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….