aunt elizabeth
Uncle Mahlon’s Story (part 5)
I did not know any of my siblings really well. They were all far enough apart, but I do remember some specific memories of a few. From oldest to youngest they are: Elizabeth, Lillian (Sis), Bud (Earhart), Felix, Marjorie, Vernon, Beatrice, Me, Cleopha, Lolly, Naomi, and Lloyd.
I remembers Elizabeth cleaned the house and took care of the siblings because she was the oldest. Once she moved to Saint Louis, Missouri, Elizabeth did the same things for other people as well. Elizabeth was grown up and moved out before I was born.
I remembered a time with Vernon when a neighbor gave a horse drawn wagon load of apples to our family. The apples were either bought or picked. To keep the apples fresh for a longer period of time, we had to dig a hole then line and cover the bottom with straw. After the straw, the hole was lined with tarpaper to waterproof it. Straw was then put on top of the tarpaper. When someone wanted an apple out of the hole you had to dig another hole to get back in, grab an apple, and then cover the hole back up with the dirt. Because of this system with the tarpaper and straw, the apples would not freeze, but would be kept fresh. Anytime work was done like this there were never tractors, but rather horses with manual plows.
I remembers Felix and Bud worked in the Civilian Conservation Core (CCC). This was a government program for boys who worked on rocks, bridges, and around cemeteries. The boys were allowed to keep half and the other half went to the boy’s parents.
Speaking of Tobacco
Photo Friday
What good looking girls…
Photo Friday
This is an image from Aunt Naomi’s photo album, but I don’t know anything else about it. Can you fill in the gaps?
Uncle Vernon’s Story (part 12)
We were very poor while at Selma’s. It it hadn’t been for Elizabeth and Justin bringing groceries out for us, we would have been in bad shape. Bud sent money for Margie and I to buy school clothes. I wore Daddy’s wedding pants to Walther League meetings at Honey Creek. Ha! I was always a big boy with big feet, so Bud and Felix always kept me in good shoes (army shoes) they got from the CCC camps.
The Ford truck that we used for about five years didn’t have much power when we went from Schubert to visit the Honey Creek folks. We put two farm wagon seats in the back of the truck and we would ride back there. When we got to the Honey Creek hill, the truck could not make it up, so we all had to get out and push…when it would stop or stall, we had to block the wheel so it wouldn’t roll back down the hill. I finished up the 8th grade at Honey Creek.