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aunt naomi

Aunt Lolly’s Story (part 11)

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When I was small, I spent many hours sitting on Daddy’s lap combing his hair. He had lots of patience and endured a lot. He taught us to play blind pitch, and then regular pitch. He played the harmonica and I played my drum sitting by the old wood stove in the wintertime.

On cold winter weekend nights, we would run upstairs where the peanuts and popcorn were laid out to dry on papers on the floor, dip up a big pan of peanuts and grab ears of popcorn and take them to the kitchen. We put the peanuts in the oven to bake and shelled the popcorn. We would pop a big dishpan of popcorn. Then Mahlon, Cleo, Naomi and I would play cards or Monopoly till midnight.

Aunt Naomi’s Story (Part 36)

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Mother had a way with flowers of all kinds.  We had seven sister roses in an arch over the garden gate and the front gate for a while (the gate on the deck).  She had flowers all around the entire farmhouse and around at least one half the yard fence.  In addition, she had other flower beds and flowering bushes she cared for.  The seven sister roses always meant a lot to me as we were seven sisters at home.  Mother was also one of seven sisters. Mother had daddy build a grape arbor over the old well.  It was wonderful to sit under and eat grapes.  The old well is still there, covered by rocks.  I dropped my 10-cent ring in it one time to see if it would come back up when I pumped the handle.  It did not.

The barn had about 10 stations to chain the cows and keep them in place when being milked.  It had a wide concrete hallway and three divisions for horses.  There was a storage room and the barn loft was always full of sweet smelling hay (except when it was full of tobacco).  At the rear of the barn was a lean to that housed the bull and had another area for cows.  Behind this was the silo.  It was an exciting time when the silo was built.  We enjoyed climbing up the outside.  We had to throw the silage down a chute and then transport it to each cow’s station so they could be fed.

Aunt Naomi’s Story (Part 35)

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There were cows to be milked.  We had to feed them silage in the winter from the silo.  There were chickens to be fed.  We kept corn (which we shelled with a corn sheller) and oats in the granary for them.  The granary was part of the machine shed.  This is also where the big molasses boiling vat was stored when not used.  Daddy’s tools were kept there until later on he moved them into the smokehouse.

The smokehouse was used for hanging and curing meat but also used as a storage area for canning jars and other household supplies such as wash tubs and tub rack, garden tools, shoe lass, boiler, hand plows, ladders and butter churns.  Later on, it housed the one of the freezers and became a collection point for old newspapers etc.  It had a loft that had Uncle Herbert’s old wheelchair and many other wondrous items.  We were always attacked by wasps when we tried to go up there.  Onions were hung to dry in the smokehouse.  The cellar was under the smokehouse.  Entrance to the cellar was through double doors that lay on the ground but slanted upward touching the smokehouse.  They were not quite steep enough to “slide down.”  Our house had no basement, so the cellar was our place of refuge in case there was ever a tornado.  Only one time that I can remember, did we have to prepare to go to the cellar.  We stood by the kitchen door, ready to go, but we didn’t have to go after all.  A bad storm did blow over a chicken brooder house that we were using for a house for the calves on the north side of the yard.  It was destroyed but the calves were not harmed.  Mother later planted a flower garden on that spot because of the rich soil (manure) and she had beautiful cockscombs and zinnias and it was truly lovely.

Aunt Naomi’s Story (Part 34 -Grandma’s House)

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The house was purchased from Stressnors.  Mom and daddy purchased it in 1941 (I think), just less than a year after I was born.  When the house was built (I don’t know how old it was when we moved there), a huge steamer trunk was put in one of the second floor bedrooms.  The house was completed, and the trunk was there.  There is no way to get it out now, because it will not fit through any door or window.  The house must be 100 years old plus and it’s hard telling how old the trunk is.  The house has no basement.  It is a large rectangle with a hall running through the middle from the front porch to the back porch.  The stairs in the hall leads to two large bedrooms.   Downstairs, the appendage off of the living room is the kitchen.  The kitchen has a door going out to the porch and a door going out to the garden/smokehouse area.  Under the stairs is a storage area and there is an attic above the kitchen.  There is more attic above the two upstairs bedrooms, with access in the upstairs hall.  We didn’t use it much because it was too hard to get to.  The front porch had railings and gingerbread decoration.  It was my favorite place on the structure.  The front door had a window in it, but every other door in the house was solid, panel wood.  All the woodwork in the house was turned and very beautiful.  The banister to the stairs and the stair railing also are beautiful turned spindles.  The kitchen had a kitchen wood-burning stove.  There was no running water.  We carried water from the cistern which was attached to the back porch.  We had an oak water bucket which we all drank from with the same dipper. The water in the cistern (rain water) collected each time it rained from the roof and into the gutters, then into the cistern…bird poop, sticks, bugs and all…we were healthy as can be, but I think this water, having no minerals like well water, was the reason us last 5 or 6 kids had such bad teeth. I remember only one time that we had failed to get enough rain that we had to haul water from somewhere.

The kitchen had an oak china cabinet (daddy’s wedding gift to mom), an oak round table and chairs and the sink was used but had to be drained outside on the ground.  So we used a dishpan to wash dishes.  We had a slop bucket to put liquid and other garbage in.  This was carried out to the chickens and pigs (when we had pigs) every evening.  Mother and daddy’s bedroom had a huge walnut wardrobe and chest of drawers.  The other downstairs room was used as a living area or dining area interchanged as desired, and sometimes the rooms were switched and the bedroom was used for the living room and the bedroom was just off the kitchen. I think the weather of the seasons may have been the reason for this.

Aunt Naomi’s Story (Part 33)

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Bea taught me to tell time when I was small.  I remember her setting with me for hours trying to get it through my head.  She was patient!  On the big rocks on the road to Route H, she was waiting for a ride, and I was waiting with her. She had a fork and combed my hair with a fork. Such imagination!

When I was about 6 or so Cleo went to Jeff City to live with Cousin Freida.  She went to school there for a while and then came back home and went to Eugene.  It was kind of dull without her at home. I remember one evening Cleo had been babysitting in Jefferson City and the family drove her home.  It had rained and the road was muddy.  The family’s vehicle got stuck and daddy had to pull him out with the tractor.  It was good that we had a tractor.  Many years before we relied on old Bert, Sally and Black Beauty! My love of singing came from singing with my sisters.  I will always remember how proud I was when I first “heard” the harmony singing “Long, Long Ago.”  We always sang no matter what we were doing, washing dishes, sweeping, hoeing in the garden…. etc.  Cleo was always very resourceful and could get things done. I’ll never forget the mental picture of her grabbing the frying pan that was on fire and throwing it out the door so the house wouldn’t catch fire. She was very generous and thanks to her, Lolly and I had nice clothes to wear, both new and hand-me-downs. Hand-me-downs were like new to us.  She gave us new clothes for Christmas, too.  One year she gave Lolly and I each a beautiful store-bought skirt and sweater. We were so happy!  But old or new, we were always glad to have anything!

I barely remember the siblings from Vernon on up, because they were gone from home when I was very young.  It was always a celebration when they came home.  For sure it was always, make homemade ice cream, have a wiener roast in the barn yard and corn on the cob.  Mother would always make their favorite desserts!

Aunt Naomi’s Story (Part 27)

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When I was in the 8th grade, my friend, Betty, was getting a wrist watch for graduation.  She and I were the only girls in our class of six.  I felt I would be forever humiliated if I did not get a watch for graduation too.  I knew I would not get one from my parents.  Lloyd and I were selling seeds that spring.  I don’t remember how, but somehow I talked him into letting me have the prize for selling seeds, a watch.

I first met my friend, Betty, when we were very small.  We had driven to the Englebrechts for something.  Their house set across a ravine you had to drive down.  Daddy didn’t think our car would make it down and up the steep ravine, so he walked over and we stayed in the car.  All of these cute little curly-headed girls came out of the house.  I was just fascinated seeing so many little girls of all sizes with curly heads, both blond and brunette.  They had Arlene, Betty, Bernice, Loretta, Mary, Norma and another that came later and one boy, Harlan.  I was always very envious of these girls.  Every Easter they got new coats and they came to church looking like paper dolls.