie and we talked for almost an hour. Saturday before last, I had a great conversation with one of my aunts. That same day, I called my best friend from school, who lives in New Jersey, we talked for over an hour.

I miss talking to my Mother by phone on an almost daily basis. Since she and Dad, and my Mother in law are all gone, I have kept in closer communication with my siblings, aunts, uncles and cousins, nieces and nephews. 36 years ago when I first moved here, it was very expensive to make telephone calls. We hardly ever called, and if we did, we limited your conversation to a few precious moments, because we didn’t want to face that huge phone bill when it came.

Thanks to lower long distance rates, calling cards and cell phones, it is so much more affordable to call now and you can talk like you were face to face with them, and for more than a few measly minutes. I have a calling call that I have pre paid minutes on, and when it hits 100 minutes, I “re-load” it, so I never have to face a phone bill. I also have a cell phone that gives me unlimited free calls all Saturday and Sundays. This weekend I really made use of that convenience!

It’s important to me to keep close ties to my family, though they live more than a thousand miles away. Talking to them helps lift my spirits, and I hope it does the same for them. I want them to know how much I love them. These phone options make it much easier living in Duluth away from my family than the first 20 years or so that I lived here!

I think it’s time for me to start looking at dates and airline fares and plan a trip to Pennsylvania!

Another Milestone

I can’t believe it, but another niece has reached the milestone of 18 years! My brother Tim’s youngest and only gir, is 18 years old today. I called Lisa this afternoon to wish her happy birthday.

I told her Mother and Dad, that with her turning 18, it also reminds us that it has been 18 years since they have been to Duluth to visit us. I told them that means, they need to plan a trip here, now that they are about done raising children, and the baby is 18!

They have 3 sons and Lisa. When their third son was about 18 months old, they made a road trip to Duluth to visit us. It was great. My brother told me later, that spending that time with me on that trip, afforded him the chance to get to know his big sister. Remember, I was 13 when he was born, and left PA when he was 9. He said he really never knew me until he spent that week in Duluth with me. I think that was really good, and also true, because I noticed that on my trips home after that he seemed much closer to me. We had a wonderful week togethe. I also got to know him as an adult, and my sister in law better.

All of my siblings, with the exception of my youngest brother Mark, made at least one trip to Duluth to visit us after becoming an adult. Mark was about 12 the last time he came, and I always wish that as an adult, he would make a trip out here. He’s a real outdoor lover, and I just know he would love the Boundary Waters, fishing and hunting out here. My Mother always encouraged them to make a trip out to see us after they grew up. I guess Mom knew that it was important for us to bond as adults.

Soon after returning to PA, Vicki found she was pregnant, and she finally got her daughter! Happy Birthday Lisa!!!

20 Days Before the '06 Fishing Opener

This morning at our church we had our “Annual Holy Humor Sunday”. This year’s theme was “Fishing Up North". We were told to come to church in the clothes we would wear to go fishing. Many people did that, and some even had their fishing poles along and their fishing hats, and one even was wearing his wading boots. We sang the hymns “Fishers of Men” and “Two Fishermen”, and the offertory played by our Hope Band was “Lord, You Have Come to the Lakeshore”, (one of my favorite, favorite hymns!). The Scripture reading was John 21:1-8, about Jesus fishing with his disciples. They had fished all night long, not catching any fish. Then Jesus joined them and told them to cast the net on the other side of the boat and they caught so many fish, they could hardly reel the nets in. Pastor Michelle pointed out that often we fish one way and don’t think to try the ”other side” or another way.

During the Children’s Sermon, the children did some “fishing”. The offering was taken in “bait buckets”. The band sang a song about Minnesota mosquitoes (skeeters), written by Pastor Michelle, to the tune of Simon and Garfunkle’s “Sounds of Silence”. It was very cute.

We had a potluck after church (for you in Pennsylvania, that’s our Minnesota name for a “covered dish social”. We were asked to bring Minnesota "hot dishes" (also known back east as casseroles), jello salads and other foods we would bring along when fishing. We had some great hot dishes, and a great variety of various “jello” salads. We then had a contest for all that were in fishermen costume, and voted on the three best. It was hard to pick the three best, because there were so many good ones!

The opening prayer was really neat. We prayed it in unison. It was written by Pastor Michelle, and she gave me permission to print it on my post today…here it is:

“Oh God you are so great. We are glad to be here this morning worshipping you, especially since fishing opener hasn’t happened yet and it’s too cold to be out at the lake. We wanna thank you today for all you’ve done fer us. Thanks fer the fish, especially Northerns and Walleye. Thanks fer the lakes and trees and all that good stuff you gave us. Thanks fer waterproof boots and mosquito repellent, too; it helps. We’re sorry about the mercury and the loosestrife, we’ll try to do better. And fer Jesus too – thanks, and help us follow him better; he really knew how to fish. You know what we mean. Amen.”
-- written by Rev. Michelle Hargrave

For all you fishermen, take note there are only 20 days left before the ’06 fishing opener!

Friends

You didn’t hear from me yesterday, because I was sick in bed most of the day. You don’t know how good you feel till you don’t feel good. Does that make sense?

We had made a date about a month ago with friends that live in Two Harbors. I have been friends with this couple for quite a few years, and us women keep saying we want to get our husbands together, as we think they would get along well. We finally picked a date to have lunch at their house. I was glad I was feeling better this morning, because I would have hated to cancel when we’ve talked about doing this for so long. And after a day in bed, it is always good to get back outside.

I hadn’t seen them for a while, so it was really good to see them. After a delicious lunch we visited, and had a good afternoon. They remodeled their kitchen themselves, and did a great job. They live in a 100 year old Victorian home, it’s beautiful. We girls were right; the guys did hit it off. They are both golfers and they talked about getting together to golf. We will be seeing more of them, and we will look at the calendar to find a date for them to come to our house for a visit.

For those of you not in Duluth, Two Harbors is north of Duluth, a 20 mile drive along Lake Superior. It is a pretty drive. Today was sunny, and I was surprised, after the rain we had this week that we didn’t see buds on any of the trees, and things still looked bare and brown. In a few weeks, it will look much different, and be even more of a pleasure to make the drive.

When I was growing up, it seemed that people visited much more often then they do now. Many times friends would just stop by, but it seems that the protocol now a days, is to call ahead, or make a definite day and time to visit. I guess it’s because life is so hectic these days with usually both the man and women being employed. The days seem to blend into weeks, into months, and pretty soon you realize you haven’t socialized with any friends in a long time. We must make deliberate plans to keep in touch with old friends and to make new friends. If you don’t, as your children leave the nest, you will find that you miss those friends and the social life, so you need to revive and nurture those friendships again. It takes effort and time, but its well worth the time invested! Independently, I have a lot of friends, and I would be lost without my friends. Since our children are grown, I find that it’s pleasurable for Bob and me to socialize with friends again as a couple, something we haven’t done much since we aren’t “hockey and baseball parents” anymore! But, we are getting back into the social swing and plan to keep in touch more closely with friends.

We thank our friends for the lovely day!

Daddy - Two Years gone

When we are growing up, even when we are adults, for some reason we just can’t imagine the day when we don’t have our parents. You know you will lose your grandparents, but you just don’t think you will lose your parents. Well, maybe I should revise that statement and say that
I couldn’t imagine it. Reality came closer though, when I lost my Mother in law. She was older than my parents. After we lost Dolly, I realized that someday I would have to face losing my Mother and Dad.

My Dad lived with his COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease) for almost 15 years. He handled his disease well; his pulmonary Doctor told him he was a “wonder” because Dad was his longest patient living with the disease that he treated. So, I put off the thoughts of the day when the disease would bring him down. He would get pneumonia, but he always came through it.

Two years ago March, I rushed home because he didn’t get over his pneumonia well. He came back from the hospital in a very weakened state and the Doctors said that his heart had been affected by the hard work it had to do for the lungs. His body was worn out. We were afraid we were going to lose him then. I’m so thankful that I went home. Daddy was not well, but he knew that I was there. He could barely talk, but he whispered to me “Thank you for coming”. That meant a lot to me, I sat by his bedside and was able to spend time with him. I didn’t want to leave to come back to Duluth, but knew I had to. The Lord gave me the chance to talk with him and to tell him how much I loved him and what a good Dad he was. When I had to say goodbye and tell him I had to return to Duluth, he nodded his head with understanding, and told me that he loved me.

April 20, 2004 Daddy had his breakfast. (He was in a nursing home at this time). When the nurses came back to take the tray, he was gone. His heart had given out, his body had worn out from the stress it had on it for all those years. He had a bad evening the day before and my sister was there at his bedside until after 2 am. She had wanted to be with him when he passed, but I told her that Daddy probably didn’t want that. Daddy would have been 84 on his next birthday that year.

My daughter and I went home for his service. All of us children talked about what a wonderful Father he was. We have wonderful memories. We loved him very much and miss him very much.

Daddy, we think of you everyday, we love you.

Spring Comes to Duluth!

The last two weeks I have really been seeing the signs of spring arriving in our town. The snow is melting, even up here over the hill, where it lingers forever. There have been years where we’ve had piles of snow in our front yard in the beginning of May and we need to go shovel it to get rid of it! This winter we didn’t have as much snow, so the snow left faster. Our back yard is even free of the snow and of the lake of water that usually accumulates after the snow leaves. The middle of April and all the snow is gone! In fact, on Saturday, my husband and son raked the yard and the flower beds. Things are all set for the “greening”. We could use some steady rain to bring the green a bit faster. We did get some today, the morning started rainy and we thought we’d have a rainy day, but it cleared up and the sun came out. (Not that we are complaining about the sun!).

On my drive to work, my route takes me along Lake Superior each day. Its fun to see how each day the lake can look different. Yesterday morning the temperature was 48 degrees and it was sunny. The lake was so beautiful. It was the deep, beautiful shade of blue that I like the best. Oh my, it was pretty. There was an ore boat sitting there also, on its way to the harbor. On the way home, the temperature was about the same, except there was no sun, it was dreary and the water reflected that dreariness. The water was gray with just a hint of blue tinge, and there were lots of white caps. There were two ore boats in the harbor. A sure sign of spring!

I read Sam Cook ** in the Duluth News Tribune. He does a weekly column and it’s always interesting.This week he wrote about “Nature, mankind unleashed”. He told how every morning on his route to work his is now “seeing runners, chugging up Woodland Avenue, barreling along Fourth Street and bouncing along the lakewalk.” To quote Sam, “This is an amazing season in the North, unleashing pent-up endorphins in humans and fostering events worth of awe in the natural world.” He also talks about how we mark spring with the ice being off the lake, the calling of spring peepers, the migration of ducks and hearing the call of the loon.

Last week I was able to walk 4 times at the Rose Garden by the lake on London Road. The Rose Garden isn’t too pretty now, but when those roses come out of hibernation and the green shows up, it’s going to be a great place to walk around in. I thought I’d start now, so I really appreciate it when it’s beautiful. I’m starting small, walking in circles there, so I can get my legs built up for walking on the Lakewalk when the weather gets really nice.

Now, I’m waiting for the green to come out on the trees. We won’t see that till May, but one day, things will look dull, no leaves, then the very next day we will see the leaves coming out on the trees. AHHH….Spring in Duluth….. We are grateful it is here!

** To read Sam Cook’s column this week and to read previous columns, go to
www.duluth newstribune.com

Happy Easter!

Christ Is Risen! Happy Easter!

Easter 2006

Easter Egg Hunt "New Life"
Easter Lily>

Easter Weekend

I wrote yesterday about the Christian tradition of Good Friday. After Good Friday, we have the Easter celebration. When I was growing up, Easter meant coloring Easter eggs, eating the colored Easter eggs, getting Easter baskets early Easter Sunday morning, baskets filled with lots of “Easter” candy.

I wrote that we are now in a secular world. I observe though that the secular world celebrates the weekend with “Easter” candy, bunnies, and new “Easter” outfits. Christian tradition drives the economy during the Christmas and Easter seasons, have you noticed that? Stores filled with candy, bunnies, new clothing. I think that even many non/ Christians fill Easter baskets for their children.

I once had a conversation with a Jewish friend; we discussed how our traditions are so much alike, in that Christianity has its roots in Judaism. They celebrate the Passover, and so do we, but in different ways. Last Easter she asked me what eggs and bunnies had to do with Easter. That probably was a good question. When we were kids, it really was never explained to us what they had to do with Jesus and the cross! As an adult I’ve come to know that the eggs represent new life. Christian holidays started by being intertwined with pagan rituals, and since Easter is in the spring, the flowers and eggs also have to do with spring. Not sure about the bunnies. Do any of you know about the bunnies ?

Then there is the “Easter Basket”, I’m glad she didn’t ask me where that tradition came from, because I don’t know. It was probably thought up by candy companies. Do you know you used to find candy shaped like crosses, and other religious symbols? Not anymore. We now only have peeps, bunnies, and eggs. Mother always made lovely baskets for us; she used the same baskets each year. As we got older, she’d buy a bigger basket, and pass the smaller ones down to the younger siblings. Of course, it wasn’t her, but the “Easter bunny” that brought the baskets. She sure did enjoy being Easter bunny. I know I always enjoyed it too. One year she made homemade Easter eggs, made with confectioner sugar and cold mashed potatoes, and dipped in chocolate. She would make peanut butter (the best), coconut and cherry flavored ones. After that, we insisted every year that she needed to make them. She would make them, and we would help her to dip the eggs in the chocolate. She made extra so that she could give them away as treats to neighbors and friends. I would dearly love to make those now each Easter, but I resist the temptation, because I KNOW who would eat most of them, me…and I don’t need the calories. Maybe when I get better about sugar, I could make them some year. I’d love to give them away. Maybe next Easter…

Some years I made Easter baskets for the grandchildren. My daughter told me not to anymore, because between me and Easter Bunny, they got more candy than they should have, so I respected her wishes. I miss making Easter baskets.

When we were young, we looked forward every week before Easter, often the weekend before, to painting hard boiled “Easter eggs”. We had so much fun. Mom always joined in and decorated the eggs too. So when I had children, I continued the tradition. Our children enjoyed decorating the eggs, it was a fun thing to do together. At our church, the Sunday School teachers put together an “egg hunt” on the lawn after church for the kids. That was a lot of fun. In Pennsylvania, we had spring when it was Easter, there was no snow on the ground. In Minnesota, the kids don’t have outdoor Easter egg hunts because of the weather, and usually there is snow or the ground is wet. I have noticed the last few years some churches have started having egg hunts inside the church. There is an egg hunt scheduled at our Hope UMC tomorrow morning after church. That’s nice that the tradition is coming back, even if we have to do it inside! I wonder if many children decorate eggs now. Since our kids are grown, I miss doing that. Every year I think I’m going to hard boil and paint eggs, but life is hectic, and if you don’t have the kids to do it for, it doesn’t seem to be as urgent, and it doesn’t get done.

Another tradition when I was young, that seems to have gone by the wayside. Dressing up and wearing hats and white gloves! If you never wore a hat to church (in those days, many of the older generation women did wear hats to church) you for sure wore one on Easter Sunday. Every woman and every girl had their “Easter Bonnet”. Most of them also had a new Easter outfit. My Grandmother was a great seamstress. She made most of my clothing, and every Easter she made a new dress for me. We don’t see many hats in
church these days, not even on Easter Sunday! Church has also become less formal, so that people don’t dress up much, and some deck out at Easter, others don’t. Today, it’s your choice. I guess that’s really a nice change, because I know when my kids were little, I always felt they needed new outfits, and there wasn’t always money for new outfits! The pressure is off, so that’s a good thing.

We always had a big ham dinner on Easter Sunday following church, at Grandma G’s house, along with Mom’s siblings and their families (my cousins). It was great! Grandma knew how to fix a fancy table and lots of good food. One year she made lamb with the ham…I didn’t like it.

When our kids were growing up, I would make a big Easter meal every year at our house for my Mother in law, Bob’s Auntie Mae and Aunt Helen and Uncle Tom. I worked hard the Saturday before, making side dishes and preparing. I always made ham, as it is my very favorite meat, and to me Easter isn’t Easter without ham! The first year I was married I wanted to make my Mother’s baked beans. She made the BEST baked beans. Everyone in the family on both sides always wanted Mom to bring her beans to family gatherings. I asked her to send me her recipe. It was the funniest thing, she wrote the directions in her letter, spread out over about two pages, telling me exactly how to do each step. No formal recipe, just directions on how to do it. The beans turned out great. I still like to make them; they taste a lot like Bush’s “Country Style” brand only even better. They are very time consuming to make, and I don’t do it unless I’m preparing for company. Now, the closest thing to her beans is Bush’s country style! I bought some to have tomorrow with our meal. I brought a lot of our dishes from Pennsylvania Easter dinner to my Minnesota table. Our kids are grown; Bob and Dawn spend Easter with his side of the family. Scott spends it with his girl friend’s family, and the aunties, uncles and Mother in law are all gone. It’s hard to get the motivation to make a big Easter dinner for only three. So, tomorrow, I will have some great center cut ham slices, and a much scaled down version of the Easter dinner. Instead of eating it right after church, we will eat it later in the day. We will attend the breakfast at church between our early service and our traditional service. The three of us will also be helping with the breakfast by being on the clean up crew.

Easter usually sneaks up on me quicker than I realize since I’ve been working full time, so my ideas about painting eggs, fixing baskets and making homemade Easter eggs, usually go unrealized. I always think “maybe next year”. So, again in 2006, here I am thinking, “maybe next year.” Then I try not to feel guilty about not doing everything, and remember what the real reason for the Easter celebration is. That’s what’s important, then I feel better about the things I didn’t do for Easter.

Secular World

This is Easter weekend. Easter is a Christian holiday. The pastor I worked for in 1992 once told me that we were moving from a Christian world to a secular world. I did not believe he was right at that time. Since 1992, when I look back on the way things used to be and how they are now, I realize that he was correct.

When I was growing up, I didn’t notice that everything shut down between 1 and 3 pm on Good Friday because I lived in the rural area. Our church was small and if there was a Good Friday service it was held in the evening. When I moved to Duluth, and lived here in the “city”, I saw that indeed, everything did shut down between 1 and 3. The idea was that you went to church during that time. Almost every church had a church service during that time. Every store and every bank closed. Employers closed or let their employees leave during that time with the premise that the employees would be attending church. I worked for 7 years at a downtown bank, and all seven of those years, the whole bank closed for those three hours. It always amazed me, as a teller, how customers couldn’t seem to remember this, because they didn’t to do their business before 1 pm, instead, when we returned at 3 pm, the customers would be lined three deep in the teller lines. That part I always dreaded, because I knew how hectic it would be at 3:00! Especially the years that I worked in the drive through, it was located in a parking garage on Michigan Street, and we would come back to work to find the whole garage full of cars in line for the two drive through lanes, they got there even before we opened, just waiting for us to re-open.

We attended First Lutheran Church during the first couple of years I worked at the bank. I sang in their choir. First Lutheran had a tradition, and I believe they still do, of performing the cantata “Seven Last Words”, between 1 and 3. So, my tradition for Good Friday was to rush off to the church and sing and rush back to know I would have a very hectic rest of the work day. It was worth it though, singing that cantata really made you focus on the meaning of Good Friday. I haven’t sung it in a long time now, or even heard it. I don’t know for sure, but I suspect that First Lutheran doesn’t do the afternoon performance anymore. Some Good Friday I would like to attend their evening performance, but didn’t make it there last evening. Our church does a quiet self-guided meditation on “The Way of the Cross”, from 1 – 6 pm. This is nice, because those of us who are employed can stop there on the way home from work. That’s what I did. It was my Good Friday “service”.

Before my tenure of 7 years at the bank ended, a Good Friday change happened. One or two stores started to remain open at 1 pm, then the next year, more followed suit. Before we knew it, everything was open, there was no more break at work places for you to attend church. Some churches stopped having services. Nothing stopped. One day we noticed that there was no more Good Friday observance between the 3 hours that observed Christ dying on the cross.

Our children, and our children’s and grandchildren’s generation do not even remember that the world stopped for 3 hours each Good Friday. They only hear us tell them about it.

I know now that what the pastor told me in 1992 had come to pass. I know that my Jewish, B’hai, and non-Christian friends find this is a good thing. I am not judging if it is or isn’t a “good thing”, as I know more now in 2006, something I didn't know when I was growing up - not everyone is Christian. I also know that as a Christian, I need to find my own way of observing Good Friday.

The world has changed since I was a child. We are in a secular world.

GOOD FRIDAY

Today is “Good Friday”. In our Christian tradition we observe Good Friday as the day our Christ died on the cross and took on the sins of the world for our salvation. Christ did this for us, which is why we call it “Good”. The story doesn’t end today. Three days later Christ rises from the dead, on Sunday. Sunday, following Good Friday, we observe “Easter”, and rejoice in the victory over death. We rejoice in the victory that gives us the promise of a life after death with God, Our Lord, The Holy Spirit (Three in One). Mankind is not good enough to be in the presence of God, but because of what Christ did today on the cross, we have assurance that we will have eternal life with God.

It is because of Christ’s suffering and victory that we can bear to be without our loved ones when they leave this world, the promise that we will be with them again in the next life is what sees us through the loss.

I visited with my friend Blanche last evening. She is very close to being with God. Good Friday and Easter Sunday is the reason that Blanche does not have to be afraid to die. I rejoice that she has this assurance and though she does not want to leave this world behind, she knows she will be led by her Christ, and is ready.

May each of you have that assurance. My prayers are with Blanche and her family. May we each rejoice in the reason we observe Good Friday and celebrate Easter morning!

April 13, 1962 - A Special Day

Today is April 13th - it is a very special day for me. It is a day I will never forget. Today 44 years ago, my “baby sister” was born. Today is my sister Julia’s birthday!

I told you earlier that there were 8 years in between us three older siblings and the last three siblings. This means that when my last three siblings were born, I was 13, 14 and 15 years old. I was old enough to remember each day they came home from the hospital, and I was old enough to help with their care. The last three did come close together. Mom told me this story: She and Dad planned for Tim, the first of the last three, they thought it would be nice to have a baby around again. When Tim was 5 months old she went to the Dr. for her belated post baby check up. The Dr. asked her how she felt, and she told him “Fine, just a sore throat”. He told her that he was sure she was pregnant. She didn’t think so, but guess what…she was! So, October of that year, Mark was born. I was delighted when Tim and Mark were born. I toted on them, and helped Mom with the diapering, feeding, etc. I just adored these two little ones. I did wish for a sister each time, but enjoyed having the little boys. So when Mom announced that we would have a brother or sister again, I just prayed that this time it would be a girl. I really wanted a sister so badly. I was now outnumbered, 4 brothers, no sisters. It was just Mom and I in a houseful of guys! Mom never told me anything about my sister coming along; I only remember thinking that she just had to have a girl!

When the boys were born, Mom and Dad had names picked for them. I gave suggestions and chose names that I wanted them to use. They did not use my name for Tim, and when they chose the name Mark for a boy for the second pregnancy, I did not want that name! I wanted another name, and was sure I would get my way, because they didn’t choose my name when Tim was born. But, Grandma came home from a visit to the hospital and told me that little “Mark” was doing well! Well, now, I can’t even imagine the name I wanted at that time! His name could only be Mark! Mark Andrew, I learned to love the name!

All during the pregnancy of the third, I was lobbying my Mother to choose the name I wanted and that name was “Julia”. It was an “old” name, but I liked it. I didn’t know anyone with that name, and Mom liked names that weren’t common and popular, so I thought I had a good chance. She had always wanted the name Jean Elizabeth if she had a girl. I couldn’t imagine a “Jean”, but I sure could imagine a Julia! I think Mom took pity on me because I didn’t get my boy’s names, because they named her Julia Elizabeth. Elizabeth was after my Maternal Grandmother. Mom’s middle name was Elizabeth, my daughter’s middle name is Elizabeth and so is our granddaughter’s middle name, all in memory of our Grandma Elizabeth.

So, today, April 13th is the day I finally got my SISTER! I was thrilled!!!! After 4 brothers, I finally had my sister! I was 15 years old. I told all my friends in school how happy I was. She was the most beautiful baby. The two boys had brown eyes and brown hair, Julia had blue eyes and blonde hair and as she grew older, her hair remained blonde and her eyes remained blue. She takes after my Dad, with his blue eyes. She and Jerry were the only ones with the blue eyes and blonde hair.

She was a beautiful baby, beautiful girl and is now a beautiful woman. She married and raised two great children, Hope, who I have written about earlier, and Mitchell, who will soon be 16 years old! She was a wonderful daughter to our parents. Since she lived right up the lane from the farm, she became their caretaker when their health failed. We are so thankful for the care she gave Mom and Dad. She was a loving daughter and is a loving sister to the five of us!

I helped to raise her and the two young boys, and I enjoyed those years so much. After I had my driver’s license I would take them all over, on errands, to Grandma’s house, and to the local ice cream stand for ice cream. They tell me they especially remember the trips to the ice cream stand! I really had a lot of fun with my sister and brothers. I know the older brothers enjoyed the three little ones too, but I know that they were kept so busy helping Dad on the farm and with the chores, and maybe didn’t get the time with them that I did.

I believe that having three babies and young ones in the house, kept our lives as teenagers in better prospective. You learn a lot about life when you share the babies with your parents. I feel so lucky that I had this experience.

Julia, or Julie as we called her, shared my bedroom when she outgrew the crib. Julie was 7 years old when I married and left home for Minnesota. She was my flower girl at our wedding. Grandma G. made my wedding gown, and she also made Julie’s flower girl dress.

When I came to Minnesota, another reason I was so homesick was because these three young siblings had been such a big everyday part of my life, more so, than when the siblings are next to your own age. I loved these three little ones like they were my own children. I missed them so much! I watched them grow for seven years, and from afar I watched them become wonderful adults, along with my older brothers. I was very fortunate to have had 4 brothers and a sister in my growing up years, and fortunate to have them now too!

Happy Birthday dear sister Julie, I’m thinking of you on your special day. You are so special to me. I am remembering that your birthday was a special day for me 44 years ago today! - Love from your Big Sister.

New Girl in the Neighborhood

After about 3 years, the neighbors I told you about in my last post moved away. Neighbors with “children” didn’t move into that place until I was in 8th Grade. They had a girl, one year younger than me. I was so happy then to have a girl friend that lived close by. We became very close; we spent a lot of time at each others houses. My Mother never minded my friendship with her, maybe because I was older by then. Her name was Dottie and she had come from the “city”, we thought in those days, the “big city”, but it was actually only the small town of Hanover, (but it was still bigger than our nearby East Berlin!). The school in Hanover was very much larger than our school and this was a real adjustment for Dottie. I also found out from her that in their school what “clothes” you wore, meant a lot. It was then, in Hanover, like it is at most schools today. Our little rural high school did not buy into these thoughts, I think because we were all from rural area and farms, and none of our parents had money, nor would allow such thinking! There were only about 4 girls in our class that dressed with the up to date fashions, and the rest of us didn’t let them intimate
us “too much”, we just figured that their parents “had money”. We accepted that our parents did not have money, and we didn’t press them for material things, like the kids of today do. We parents of today have allowed our children to press us. I’m sure it’s because we want to give our children what we didn’t have. I don’t know though, that we have done them any favors, by allowing them to fall into the materialist world of today.

In those days, girls were not really allowed to talk on the telephone in the evenings to their girl friends from school. Our parents would not drive us back and forth to each other’s houses, so your friends you had in school, you only saw them during school. Maybe once during the school year, if you were lucky, you could talk your Mother into letting a school friend come home from school with you on the bus and stay overnight.
That was always fun, but it didn’t happen often. Again, this is probably why, when we had children, we made sure they could get together with their friends away from school, we drove them around town and let them have their sleepovers!

You can see why it was especially good to have Dottie down the road. We could walk to each others houses and spend time together. We rode school bus together, went to school dances, took long walks at the farm and talked teenage girl talk. It was good to have a confidant. Many times, Dottie would lend me something from her closet for me to wear to the school dances. I always appreciated that, as I felt her wardrobe was so much better than mine! Dottie taught me a lot about clothing, make up, hair and all the teen stuff!

Mom appreciated Dottie’s Mother being able to drive one way to the school, so she didn’t have to drive us both ways to the school for dances, etc. Our high school was a good 8 -10 miles from our farm. Mom willingly let me get my driver’s license when I was 16, so she wouldn’t have to, as she put it “haul me” to school events.

Dottie and I remained close friends through our junior and senior years. She married a local boy, they were high school sweethearts, and stayed in the area. Dottie and I still get together when I get home and we reminisce about our high school years and the fun and friendship we had.

Neighbors

When I was about 7 years old, new people bought the house down the road from us. It wasn’t a farm, only a house with the woods from our farm adjoining their yard. Until they moved in, we didn’t have any neighbors close by that had children. We were so excited to have friends to play with. My Mother wasn’t as excited. It seemed to her that they were there every day, and she used to say that they could think of more mis-chievous things to do than we kids ever did. Probably when we were down at their house, she worried about us, feeling that their Mother wouldn’t always check on what we were doing. In other words, she thought they were a “bad influence” on us. I can’t remember us ever doing anything wrong, so not sure why she always fussed. Maybe it was the added responsibility that she felt when extra children were on the farm. Their family consisted of 4 children. One boy was my age, Jim, another boy about 2 years older than me, “Skip”, an older girl and a girl younger than me, “Penny”. I played mostly with Penny. Skip often played with Jim, Penny and I, sometimes, my two brothers next in age to me, would join in. We set up a “house” in the woods next to their home. In the summer (maybe only one summer, not sure) we spent hours and hours playing in the woods pretending to be a family with children! We took household items from their Mother’s house to add to our house. We had brooms to sweep, dishes to eat, we used the weeds from the field as “food”. We had everything! Boy, did we have fun!

The Weekend!

Yeah, the weekend is finally here. It has been a long week at the ACS office! You may not hear from me over the weekend, unless I post from my daughter's home. Tomorrow morning I will be attending our Relay For Life Kick-off, 9 - 11 am. I will be having a team again this year. It will be the HOPE Wranglers, from our HOPE UM Church.

After the Kick Off meeting, (my car will be packed) I am leaving for Hudson to visit our daughter and family for the weekend. Fortunately, our ACS office in the cities is in Mendota Heights, only 1/2 drive from Hudson. I will be attending a training at that office for work, on Monday and Tuesday. I will stay at their house on the weekend and through Monday. I'm looking forward to seeing daughter, and son in law, and the grandkids! It's nice that I can tie in work business with a visit to my family there. If I have time tomorrow morning and any of the other days, you will hear from me. If not, you know why. We will talk soon!

The photo above was taken by a relative and given to Mom, it's one of the few that she had of me when I was small. I don't know how old I was, there is no date on the back of the photo.

Enjoy your weekend!

PLAYTIMES

We kids all have such great memories being raised on this farm, the wide open spaces, playing in the fields and the wood thickets, and the woods. Over 120 acres of the farm is wooded land. I often took walks in the woods, and when I was a teen, girl friends and I would walk out to the back fields, so we could talk, without other "ears" around.

When we were little we would play cowboys and Indians in the thickets. In the winter we played Eskimos in the snow and iced over drive ways to the back fields. When it would rain hard, we’d run around outside in our bare feet, in the puddles of the driveways. I would play “house” along the creek in the cow meadow. One time my brother Jerry and I were playing in the woods, and we walked away too far, so that we didn’t know how to get back. I was age 7 or 8. We were lost. I still remember that awful feeling, it was fall and it was a cold day. We were cold and scared. We walked and walked until we finally found a clearing. It was the field of a neighbor, we walked to their house, told them our name, and they took us back home.

One year the township came along and cut down almost all the trees along the main road. There was a giant pile of some sort of bark, I’m not sure what, from the trees, or maybe it was the wood itself, I'm not sure. Anyhow, it was left there in the fall and stayed all winter. I was in 2nd or third grade and was by the bus stop where we waited for the school bus. We would play Indians around this pile, pretending it was an Indian tepee, and even play while we were waiting for the school bus.

Once a summer, Dad would buy stone gravel to put on the lane and roadways around the farm buildings. There was a distance between the farm buildings and the main road that we always called “the lane”. The gravel would be put on a huge pile by the milk house. He would leave enough for us kids to play in. It was our “sand box”. We would take the hose from the milk house and make it wet, and we would make roadways, and houses, ponds and pretend all sorts of things. I guess it was like if we were on the seashore sand, and played like one would play in the beach sand. We spent hours there. It was so much fun. Eventually the pile would go down, but we'd still have some left for play. I sure wish we had some pictures of it.

We even had fun when Dad would be shoveling out the lane and driveways after a big snow! We would “help” him, but actually we played more than we helped. These were the days before snow-blowers and apparently he didn’t have a plow for the front of the tractor to use to push the snow, or maybe he wanted the exercise, but Dad always hand shoveled! (Of course we didn’t get the snow amounts and as many snow falls there as we do here in Duluth). Anyhow, his shoveling, gave us the chance to play!

We sure had a lot of fun as kids. Do you think that kids today have the imagination that we did? (feel free to post your answer or thoughts). We didn’t have friends to play with, we had to play together as siblings or entertain ourselves with our imagination. We weren’t taken to soccer, little league, dance lessons, “play dates”, community club, swimming lessons, and other organized play, like the children of today. We didn’t depend on our parents to play with us, or to entertain us.

We made our own fun and entertained ourselves. Those were the days!
(Photo above: Mom brought hot coffee out to Dad, to give him a break from his snow shoveling of the lane. note: to the right of the end of the lane, is where my sister's house is today.)

Sister and Brother

When there were only two of us - Mom and Dad

with Linda and Jerry
In the "Parlor"
Jerry (Gerald) is on Mom's lap. He is the brother that we lost
to Lung Cancer at age 52. We miss him!!

The Working Farm

Dad raised and milked Holstein cows. I should say, Dad raised them, my Mother milked, every morning and night until my brothers were old enough to take over. He also raised hogs and chickens. He sold milk to Hershey Chocolate Company. So our milk was used to make that delicious chocolate that we all love. His was not a large operation, with bulk tanks, etc. He used milk cans, and they were placed in a cooler of cold water in the milk house until the "milkman" came each week to pick them up. On one trip to Duluth, Daddy brought me one of the milk cans. Someday I want to find someone to "paint" it for me.

One day he had to stop raising hogs, unless he wanted to move the hog pen because it was too close to the milk house. After that, they would buy a hog each winter to butcher for meat, from my Grandmother and Step-Grandfather, who raised them. We kids were always fascinated by watching the pigs eat at their farm. I don’t remember our pigs too much, as I was pretty young when Daddy quit raising them, but I remember Maurice’s pigs. When we were at Grandma’s, we would often watch or help Maurice to feed the pigs.

Dad raised chickens and sold eggs. He always had anywhere from 5 – 7 “chicken houses”. Two were in the barn loft, also 2 in the shed loft and 3 or 4 in a building just for the chickens. Our neighbors would come weekly and buy cracked eggs at discount price and fresh eggs. (I’m not going to tell you the “cracked egg” story about me that my brothers like to tell). We had our regular customers, and it was a great way of visiting with and getting to know neighbors and friends. The “egg man” came weekly and bought the rest of the eggs. It was never one of my chores to gather eggs. However, when my cousins from the city would come to visit, they were always intrigued about “hunting” the eggs, and would insist that we go gather the eggs for my Mother. I have to admit, those were the only times that I gathered eggs. Picking the eggs from the nest wasn’t hard, the hard part was lifting the hen up to get her eggs from under her. They would often “peck” at you, the hen didn’t want to give up the eggs, and of course, I didn’t like that pecking!

There was a small “peepy house” for the peeps that Dad would buy. He raised the chickens from small. Sometimes he would buy them when they were older too. It was always fun to see the peepies and watch them grow. As the peepies got older, their beaks needed to be “de-beaked”. They would do that at night, and many times my brothers would help with that chore.

The boys (my brothers) tell about all the time they spent raising the calves. It was their job to “slop” the calves each morning. To slop, meant to feed them. They did this every morning. They changed their hay to keep them comfortable. It was their job to keep the barn clean too, cleaning the cow gutters, etc. Some day I will write about how lucky I was not to have to do these chores (because I had brothers!).

Before the boys were old enough to help, Dad had a hired hand that they paid. He was a teen-age boy who lived up the road. His name was Jerry. I never saw Jerry after he became an adult. He was a big help to
Dad. It would be fun to see him again and hear any stories he had to tell. I do have one memory of Jerry that I will share someday. It has to do with chickens and eggs.

In addition to the chickens, pigs and cows, Dad of course, farmed the land with crops. Corn and wheat, and he made hay and straw and used it for the feed, for the animals and he also sold it. So much of the summer was spent “making hay”. I note that the farmers here in Minnesota call it “haying”, not making hay. He had lots of equipment, “hay baler”, an elevator (to move hay bales, corn, etc. to second floor of the barn and sheds), of course the orange “Allis Chalmers” tractor, rakes, corn workers, wagons, etc. Mom would often say how expensive it was for the farm equipment and to keep it maintained. There were quick trips to the farm equipment store when things broke. She often commented how much money it cost small farmers to “farm”.

We had a silo, to keep the feed for the animals in. I was pretty little when Dad had the silo built. He didn’t have the equipment to “fill” it, but when the time came to get it filled, he would hire a neighbor farmer who had the equipment, and he would help to fill it. I notice that now days, the farms seem to have other kinds of buildings, rather than the tall white cement silos. When Dad had help with things like filling the silo, combining wheat, etc., my Mother was always there cooking a huge meal for the helpers. She always fed them well.
More tomorrow….

The Homestead

Grandma E. My Dad, (in front) and his sisters and brothers - 1995
My Dad grew up on a farm just up the road from our farm. It was his parent’s farm. His Grandfather built the house, across the road from the original house. The only part of the original house I remember was the foundation, which was still there when I was little. It must have been stone, like our house, because I remember the stone. I can remember my aunts doing some sort of work there, but can’t remember what. I just remember my cousin Susan and I running around that day. There was a wind mill there too, for many years. The foundation and wind mill were long gone by the time I was older.

The house was where Grandma and Grandpa Ebersole lived and raised their family. When I was little, Dad’s youngest sister and brother (my aunt and uncle) still lived at home. I remember my aunt sunbathing in the back yard. I can remember her bedroom. She is 10 years older than I am. She was in high school when I was in first grade. I remember going to her high school graduation. We would visit her at the town soda fountain where she worked, and one time she bought me a “dusty road” sundae. It was at this soda fountain that I had my first order of "french fries", something new at that time. I went along with Grandma and Grandpa to Shippensburg State College to see her graduate.

Dad and his two youngest brothers did the farming on that farm, because Grandpa Ebersole was not the farmer that his Dad was, and he also had a full time job at a paper mill in York, I’m sure to help make a living. My Dad did farming from the time he was a kid. He worked closely with his Grandfather, and he used to tell me that he was closer to his Grandfather than he was to his own Father. His Grandfather and he were together all the time. My Mother used to tell me that Dad never was interested in going many places, because he “ran” so many places with his Grandfather when he was a kid.

Dad always told me that when he was in the middle grades of school, he was the smallest boy, and when he graduated high school, he was the tallest. Anyway, back to the farm. Dad graduated from the local high school, and because education was very important to my Grandmother, she struggled financially to help Dad to go to college. He went to Penn State University and received a two year degree in Agriculture. Grandma made sure that all seven of her children all had the opportunity for further education beyond high school.
Four of them graduated from college and became teachers. Another aunt went to school and became a beautician. I hope I don’t offend my aunts when I say this, but Grandma used to say that she sent her girls to college so that they would find good educated husbands… (they did)!

The degree in Agriculture prepared my Dad to be a successful farmer. After college, he purchased the farm down the road, Grandma helped by co/signing the mortgage. Aunt Sara told me that he paid $5,000 for it. So now, Dad had two farms to tend to. He worked very hard, he and his brother Fred farmed the home farm (by then, his youngest brother had joined the army and was gone), and Daddy farmed his farm. This was the farm that I grew up on, along with 4 brothers and a sister.

Sometime between high school and college, I’m not sure when, Daddy had met his wife to be. His oldest sister Sylvia, had a good friend named Romaine. Romaine lived a few miles away, and was in school with Sylvia. One of my aunts told me that when Dad first saw Mom at the farm house with Sylvia, he told her that “I just met the woman I’m going to marry”. So, it was love at first sight for my Dad. Romaine went to Harrisburg to Nurses Training for two years, and Daddy waited for her. My sister found letters when we were going through things after they were both gone, that Daddy wrote to Mom during her time at school. He was really smitten with her, and after her schooling, they went to the parsonage (Minister’s home), and got married in the fall of 1946.

More tomorrow….

A Daughter's Dream

I can really relate to my Mother’s dream. For 32 years I had the exact same dream! When Bob and I bought our house here in Duluth, we looked at the kitchen and saw it was very out of date and probably the original to the house that was built in 1914. But, I fell in love with so much else about the house and it’s setting, that I overlooked the kitchen. Like my Mother, I had the dream for 32 years that I wanted a new kitchen. We never had money to update it, so I would just paint every few years. I always wished that I least I could get a new floor and new counter tops…but my husband would say that it wasn’t worth the money to do things like that when what we really needed was a whole new kitchen. So, of course, it kept being put off. We took loans for a new roof, for new porch, new windows, etc. But never felt we could bite off a loan for a new kitchen.

In 2003, I finally convinced Bob that with retirement years coming nearer, that if we ever wanted to sell our house, we would take a huge loss with our kitchen from the 1900’s! Interest rates kept going down, so we took a second mortgage for 5 ¼ % interest (we bought the house in 1969 with a mortgage rate of 7 ½!!!). I finally got my dream – a completely new kitchen. I just love it, just like Mom loved her new one. And, like her, I’m so grateful to have it. I feel sad that I don’t have 3 children at home yet to enjoy it but we have 1 at home out of our three, and so the three of us enjoy it. The other two enjoy it when they come home and they are delighted that their Mom finally got her dream kitchen! Like my Mother, I waited a long time for my dream. I guess I was more patient then some wives would be, because I learned from my Mother to be content. But, I figured after 32 years I was content enough! I love my kitchen and at the same time we
did some other refurbishing of the house, so I am now content with our house.

15th Annual RELAY FOR LIFE Kick Off - Saturday!

AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY

15th Annual Duluth Community
RELAY FOR LIFE
College of St. Scholastica, Duluth, MN
www.acsevents.org/relay/mn/duluth

Event Kick off for Team Captains, and those interested in forming a team
will be held on Saturday, April 8th, 9 -11 am at Somers Hall, CSS

WHAT: The American Cancer Society’s Relay For Life is a unique celebration of life in honor and in memory of those whose lives have been touched by cancer. It has been described as a “huge compassionate support group” – a place where friends, family and loved ones join to celebrate survivorship and to honor those who have lost the battle. Relay For Life involves teams of 5-15 people who take turns walking or running around a track all night long. A party-like atmosphere prevails as team members camp out on the surrounding grounds for the duration of the event to enjoy music, food, fun, entertainment and activities while building camaraderie with fellow teammates and participants. Money is raised through team commitment fees and goal of $100 average team member, secured from family, friends, companies or corporations.

WHEN: July 14th and July 15th 2006
6:00 P.M. – 6:00 A.M.

WHERE: College of St. Scholastica, Kenwood Avenue, Duluth, MN -In front of Science Building

WHO: Everyone is welcome! All interested in the cause join teams of individuals representing clubs, corporations, organizations, neighborhoods and families at this fun, community-oriented event.

HISTORY: Relay For Life was the idea of Gordon Klatt, M.D. In 1985, Dr. Klatt ran and walked for 24-hours on a track in Tacoma, Washington, traveling about 81 miles and raising $27,000 for the American Cancer Society. From there, Relay For Life was born and is now held nationwide. Over $20 million was raised at 372 Relay For Life events held in the Midwest Division alone in 2000-2001.

WHY: The money raised helps support American Cancer Society programs in research, education, advocacy, and service – locally, statewide and nationally.

BENEFITS: Great community exposure. Opportunity to be a community leader. Terrific group outing. Raise money for a good cause. From the opening lap, led by the cancer survivors, to the emotional candle-lighting ceremony, through the triumphant final lap, Relay For Life is something participants will always remember!
HIGHLIGHTS:

SURVIVORS
VICTORY LAP: Cancer survivors from around the community are invited to take a victory lap and be cheered on by fellow participants. This is a true celebration of their courageous battle.

LUMINARIA
CEREMONY: A candlelight ceremony that pays tribute to those who have been affected by cancer. Luminaries are purchased in honor of those who have survived their battle with cancer, for those still fighting, and in memory of those who have courageously battled this disease, but lost. The Luminarias are kept burning throughout the night to represent the healing power of community and the importance of funding to find a cure.

WHY: The money raised helps support American Cancer Society programs in research, education, advocacy, and service – locally, statewide and nationally.

BENEFITS: Great community exposure. Opportunity to be a community leader. Terrific group outing. Raise money for a good cause. From the opening lap, led by the cancer survivors, to the emotional candle-lighting ceremony, through the triumphant final lap, Relay For Life is something participants will always remember!

For more information: Call Linda at 888-727-7439
See event on line – register, donate: www.acsevents.org/relay/mn/duluth

Farm House Part II: Kitchen - Our Mother's Dream

Ever since I could remember, my Mother would say that someday she wanted to tear the wall out between the kitchen and the summer kitchen, enlarge the kitchen and remodel. It was her dream. It was the only dream I ever heard her talk about in regard to the house. I think this is because my Mother was always in the kitchen, cooking, cooking and cooking! With 6 mouths to feed and a hungry farmer, you can understand that the kitchen was her main focus. There was never any money to see such a dream come true in my growing up years.

However, the time did come; I believe it was in the early 80’s that Mom saw her dream realized. Her Mother passed away, and between the small inheritance she received from Grandma and a second mortgage on the farm, those walls did get torn down, the kitchen was enlarged, and Mom got her beautiful new kitchen. I thought it interesting, that they built an addition at the same time to make another “summer” kitchen. The wood stove went into the summer kitchen, along with the deep freeze, the old kitchen cupboards and a stainless steel sink. The idea was so that when she would do canning in the summer and cut up meat from butchering, that they could have the summer kitchen for those activities, and save the mess from the main kitchen. It was a good to have the outer "summer" kitchen.

They put a beautiful stone fireplace with a mantel in the new kitchen/family room. It had an insert for wood burning, again, to save on heating costs of the oil furnace. The year the kitchen was finished, us kids went together at Christmas and bought a “grandfather” clock for the mantel. The kitchen was big, so that our old fashioned large wood kitchen table that was handed down from Mom’s Mother (Grandma G.) would fit in, along with a large “work island”. Our brother Tim inherited the table. Mom finally had more cupboards, a good working kitchen, even a dishwasher, and lots of space. On the side of the kitchen that had the fireplace, they placed a loveseat and some other furniture that used to be Grandma G’s. So, in addition to the kitchen they had a lovely family room. What a difference from the old kitchen.

Our Grandma G. (Mom’s Mother), was an excellent homemaker, and kept her house perfect all the time. She would often come down and spend a morning or afternoon helping my Mother clean the kitchen. She would enlist my help, and then after everything in the kitchen was spic and span, she would say to me “Now, Linda, we have this cleaned well, you must help your Mother to keep it this way”. Mom was always so busy with working part time at the Dr.’s office, raising us 6 kids and helping Dad on the farm. She milked the cows, gathered the eggs, did all the egg washing (there was a machine that we put a basket of eggs in, sort of like a dishwasher, one basket at a time), and she graded all the eggs on the machine we called “the egg grader”, it weighed each egg one at a time, so they could be packed in the proper size cartons. She always had a breakfast, lunch and supper for all of us, no matter how busy she was. Meal time, feeding her family, was the number one priority my Mother had. With cooking and all of these chores, it was difficult for her to keep up on cleaning the house. Us kids were supposed to help keep it neat, but you know how kids are. It was my job to help keep the house clean, but again, as a kid, sometimes I cleaned well, other times I didn’t. I always washed the dishes, guess that was the thing that I thought was the most important. Once in a while, I’d get ambitious and clean off a counter, or some other sort of cleaning. Not having the house neat and as clean as she thought it should be drove my Grandma G. crazy, which is why she would often come down to help out. But, while it drove Grandma crazy, it didn’t make Mom crazy. She knew she had too many other things to do that were more important. If I knew company was coming, I’d scurry around and clean then…and I’d get nervous about what people might think…but not Mom. Her famous saying was “They are coming to see us, not the house”, another saying was “we live in our house, it’s not meant to be a show case.” Mother and Dad were never ones that tried to “impress” anyone or worried about what other people thought!

My three younger siblings were in junior and senior high when the addition and kitchen was built, us three older ones, were gone from home and grown up. We used to always comment how nice it would have been if Mom’s dream had happened when all six of us were there. She never said that though, because she was so grateful to finally see her dream realized. One thing she did regret though, was that her Mother was not there to see her new kitchen. We always commented how happy Grandma G. would have been for Mother. And we were all grateful that it was because of Grandma G. that it became a reality. We like to think though, that Grandma G. (Gochnauer) did know!

The Farm House

My Parents and me-in front of house
The farm house is made of a brown stone, quarried from the area. It was built before the Revolutionary War. Many farm houses during that time were built with the same stone.
Someone told my brother that a group of slave laborers went around our county from the South and built these houses. I don’t know if that’s accurate, but we think it may be a possibility.

We’ve been told that its first owner was the first superintendent of the church circuit in that area. It was in the wilderness at the time and periodically he would have to call the militia in York (about 25 miles away) to come and fight the Indians. My Father found a lot of arrowheads on the land, so it’s probably true. We can see the place on the one end of the house, where the there was the usual outdoor fireplace used to cook during the summer. The smokehouse still sets, where hams were hung and stored. Next to it is the woodhouse, to store the wood. It was still in use when I was growing up. There was a “summer” kitchen attached to kitchen, which was an addition to the stone portion of the house, added sometime later. One of the rooms in the stone portion of the house had to be the kitchen, because the hearth is still there, with wood cabinets floor to ceiling next to it. We never used it as a kitchen, because by the time my parents lived there, a kitchen addition has been added to the stone portion of the house. I will write about that kitchen in another post. (When I find a good photo of the house and get it scanned, I will post it).

Next to that room would have been the “parlor”, where guests were entertained, and then there is a living room and dining room. In the front off of the parlor and living room is a porch with two doors, on to each room, and nice white railing. There are three very large bedrooms upstairs, with a wood stairway to the top floor. One of the rooms still has the wooden rails on one of the walls with hooks, where they hung their clothes. Only one bedroom had a closet, and the closet is very small. (I wonder how that room rated, to get a closet?) In earlier days, when these houses were built, people did not have the number of clothes that we have today.

My parents lived there a few years before putting in a bathroom. Part of one of the larger bedrooms was taken to make a small bath. I remember going to the outhouse when I was young. The bathroom was added when I was about 6, so I don’t think my siblings remember that, I remember them building the bathroom. My Uncle John (Mom’s brother) was a carpenter and he put it in for Mom and Dad. One unusual thing they did was put in two sinks (in those days they didn’t have vanities with the sinks). On sink had a small basin, and was lower to the floor. It was for us children, so we could reach better. Wasn’t that thoughtful of them! When I was growing up, and even later, I never was in a bathroom that had a children’s sink! Later when all of us were grown up, they took the small sink out and built a linen closet in its place. The bathroom was the only room that had a radiator for heat, the bedrooms depended on floor registers for the heat to rise from below. During the winter months, it would be so cold in the mornings, that I would take my clothing and go into the bathroom and sit on the register to get dressed. When I was real young, I remember, every Saturday night my Dad would stand by the large sink and shave, with the radio on the windowsill tuned to the radio show “The Lone Ranger”.

I don’t know what year a furnace was added, but I remember it being done. The furnace was put in the room that had the fireplace hearth, next to the “parlor”. I also remember when aluminum storm windows were added to all the windows.

When Mom and Dad first lived there, there was no inside water. I was pretty little, but can still remember the “well driller” equipment in the front yard, drilling for water.

One of my Dad’s sisters, Aunt Sara told me that when she was a little girl, she played with the daughter of the people that owned the farm before my Dad owned it. She said that the house was her “dream house”. She loved the deep window sills, the hearth and the cabinets and the floors. As a child, she loved to be in the house and wished someday that she could live there. She told me this after Mother passed away, and asked what would happen to the farm. She was delighted to know that the farm was staying in the family and that my brother would be buying the house and fixing it.

Dad bought the farm before he was married, and rented the house. She told me that she did get to spend time living there in her teen years. Her younger siblings got typhoid fever or some communicable illness (she can’t remember what) and she did not get it, so the Dr. told her Mother to get her out of the house so she wouldn’t get sick. The cousin and his wife that rented from Dad, (Ernest and Mildred) let her live with them and she helped them with chores, and because they liked having her there, she stayed for a long while with them. She told me the house was so beautiful and they kept it so nice. She said that the floors were the wide planks of wood and that Ernest had them varnished so that they had a high gloss. She sure loved those floors.

My Dad was retired for over 20 years before he passed away, and in those retirement years, he and Mom did not have the money to keep the house maintained in the way it should have been. Our family is very happy now that our brother Tim has purchased the house and has already starting making improvements. Aunt Sara and all my aunts and uncles will also be happy!