Today’s Photo Friday pictures are from Aunt Cleo. She mailed the photos to me, I scanned them and mailed them back to her. Here they are for you. Aunt Cleo said that the writing on the back of the photos was Aunt Margie’s, so that’s where the names come from.
What, no name for the horse? (or is that a mule?)
The mule’s name was ole Bert, He was a good old mule. Hello everyone! We just got back from Branson. Had a good time with Uncle Mahlon and Aunt Marylynn. Got to see Joshua last Sunday! He flew into St.Louis Sunday morning. Vincent picked him up at the airport. We stopped by Davids Sunday evening,on our way to Branson, and got to visit with him a short while. Katie, called this evening, from college. It was good hearing from her too, She is doing well. Vincent is playing football, we got to see him play a few weeks ago. We were so proud of him. Lance and chance are playing baseball for Calvary. We get to see them play once in a while. They make us proud also. I feel like we have been gone forever, and I just have to talk to all of you. I love you all!!!!! I love the pictures Cleo, Thanks for sharing
I cant get over how barren the yard looks. I guess all those beautiful bushes and flowers hadn’t been planted yet. Probably spent all their energy on the garden. Hey I can see where the bathroom will be build several years ahead! So I know where you went to the bathroom…but inquiring minds want to know where was your bath tub? Oh and how much trouble was it to get warm water? did you have to heat it on the stove first! When our water heater went out I had to do that….took forever to get enough water warm! Wow you all had it tough!
The older Aunts and Uncles had plenty of babies around all the time but the younger ones didn’t have babes underfoot all the time until the grandchildren came to visit…And I realize now that the older (1st) grandchildren must have had a totally different experience at grandmas than us younger ones!
I cant get over how much Sarah and my mom look alike!
For a shower, Mahlon says I took a bucket with a calf nipple on it and cut a hole in the nipple about half as round as a pencil and at noon I’d fill the bucket with water and set it in the sun. At bedtime I’d hang the bucket on the front porch on a hook that is still there and take the plug out of the nipple and with that three gallons of water I’d shower, wash my hair with Grandma’s lye soap and rinse off and be ready for bed. Now that’s conserving water.
What did you do in the winter time? You didn’t get quite as dirty so you only bathed on Saturday night so you’d be ready to go to church on Sunday morning. The laundry tub was filled half full and set on the wood cookstove stove to warm the water. We’d take it off and set it on the floor when the water was warm. The little kids bathed first and by the time I got my bath the lye soap had dissolved and looked like clabbered milk floating on the water. At least four kids took their bath in the same water but not all in the tub at once. We got water poured over our heads to rinse us off.. All the hot water was heated in a reservoir on the back of the cookstove.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen pictures of the house without the living room and the bathroom.
Look at that wood pile. I wonder who chopped that! I’m sure glad I didn’t have to load that!
I forgot to ask who the Mary is on the horse (it was a mule) with Aunt Lolly.
I think it was Lillian’s daughter, Mary Pamela.
Vernon and Mahlon probably cut all that wood to make the wood pile. It was great fun for Naomi,Lloyd and I too get on top of the woodpiles and dig us out a big deep hole, that was our play house or fort! They never fussed at us for digging those holes! That was great fun.
Just got back from Overland Park, KS to visit with Tracy and Tiffany. I took a Honda load of their things (attic stored items) up to them. Tiffany and I tiled and grouted two end table tops and the turned out real pretty. I’m so thankful we had neices and nephews our age when we were young. When they came home, that was the highlight of our lives! I barely remember old Bert, but well remember the woodpile fun playing on it and carrying wood in for the heating and cooking stoves. That job mostly fell to the smaller kids. I remember the shower bucket Mahlon made too. He was the “inventor” in the family. (end)
I have a question for everybody:
Vernon quoted Grandma, who said: “I will raise kids, and when I get done raising kids, I will raise flowers.”
What all all kinds of flowers did Grandma have, and where were they located?
Another topic for fun:
Who has a good story of something that happened in the barn?
Ron wants to know why barns have pigeon coops.
Grandma had flowers and flowering bushes surrounding her house. Also along the fence that went from the outhouse to the front yard. Iris’ were along the fence along with some young walnut trees. I remember her zenias , the most, they were always along the back of the house.There were more flowers on each side of the cellar. then there was a rose bush in the back yard( good hiding place for hide and seek) and a hugh bed of tiger lillys behing the rosebush and bordering the garden. She had a yucca by the entrance to the garden. she had mint in the orchard growing along the fence. It was a magical place!
Hollyhocks were along the entire east side of the house. I remember the south fence yard having those orange lilys (we made straws out of the dried stems because they were hollow). Before the new room was enclosed on the west side, there were blue morning glories that climbed up to the roof…beautiful! She had some Gladiolas for a while on the south fence. Besides the rose bush and a few harvest bell bushes, I don’t know the names of the other things she had.
Orient me, please. The back kitchn door going to the vegetable garden was WHICH direction?
We need a drafter or architect or something in the family to draw out Grandma’s house. Then we can fill in the flowers.
I always thought of the sides of Grandma’s house as Front, Orchard, Garden, Pasture. But some people call Orchard the front, because it was the actual front of the house.
I know that always confused me too! T)o me it is the side (orchard side
That kitchen door that you mentioned ,Mary Jane, Went out to the garden and the celler and the toilet and it was on the east side of the house like lolly mentioned. The group of flowers, the rose bush the day lillies and what ever that was in the yard that you mentioned, that we played around also had a yucca plant which mother didnt like. I didnt like it either so one year I tried to dig it out. I dug 3 feet down and filled the hole up and the next year it came back. You cant kill them. There was a tree in that side of the yard that gave us wonderful shade. We would do a lot of the preperation of the vegetables in the shade, like shelling peas, preparing the green beans for canning. The kitchen was very hot with the fire for canning. Sometimes we would eat out side in the summertime under that tree.
This is a story about (our great inventor) Mahlon. I remember those who milked at the time,carrying the milk in cans from the barn to be placed into a barrel of water that sat by the old well pump. It was my job to fill the barrel with fresh cold well water. Those cans weighed a lot! Mahlon found two wheels from somewhere??? They were large metal wheels, he built a wonderful two wheel wagon, that he called his hoodlin wagon. It was built so well and large enough to put all the milk cans on, We didn’t have to carry the milk cans anymore. I wonder if that hoodlin wagon is still on the farm! Lloyd is it still down there? One time He carried large medal poles home from school, and made us a swing. What a brother!!
The garden was east, the barn west, the front of the house, Orchard was north, and the south went over to cousin Alvins.
Hollyhocks and rose of Sharon bush flowers made hats for the cats! I’d pick off the bloom then pinch out the center then set it on their heads!
The poor cats don’t have anyone who will make them hats anymore! We should talk Uncle Lloyd into having an Autumn bonfire and cookout on the farm next year! Not in the farm house because the power isn’t on anymore, but we could do a bonfire in the circle driveway and roast hot dogs and SING!
If you all have the cookout at the farm, I’ll bring the smores fixin’s…chocolate bars, marshmallows and graham crackers. That would be SO much fun…bring back such good memories.
We won’t do anything until next fall, when I will be there to bully, I mean help organize things!
I think Cleo’s shoes are so cute! I guess fashions don’t really change that much.