Once Aunt Tilly, Mom’s sister, took Selma on a vacation trip. So grandma would not be alone she picked 3 of her grandchildren to stay the week with her. Gladys Erhardt was the older, 5 years, Morris Fisher was next and then myself, Lillian Sommerer. I might have been 8 years old, we did all the things Selma slways did and we had such fun together, even the work. I remember scrubbing grandmas kitchen floor, she told me how. I was so proud how pretty and clean it looked. We got to pull water up from Grandpa’s well with a bucket on a rope. One day after everything was clean and in place she had us light the lantern and then told Morris to go into the closet and open the trap door and put the lantern down and find the red iron strong box and lift it up, then she opened it with a key and took out $5.00. The box was put back and the trap door was closed. Then she sent the three of us to the waterfall pasture to play till she rang the dinner bell for us. She had invited Pastor Bultman to come and give her Holy Communion as she couldn’t walk well enough to enjoy the privilege in Church. I’ll never forget that, it’s stapled on my heart, that being able to take Holy communion is a most blessed thing one can do! I loved my Grandmother so much, what a joyful time Gladys, Morris and I had.
Sommerer Family Website
Good enough for who it's for
I love these stories about my grandparents. They are especially precious since I did not know any of them. I think they had all passed before I was born.
I wonder if there is anyone in our family alive who remembers our grandparents. It would be nice to hear more stories like this.
We missed out on a lot by not having grandparents in our lives! I like to think that Aunt Nora and Aunt Dora,Uncle Henry and Uncle Theodor were kind of like grandparents, They were so good to us. The first thing I would do as a child, after church was over, and everyone was outside visiting, was to find Aunts Nora and Dora, throw my arms around them and getting loved right back from them. It was wonderful. They were special people. Aunt Yetta was also there for a big hug. We didn’t know her that well, but knew she was Daddy’s sister. and that ment she was to be respected and loved too. Lillian writes so beautifully. Her daughter Mary takes after her in that way. Vernon do you remember our Grandparents? Wish you had a computer.
Our grandmas were gone by now, 1935. I can remember Grandpa Sommerer at Schuberts. He had a bedroom in the west part of the house. I pestered him to play with me but he was carving an axe handle. I wanted Ring around the rosy – sometime shortly after that he died. We had the wake at home I think. Mom was standing in the kitchen looking out the door and watching the cars come by to go to the funeral at Honey Creek. Mom was very pregnant and in a very short time Cleo was born on March 15, 1935. I just barely remember him. I was two years old would have been three in Dec and this was March 1935.
So….Margie, Vernon, and Bea should have some memory of some of them.
I called Grandma Margie to ask what she remembers of her grandparents. This is what she said:
She remembers visiting her mom’s parents. She thinks she was 4 and Vernon was 3. They had to sit in chairs the whole time they were there, and they weren’t allowed to get up and play. Grandma and Grandpa were old and they sat in rocking chairs. They spent their time in the dining room instead of the living room, but rooms in those old houses were big.
She thinks the reason they visited was to show off baby Bea.
We heard many times growing up, that children should be seen but not heard.
I remember having to sit in a chair when the folks went to visit people. I think it is a wonderful idea!!! (tongue in cheek)