My Memoirs
My earliest memories are of South Street, Blandford Massachusetts where I was born August 3, 1907, one of 13 children all born at home. Wallace, Emily, Elmer, Florence, Leslie, Frederick, Esther, Elbert, Herbert, Hubert, Marion, Leon, Kenneth. Herbert and Hubert were twins. As of this writing, May 1996 there are three living. Elmer is 99, Marion is 81, I, Esther am 88.
It was a small farm, house, barn, shed, 2 hen houses, chickens, a pair of horses, cow, 2 piglets bought in the Spring, a Bartlet pear tree, 2 plum trees, cultivated raspberries and blackberries. We walked to North St. with 10 qt. pails for wild blueberries.
It was a small farm, house, barn, shed, 2 hen houses, chickens, a pair of horses, cow, 2 piglets bought in the Spring, a Bartlet pear tree, 2 plum trees, cultivated raspberries and blackberries. We walked to North St. with 10 qt. pails for wild blueberries.
The South Street House. Mama (Ella Hart) holding Elmer. Woman holding cat is Laura Bell.
The house had 6 rooms downstairs. Two were bedrooms, 3 bedrooms upstairs. Parlor, dining room, kitchen, a pantry off the kitchen with shelves for dishes, lower cupboards for pots and pans, a shelf in front of the window where mama stood to do the baking. A flour barrel under that shelf. Flour was bought by the half barrel. Mama made 5 loaves of bread at a time. She made everything we ate. Pies, cookies, doughnuts, brown bread, Johnnycake. There were times she made quick biscuits. I can't call them baking powder biscuits because mama said baking powder makes things taste bitter. She always used cream of tarter and baking soda.
Many breakfasts were boiled potatoes and crisp fried salt pork, most of the fat taken from the pan, milk and fresh sage leaves added, thickened a little to make gravy, and hot biscuits. Was that good! Sage grew out back of the barn. It was good fresh or dried. Mama always dried some for winter use. She also used it dried for stuffing or gravy.
Our Saturday night supper was baked beans, warm bread with home made butter, pickles, sauce and cake.
From the end of the kitchen a long hall led to the outhouse on back house. There were three holes, large, medium and small, a hinged cover to put down after one had done his duty. The old Sears Roebuck catalogue was very useful, and lasted a long time. I had never heard of real toilet paper. A long galvanized can slid under the three holes. A sanitary wagon came and exchanged a clean one for the used one. We called it, 'the Honey Wagon'.
Later a dining room was added to the long hall to the front of the kitchen. There was no cellar under that. We ate in the dining room in the summer and stored food in there in the winter.
Summer there was an ice box on the kitchen porch, a cake of ice put in the top. Ralph Hayden had an ice pond. In the winter when the ice was frozen to a certain depth, it was sawed in large cakes, packed in the ice house with sawdust that kept it frozen all summer.
A pump in a well across the driveway was our water supply. A sink in the kitchen, a shelf that held 2 pails of water. An enamel dipper in one, an enamel wash basin in the sink. Always some water left in a pail just in case the water had gone back down into the well and needed to be primed to start the water running again. In the winter when all that was needed had been pumped, the handle was lifted to let the water back in to the well so the pipe didn't freeze.
Monday was usually wash day. Many pails of water were brought in. A boiler covered 2 burners of the wood burning stove. P&G white naphtha soap was shaved and dissolved in hot water, added to the boiler before the white clothes were put in. There was a front and back door in the kitchen for a breeze from the Locust tree to circulate through. There were five Maple trees on the edge of the front lawn. There was no lawn mower. Papa cut the grass with a scythe 2 or 3 times in the summer.
The hay loft was filled. I would dig a hole in the hay almost to my elbow and put green pears in there to ripen faster. Sometimes I would forget where I dug the hole and never find the pears.
There was always a big garden. We canned fruits and vegetables all summer. In the fall, some vegetables were put in the cellar fresh. Cabbage, turnips, squash, a bin full of potatoes. The cellar was dirt bottom and very cool.
My brother picked up apples for a keg of cider. When the cider turned hard it was left to make vinegar.
Pickles were made, sweet and sour. Cucumbers were put in a crock jar whole, with a little sugar, salt and spices, covered with vinegar. Mama also pickled red cabbage, cut in quarters, parboiled a few minutes, put in a crock with spices, sugar and salt, covered with vinegar.
When a pig was butchered, the pieces for salt pork were packed in a crock layered with rock salt covered with water, a plate turned upside down and a heavy stone on top of the plate to hold it down. Every so often the plate was lifted, if no salt was seen, more was added. This was repeated until salt was seen, then no more was needed. My father put the hams and pieces for bacon in a salt brine for a while, then smoked them with corn cobs. Mama made the sausage, ground the meat, seasoned it, sage went into that, packed it in round cloth bags she had stitched on the machine from an old sheet. So good!
Papa worked out most of the time with his horses. Sometimes scraping the town roads. They were dirt roads. The stones needed scraping off after the frost came out of the road.
Many times in the winter the Selectmen would ask papa to break out South St. road. He chained a big log to the side of his wood shod sled, went up and back a couple of times to widen the street. No automobiles were traveling South St. at that time.
Winters were long and cold. We had all the diseases. With measles we were kept in the dark, chicken pox we couldn't scratch, we were bathed in baking soda in the water. For sore throat, salt pork on a flannel cloth, sprinkled with salt and pepper, warmed in the oven, put around the throat. We all had ear aches, tooth aches, colds, jaundice, pink eye. It took a while from the time the first one had whatever to the last one. (there were 13 children in the family)
The boys cut a Christmas tree. There was some shabby leftover tinsel from the years before and colored balls. I sewed chains of pop corn, made chains of colored paper. The night before Christmas we hung our stockings. We dressed warm, with blankets and hot soap stones, we were packed on the wood shod (because that would hold all of us) went to the Baptist Church in the center of town to the entertainment and Christmas tree. I recited a poem. After the entertainment each child was given a gift and a box of candy. My name was almost always the last to be called. It was a cold ride home. We were too cold and sleepy to care.
The next morning Santa had been there. There was an orange in the top of our stocking, the only orange we had all year. I had a doll, Old Maid game, a linen nursery rhyme book, coloring book and crayons, later years it was paints. Then there was the Christmas I had a doll carriage and doll. Aunt Daisy, my mother's sister said she was getting a doll carriage for Evelyn, mama should get one for me. Evelyn was my cousin, a few months older than I. They lived near by. We played together all the time. So mama bought me the doll and carriage. Spring came Evelyn and I walked with our doll carriage up and down the road to her house and mine. Herbert found it a lot of fun to race around the yard with the carriage. I would yell at him to leave it alone. Mama stopped him for a while, then he was right at it again. After the second year, the carriage broke down. Herbert put the 4 wheels on to a board, a rope on the front and raced around the yard with that.
Winter evenings we played games, the boys had dominoes, marble games and cards. Sometimes we had pop corn and cider. I didn't like cider.
I would sit on my father's lap and ask him to sing to me. He sang songs I had never heard before or since.
Three bedrooms upstairs. The only heat upstairs was a register in the floor in one bedroom. Soap stones and flat irons were put on the back on the kitchen stove to get hot, wrapped in towels, put in the beds a while before we went up. It was really cold up there. There were quilts to keep us warm. We dressed downstairs by the stove. There were three wood burning stoves, kitchen, living room and parlor. It took a lot of wood to keep 3 stoves going. George Hall cut wood for us. He would stay with us for weeks. Papa had a saw with a motor to cut the long sticks to stove length. The sticks were thrown in a pile as they were sawed off. If the boys weren't around I liked to do that.
The telephone was rather a large box on the wall. The mouthpiece on an arm about in the center of the box could be moved up or down according to height. The receiver was on a wire to be taken from a hook on the side to be put to the ear. Our number was 8 ring 12. Line 8 to ring 12 was one long ring, 2 short ones. A little crank on the other side to turn to call the operator, or if you wanted t call someone on the same line. For example if I wanted to ring 8 ring 11, I would pick up the receiver to see if the line was busy. If no one was talking, I would hang up the receiver, ring one long ring, one short ring then pick up the receiver. Any one on the line could listen in and usually did. There were private lines, they cost more.
My father's brother Elbert had an ice cream and candy store in Brooklyn, NY 262 5th Avenue. He made all the ice cream and candy. He thought mama and papa could make their fortune making ice cream. He had the 5 gallon cans and tubs shipped to them. He came to show them how to make it. My mother's brother, Percy, had Jersey cows. Jersey cows gave very rich milk. The milk and cream was bought from them. It was turned by the motor my father used to saw the wood. All ingredients were put in the can and turned. When the cover was taken off it was all sweet vanilla butter. I think it was the third try before the cream was cut down enough and replaced by milk to have it come out right. They made and sold quite a lot of ice cream; vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, pineapple and peach. They didn't make their fortune.
Many breakfasts were boiled potatoes and crisp fried salt pork, most of the fat taken from the pan, milk and fresh sage leaves added, thickened a little to make gravy, and hot biscuits. Was that good! Sage grew out back of the barn. It was good fresh or dried. Mama always dried some for winter use. She also used it dried for stuffing or gravy.
Our Saturday night supper was baked beans, warm bread with home made butter, pickles, sauce and cake.
From the end of the kitchen a long hall led to the outhouse on back house. There were three holes, large, medium and small, a hinged cover to put down after one had done his duty. The old Sears Roebuck catalogue was very useful, and lasted a long time. I had never heard of real toilet paper. A long galvanized can slid under the three holes. A sanitary wagon came and exchanged a clean one for the used one. We called it, 'the Honey Wagon'.
Later a dining room was added to the long hall to the front of the kitchen. There was no cellar under that. We ate in the dining room in the summer and stored food in there in the winter.
Summer there was an ice box on the kitchen porch, a cake of ice put in the top. Ralph Hayden had an ice pond. In the winter when the ice was frozen to a certain depth, it was sawed in large cakes, packed in the ice house with sawdust that kept it frozen all summer.
A pump in a well across the driveway was our water supply. A sink in the kitchen, a shelf that held 2 pails of water. An enamel dipper in one, an enamel wash basin in the sink. Always some water left in a pail just in case the water had gone back down into the well and needed to be primed to start the water running again. In the winter when all that was needed had been pumped, the handle was lifted to let the water back in to the well so the pipe didn't freeze.
Monday was usually wash day. Many pails of water were brought in. A boiler covered 2 burners of the wood burning stove. P&G white naphtha soap was shaved and dissolved in hot water, added to the boiler before the white clothes were put in. There was a front and back door in the kitchen for a breeze from the Locust tree to circulate through. There were five Maple trees on the edge of the front lawn. There was no lawn mower. Papa cut the grass with a scythe 2 or 3 times in the summer.
The hay loft was filled. I would dig a hole in the hay almost to my elbow and put green pears in there to ripen faster. Sometimes I would forget where I dug the hole and never find the pears.
There was always a big garden. We canned fruits and vegetables all summer. In the fall, some vegetables were put in the cellar fresh. Cabbage, turnips, squash, a bin full of potatoes. The cellar was dirt bottom and very cool.
My brother picked up apples for a keg of cider. When the cider turned hard it was left to make vinegar.
Pickles were made, sweet and sour. Cucumbers were put in a crock jar whole, with a little sugar, salt and spices, covered with vinegar. Mama also pickled red cabbage, cut in quarters, parboiled a few minutes, put in a crock with spices, sugar and salt, covered with vinegar.
When a pig was butchered, the pieces for salt pork were packed in a crock layered with rock salt covered with water, a plate turned upside down and a heavy stone on top of the plate to hold it down. Every so often the plate was lifted, if no salt was seen, more was added. This was repeated until salt was seen, then no more was needed. My father put the hams and pieces for bacon in a salt brine for a while, then smoked them with corn cobs. Mama made the sausage, ground the meat, seasoned it, sage went into that, packed it in round cloth bags she had stitched on the machine from an old sheet. So good!
Papa worked out most of the time with his horses. Sometimes scraping the town roads. They were dirt roads. The stones needed scraping off after the frost came out of the road.
Many times in the winter the Selectmen would ask papa to break out South St. road. He chained a big log to the side of his wood shod sled, went up and back a couple of times to widen the street. No automobiles were traveling South St. at that time.
Winters were long and cold. We had all the diseases. With measles we were kept in the dark, chicken pox we couldn't scratch, we were bathed in baking soda in the water. For sore throat, salt pork on a flannel cloth, sprinkled with salt and pepper, warmed in the oven, put around the throat. We all had ear aches, tooth aches, colds, jaundice, pink eye. It took a while from the time the first one had whatever to the last one. (there were 13 children in the family)
The boys cut a Christmas tree. There was some shabby leftover tinsel from the years before and colored balls. I sewed chains of pop corn, made chains of colored paper. The night before Christmas we hung our stockings. We dressed warm, with blankets and hot soap stones, we were packed on the wood shod (because that would hold all of us) went to the Baptist Church in the center of town to the entertainment and Christmas tree. I recited a poem. After the entertainment each child was given a gift and a box of candy. My name was almost always the last to be called. It was a cold ride home. We were too cold and sleepy to care.
The next morning Santa had been there. There was an orange in the top of our stocking, the only orange we had all year. I had a doll, Old Maid game, a linen nursery rhyme book, coloring book and crayons, later years it was paints. Then there was the Christmas I had a doll carriage and doll. Aunt Daisy, my mother's sister said she was getting a doll carriage for Evelyn, mama should get one for me. Evelyn was my cousin, a few months older than I. They lived near by. We played together all the time. So mama bought me the doll and carriage. Spring came Evelyn and I walked with our doll carriage up and down the road to her house and mine. Herbert found it a lot of fun to race around the yard with the carriage. I would yell at him to leave it alone. Mama stopped him for a while, then he was right at it again. After the second year, the carriage broke down. Herbert put the 4 wheels on to a board, a rope on the front and raced around the yard with that.
Winter evenings we played games, the boys had dominoes, marble games and cards. Sometimes we had pop corn and cider. I didn't like cider.
I would sit on my father's lap and ask him to sing to me. He sang songs I had never heard before or since.
Three bedrooms upstairs. The only heat upstairs was a register in the floor in one bedroom. Soap stones and flat irons were put on the back on the kitchen stove to get hot, wrapped in towels, put in the beds a while before we went up. It was really cold up there. There were quilts to keep us warm. We dressed downstairs by the stove. There were three wood burning stoves, kitchen, living room and parlor. It took a lot of wood to keep 3 stoves going. George Hall cut wood for us. He would stay with us for weeks. Papa had a saw with a motor to cut the long sticks to stove length. The sticks were thrown in a pile as they were sawed off. If the boys weren't around I liked to do that.
The telephone was rather a large box on the wall. The mouthpiece on an arm about in the center of the box could be moved up or down according to height. The receiver was on a wire to be taken from a hook on the side to be put to the ear. Our number was 8 ring 12. Line 8 to ring 12 was one long ring, 2 short ones. A little crank on the other side to turn to call the operator, or if you wanted t call someone on the same line. For example if I wanted to ring 8 ring 11, I would pick up the receiver to see if the line was busy. If no one was talking, I would hang up the receiver, ring one long ring, one short ring then pick up the receiver. Any one on the line could listen in and usually did. There were private lines, they cost more.
My father's brother Elbert had an ice cream and candy store in Brooklyn, NY 262 5th Avenue. He made all the ice cream and candy. He thought mama and papa could make their fortune making ice cream. He had the 5 gallon cans and tubs shipped to them. He came to show them how to make it. My mother's brother, Percy, had Jersey cows. Jersey cows gave very rich milk. The milk and cream was bought from them. It was turned by the motor my father used to saw the wood. All ingredients were put in the can and turned. When the cover was taken off it was all sweet vanilla butter. I think it was the third try before the cream was cut down enough and replaced by milk to have it come out right. They made and sold quite a lot of ice cream; vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, pineapple and peach. They didn't make their fortune.
The Harts enjoying home made ice cream.
Back row: Esther (Hart) Ripley (4.45) holding Harold Ripley, (5.81) David Ripley, Edna (Wyman) Hart (4.26), Ella (Wyman) Hart (3.17), Fred Hart, Clara (Candee) Hart, Wallace Hart (4.39), *Ira Bates
Third row: Elmer Hart (4.41), Emily (Hart) Cady (4.40), Henrietta (Chamberlain) Hart, Frederick Hart (4.44), Marion Hart (4.49)
Second row: Elaine Hart (5.47), Gordon Cady (5.77), Austin Cady (5.78), unknown, Frank Hart (5.74), Hubert Hart (4.47), Herbert Hart (4.48)
Front row, left to right: Erwin Hart (5.46), Edward Cady (5.79), Lois Hart (5.75), Bernice Hart (5.45), Louise Hart, (5.76) , *John Woods
*Ira Bates and John Woods may not be accurate
Back row: Esther (Hart) Ripley (4.45) holding Harold Ripley, (5.81) David Ripley, Edna (Wyman) Hart (4.26), Ella (Wyman) Hart (3.17), Fred Hart, Clara (Candee) Hart, Wallace Hart (4.39), *Ira Bates
Third row: Elmer Hart (4.41), Emily (Hart) Cady (4.40), Henrietta (Chamberlain) Hart, Frederick Hart (4.44), Marion Hart (4.49)
Second row: Elaine Hart (5.47), Gordon Cady (5.77), Austin Cady (5.78), unknown, Frank Hart (5.74), Hubert Hart (4.47), Herbert Hart (4.48)
Front row, left to right: Erwin Hart (5.46), Edward Cady (5.79), Lois Hart (5.75), Bernice Hart (5.45), Louise Hart, (5.76) , *John Woods
*Ira Bates and John Woods may not be accurate
Every winter, Uncle Elbert sent us a box of his candy in pans, like our cookie pans only a little bigger. Butter scotch, spearmint, cinnamon, anise, peppermint and peanut brittle. It was kept in the dining room where it was cold.
After Marion was born, I was standing at the foot of mama's bed. She asked me if I could think of a name for her. I had named my doll Marion, so I said I like Marion. Marion she is.
I never heard my mother or father say a cross word to each other. They both worked very hard, never had a vacation. I remember once, my mother made lunch and we went for a ride in the carriage with 2 seats. When it was time to eat we stopped under a shade tree, ate our lunch, went on a little way further, then came home.
One Sunday morning I heard Leslie and Frederick tell mama they were going to church. I said I wanted to go too. They both said, 'No!' Mama said I could go. We were very late for church. I couldn't walk as fast as they could.
A short distance up the road from our house was a big rock under a pine tree. Many days when it was about time for papa to be coming home, I would sit on that rock to wait for him. The first thing I did was look in his lunch box. He always left a small piece of cake or part of a cookie for me. I held the reins on the way home, thought I was driving. The horses didn't need anyone to drive them. They knew the way.
The one room school house was not far from where we lived. Just inside the door was an entry way, a shelf with a dry sink, an enamel wash basin in the sink. A pail of water with an enamel dipper on the shelf. The water was brought down from our house. If anyone did wash their hands, the water was thrown out the door to one side. Each child had an enamel cup with a handle, hanging on a nail on the opposite wall. Our coats were hung on a nail on that wall. Two windows on each side of the building and just one door. The desks had metal legs bolted to the floor. Across the top of the varnished desk was a groove to hold our pen and pencil. The pen had changeable points. An ink well set partway down into the desk. An opening in the front of the desk to slide our books and papers in.
Our teacher taught all 8 grades. I remember one grade not having any people. Perhaps there were 10 to 14 pupils any one year. Winter time Frederick would go to the school house early to start the fire. Even so, sometimes we sat with our coats on for a while.
I liked school, had mostly A's and B's on my report card. There was never any home work. I never could understand Algebra. We played games at recess. Recess was from 10:30 - 10:45 a.m. and 2:30 - 2:45 p.m. We played Duck On The Rock which was played by putting a stone on top of the Rock (that was in the school yard) . Each had a stone to throw at it, so many points if you knocked it off. There was Hide and Seek, Ring Around The Roses, Hop Scotch. A pattern was drawn in the dirt, a piece of broken glass dropped on a space, hopped on one foot to pick it up, hopping out on the one foot without stepping on a line. If one stepped on a line, they were out of the game. Once in a while baseball was played at noon time if someone had brought a ball and bat.
I was to wash the dishes before I went to school. One morning, I didn't want to do the dishes. Mama said I couldn't go to school until they were done. I stood by the sink and cried and cried. I finally did them. I was very late for school.
Mrs. Waite was one of our teachers. I liked her. She took an interest in the children.
After my third or fourth grade on South Street there weren't enough pupils to keep the school going. The school was closed. The children were transported to the center. There were two teachers there. One taught first through fourth grades. One taught fifth through eighth grades. I completed 8 grades. That was the extent of my education.
Salesmen came by. Mr. Weber sold quarters of beef. Papa bought a front quarter. That was less money than the hind quarters, not as good cuts. My mother would grind some of it in the meat grinder for hamburg.
A Larkin salesman came by selling spices and other products. With every dollar bought, they gave so many coupons. Mama bought a Morris chair with the coupons and a few dollars. The Morris chair green cushions, one for the back, one for the seat. There were metal loops on each side on the back of the chair. A rod put through so you could raise or lower the back. A very comfortable chair.
I made May baskets for May Day. Pig toes by folding colored paper, opened by the fingers, a handle pasted on. The paste was made by putting little flour in a teaspoon, adding a few drops of water, stirring with a tooth pick to a thick paste.
Down the hill in back of the barn was a brook. All kinds of wild flowers grew there. White and purple violets, star flowers, bluets, May flowers, Jack In The Pulpits, trillium. I also made cornucopias and square baskets. I filled all with wild flowers, put in a name, took them one at a time to the neighbors, quietly put it in front of the door, knocked, ran and hid. They were to come find me.
My brothers made a dam in the brook for a place to swim. Was that water cold! I didn't have a bathing suit. I wore bloomers and a slip. The slip just floated on top of the water. I never could swim.
Wallace being 14 years older than I, I don't remember him being home at all, and very little of Emily being there. I think Wallace worked on a farm. Emily worked for Mrs. Tiffany doing house work. I remember going to Westfield with Emily once. She drove the carriage to Russell, left the horse in a stall there at the trolley station. We went to Westfield by trolley. I think Emily went to buy her wedding clothes. I don't remember what she bought.
About a mile up the road, the old Allen house set back away in a lot. My grandparents, Ely and Abbie Wyman moved there. Their first son, Charlie was born there. My grandparents became aware of strange disturbances in the house. Voices of people talking and laughing could be heard approaching the front door. There was never anyone there when the door was opened. Mama would talk about it. My grandparents couldn't take it. They moved away. I don't remember anyone living there. Grass and brush grew up around it. I, and some of the neighbor children would try to be brave, go part way down to the house, never brave enough to go all the way.
One day my mother was gone for several hours. She left me in charge. Marion decided she wanted to go over to Aunt Daisy’s. I said she couldn’t go. Elbert said she could go. We argued. Marion went. I wondered what Mama was going to say when she came home. My worries were for nothing. Mama said it was all right for Marion to go.
Once a month there was an Institute in the Agricultural Hall. Mama and Papa went to some of those. One night Norman Rockwell (Russell Conwell) was there to speak on Millions of Diamonds in your own back yard. They enjoyed that so much. Mama talked about it for a long time after.
We moved twice. I don't know why. We moved to Ruby and Ernest Wyman's house on Birch Hill Rd. I slept upstairs on the back side of the house. Under my bedroom window a whip-poor-will would repeat whip-poor-will most of the night. I would throw my shoes and anything else I could find to throw where I thought it was. It just kept repeating whip-poor-will. From there we walked up street to school.
We lived in the Gate House for a while. That was so called because many years ago a fee was collected from those who travelled that road. We children got along quite well together. There were some spats. If one of us needed discipline, it was my mother who did that. My father never put a hand to any of us that I know of. My mother didn't very often. Usually her voice was enough.
In 1920 the South Street farm was sold. Green Gables, a 3 story house on Russell Rd. near the center of town was bought. There were 18 rooms. Fourteen were bedrooms, six each on the second and third floor, two on the first floor, one of which Mama and Papa occupied. One bathroom on the second floor for all. A parlor, receiving room, dining room, kitchen with a wood burning cook stove, a pantry with a shelf in front of the window where Mama stood to do the baking. Under that shelf was the flour barrel that swung out to dip in to. Flour was bought in 25 lb. bags. A large shed attached to the kitchen served as the laundry room and piles of wood for the kitchen stove.
A furnace was bought, a large register from the furnace put in the dining room floor in front of the parlor door. That would heat the first and second floors. The third floor was closed off during the winter.
After Marion was born, I was standing at the foot of mama's bed. She asked me if I could think of a name for her. I had named my doll Marion, so I said I like Marion. Marion she is.
I never heard my mother or father say a cross word to each other. They both worked very hard, never had a vacation. I remember once, my mother made lunch and we went for a ride in the carriage with 2 seats. When it was time to eat we stopped under a shade tree, ate our lunch, went on a little way further, then came home.
One Sunday morning I heard Leslie and Frederick tell mama they were going to church. I said I wanted to go too. They both said, 'No!' Mama said I could go. We were very late for church. I couldn't walk as fast as they could.
A short distance up the road from our house was a big rock under a pine tree. Many days when it was about time for papa to be coming home, I would sit on that rock to wait for him. The first thing I did was look in his lunch box. He always left a small piece of cake or part of a cookie for me. I held the reins on the way home, thought I was driving. The horses didn't need anyone to drive them. They knew the way.
The one room school house was not far from where we lived. Just inside the door was an entry way, a shelf with a dry sink, an enamel wash basin in the sink. A pail of water with an enamel dipper on the shelf. The water was brought down from our house. If anyone did wash their hands, the water was thrown out the door to one side. Each child had an enamel cup with a handle, hanging on a nail on the opposite wall. Our coats were hung on a nail on that wall. Two windows on each side of the building and just one door. The desks had metal legs bolted to the floor. Across the top of the varnished desk was a groove to hold our pen and pencil. The pen had changeable points. An ink well set partway down into the desk. An opening in the front of the desk to slide our books and papers in.
Our teacher taught all 8 grades. I remember one grade not having any people. Perhaps there were 10 to 14 pupils any one year. Winter time Frederick would go to the school house early to start the fire. Even so, sometimes we sat with our coats on for a while.
I liked school, had mostly A's and B's on my report card. There was never any home work. I never could understand Algebra. We played games at recess. Recess was from 10:30 - 10:45 a.m. and 2:30 - 2:45 p.m. We played Duck On The Rock which was played by putting a stone on top of the Rock (that was in the school yard) . Each had a stone to throw at it, so many points if you knocked it off. There was Hide and Seek, Ring Around The Roses, Hop Scotch. A pattern was drawn in the dirt, a piece of broken glass dropped on a space, hopped on one foot to pick it up, hopping out on the one foot without stepping on a line. If one stepped on a line, they were out of the game. Once in a while baseball was played at noon time if someone had brought a ball and bat.
I was to wash the dishes before I went to school. One morning, I didn't want to do the dishes. Mama said I couldn't go to school until they were done. I stood by the sink and cried and cried. I finally did them. I was very late for school.
Mrs. Waite was one of our teachers. I liked her. She took an interest in the children.
After my third or fourth grade on South Street there weren't enough pupils to keep the school going. The school was closed. The children were transported to the center. There were two teachers there. One taught first through fourth grades. One taught fifth through eighth grades. I completed 8 grades. That was the extent of my education.
Salesmen came by. Mr. Weber sold quarters of beef. Papa bought a front quarter. That was less money than the hind quarters, not as good cuts. My mother would grind some of it in the meat grinder for hamburg.
A Larkin salesman came by selling spices and other products. With every dollar bought, they gave so many coupons. Mama bought a Morris chair with the coupons and a few dollars. The Morris chair green cushions, one for the back, one for the seat. There were metal loops on each side on the back of the chair. A rod put through so you could raise or lower the back. A very comfortable chair.
I made May baskets for May Day. Pig toes by folding colored paper, opened by the fingers, a handle pasted on. The paste was made by putting little flour in a teaspoon, adding a few drops of water, stirring with a tooth pick to a thick paste.
Down the hill in back of the barn was a brook. All kinds of wild flowers grew there. White and purple violets, star flowers, bluets, May flowers, Jack In The Pulpits, trillium. I also made cornucopias and square baskets. I filled all with wild flowers, put in a name, took them one at a time to the neighbors, quietly put it in front of the door, knocked, ran and hid. They were to come find me.
My brothers made a dam in the brook for a place to swim. Was that water cold! I didn't have a bathing suit. I wore bloomers and a slip. The slip just floated on top of the water. I never could swim.
Wallace being 14 years older than I, I don't remember him being home at all, and very little of Emily being there. I think Wallace worked on a farm. Emily worked for Mrs. Tiffany doing house work. I remember going to Westfield with Emily once. She drove the carriage to Russell, left the horse in a stall there at the trolley station. We went to Westfield by trolley. I think Emily went to buy her wedding clothes. I don't remember what she bought.
About a mile up the road, the old Allen house set back away in a lot. My grandparents, Ely and Abbie Wyman moved there. Their first son, Charlie was born there. My grandparents became aware of strange disturbances in the house. Voices of people talking and laughing could be heard approaching the front door. There was never anyone there when the door was opened. Mama would talk about it. My grandparents couldn't take it. They moved away. I don't remember anyone living there. Grass and brush grew up around it. I, and some of the neighbor children would try to be brave, go part way down to the house, never brave enough to go all the way.
One day my mother was gone for several hours. She left me in charge. Marion decided she wanted to go over to Aunt Daisy’s. I said she couldn’t go. Elbert said she could go. We argued. Marion went. I wondered what Mama was going to say when she came home. My worries were for nothing. Mama said it was all right for Marion to go.
Once a month there was an Institute in the Agricultural Hall. Mama and Papa went to some of those. One night Norman Rockwell (Russell Conwell) was there to speak on Millions of Diamonds in your own back yard. They enjoyed that so much. Mama talked about it for a long time after.
We moved twice. I don't know why. We moved to Ruby and Ernest Wyman's house on Birch Hill Rd. I slept upstairs on the back side of the house. Under my bedroom window a whip-poor-will would repeat whip-poor-will most of the night. I would throw my shoes and anything else I could find to throw where I thought it was. It just kept repeating whip-poor-will. From there we walked up street to school.
We lived in the Gate House for a while. That was so called because many years ago a fee was collected from those who travelled that road. We children got along quite well together. There were some spats. If one of us needed discipline, it was my mother who did that. My father never put a hand to any of us that I know of. My mother didn't very often. Usually her voice was enough.
In 1920 the South Street farm was sold. Green Gables, a 3 story house on Russell Rd. near the center of town was bought. There were 18 rooms. Fourteen were bedrooms, six each on the second and third floor, two on the first floor, one of which Mama and Papa occupied. One bathroom on the second floor for all. A parlor, receiving room, dining room, kitchen with a wood burning cook stove, a pantry with a shelf in front of the window where Mama stood to do the baking. Under that shelf was the flour barrel that swung out to dip in to. Flour was bought in 25 lb. bags. A large shed attached to the kitchen served as the laundry room and piles of wood for the kitchen stove.
A furnace was bought, a large register from the furnace put in the dining room floor in front of the parlor door. That would heat the first and second floors. The third floor was closed off during the winter.
Green Gables - the boarding house
Working men came to board. They paid $7.00 a week. The following summer people from the cities came to board. The working men had the third floor, the city people had the second floor. Mama charged $18.00 a week from the city people for the large front bedroom and $14.00 for the other bedrooms.
Two years later the house was wired for electricity. A large refrigerator was bought. Also a Maytag washing machine. Clothes were hung on lines in back of the house to dry. Always a basket of clothes to iron the next day.
My cousin, Blanche Porter came to work. Mama paid her $6 a week. She had room and board. I was excused from going to high school because my mother needed me to help with the work.
After a while my father sold his horses and helped around the house. He planted a big garden on property in back of the Fair Grounds. When the vegetables were ready, he would walk cross lots to get what was ready for eating about every other day. He kept the wood box full summer and winter, peeled potatoes, set the table mornings for the working men, and many odd jobs. Papa didn't need an alarm clock. He was in the kitchen every morning at 4:30, started the fire and put a kettle of water on to boil. Mama always made a cooked breakfast for the men. Cereal, potatoes,(boiled or fried), bacon and eggs, or codfish gravy or dried beef gravy, hash or whatever there was. Made their lunches, filled thermos bottles. Their work started at 7:00 a.m.
Mama bought a second hand Dodge touring car. Frederick taught me to drive. Mama was very anxious for me to drive the car and get my license. When I was 16, Frederick and I went to Westfield to try for my driver's license. A man from the registry was at the Police Station. He had me drive to High St., stop and start on the hill without rolling back, turned around at the top, back to the Police Station. I had my permit to drive. My license came by mail.
After that Mama did most of her grocery shopping in Westfield, mostly at the A&P. She saved many dollars. I took her to Springfield for sheets, pillow cases, towels, numerous things. Mama had very sore corns and callouses. I took her to a podiatrist every other week. She also had a heart condition. She would feel an attack coming on, quick get the Spirits of ammonia. She was soon back working again.
In the winter there were Whist parties every Friday night. They could be at the Grange Hall or at someone's house. I went to those. I joined the Grange.
I had an evening 16th birthday party. Japanese lanterns were hung from the porch to the trees. I think the summer boarders did that. Mama and Papa gave me a Bulova wrist watch. My first watch.
I had boy friends. No one serious. I knew David Ripley, not very well. He was a little older than I. He went around with those nearer his age. David went to Huntington High School. At that time there was no town transportation to Westfield High School. After finishing high school, he took a two year course at Amherst Agricultural College on Poultry. After graduating from college his folks bought baby chicks. After about two years they decided there was no money in chickens.
Before they had chickens, they had a flock of sheep. I don't know how many or for how long. I know they sold wool, also had blankets made from the wool, sold some of the blankets. Apparently after the sheep were sold there were blankets left. Each child was to have had a blanket as they were married. David never had one. The chicken yard was plowed and planted to potatoes. Mama ordered her winter supply from them. A few days after, David delivered the potatoes, he called, asked me to go to the movie. He was driving his mother and father. His mother had a second hand Studebaker, had her drivers license, she didn't like to drive. She made raised donuts for some of the stores in Westfield. She delivered those. She drove around town.
David (Ripley) asked me out quite often, sometimes taking his mother and father to the movies or to a fair. His father liked to watch the horse racing.
David gave me a diamond. I was so happy. He was always so good to me. He had more patience than I did,
Mama wasn't well enough to have so many boarders, only a few working men. I learned to run the switchboard at the telephone office. I worked part time. Not many hours a week for 50¢ an hour. Some weeks I only worked a couple of hours, some times 4 or 5 hours. Social Security started. Cecelia seldom took anything out of my pay for Social Security. She thought she was doing me a favor. When the telephone office was taken out of Blandford, I couldn't collect Social Security because enough hadn't been paid in. After the full time operator left I worked full time.
We were given a shower. The men went to showers in Blandford at that time. We had many nice and useful gifts - a box of groceries from my mother and father, dishes, cooking dishes, cookie jar, rolling pin, can opener (not electric). Pink was the color that year. Pink goblets, pink juice glasses, pink sherbet dishes, pink wine glasses, sheets and pillow cases, blankets. The men who worked on the road with David gave us five dining room chairs. They told David they got them at a reduced price because there were only five. Many other gifts. I can't remember.
David worked many places, for the town of Blandford, saw mills, Gypsie Moth, drilled rocks with a jackhammer at Cobble Mountain when the damn was being made, Russell Paper Mill, Westfield Grinding Wheel.
David and I were married October 12, 1927 in the Second Congregational Church on the Hill in Blandford, Mass. I was 20, David was 24. Emily was my Maid of Honor. Marion and Doris, my flower girls. Kenneth the ring bearer. David's college friend George Kahroush was Best Man." "My wedding dress was a below the knee white Georgette crepe, we couldn't find a long white dress on the rack. Henrietta said I could borrow her long veil. My bouquet was white rose buds. Emily carried white asters.
Our wedding night was in Hillsboro, N.Y. The second night was in Rye, N.Y. at Wallace and Clara's (my brother and his wife). The next morning we took a bus to Brooklyn, N.Y. to Uncle Elbert's and Aunt Frieda's. We were there 4 days, saw a show and some of the sights. Back to Rye, N.Y., stayed another night, then back home. Some of the way home it was rainy and cold. The side curtains didn't keep all of the cold out. There was no heater in the car. It was well after dark when we reached our apartment. Cecelia Ripley had rented us three rooms upstairs over the telephone office. She and Laurence lived downstairs.
We bought what little furniture we needed from Lambera Furniture Co. in Westfield. Paid $10 a month on it. I bought a kitchen cabinet to put in the room I used for a kitchen.
Harold Eugene Ripley was born October 26, 1928, at Mother and Dad Ripley's farm on North St., about 2 o'clock in the morning. I had a mid wife, Auntie Oaks to care for Harold and I. It was ten days before I was out of bed. We went back to the apartment soon after. I was soon working at the switchboard again. I took the bassinet downstairs to put Harold in. It worked out fine. Cecelia loved children. She couldn't have any.
Before Harold was born, I had sent an order to sears Roebuck for many yards of Birdseye Diaper cloth for diapers, cut and hemmed them. Harold was in slips and dresses until he was about 10 months old, about a year old before he walked. Mama had told me not to let him walk too soon, his bones weren't strong enough, he could be bow legged.
Dad Ripley had told David that he heard the Dunlap property was for sale for $1,800 and we should buy it. We did, borrowed the money from the Cooperative Bank in Westfield, paid $18 a month on the home.
The rooms were wall board, insulated with newspapers. A very large living room, 3 small bedrooms, a kitchen and bath and attic, a porch all the way across the front of the house. One year I had a Thanksgiving dinner with tables all the way across the porch for the family. There were 41 relatives there. David had put plastic all around the porch, had a real warm fire going in the living room stove, left the outside door open to put some heat out there. I roasted 2 big turkeys and cooked the vegetables. Others brought in the pies.
Stanley Howard Ripley was born August 24, 1931 in our house on Russell Rd., about 3 o'clock in the afternoon. I had the same mid wife, Auntie Oaks. She was very good.
I never bought a jar of baby food. Both boys were started on bread and milk, then I mashed vegetables for them, applesauce, something soft.
Before Stanley was born, Harold had whooping cough real bad. He would whoop, then up chuck. That left him with a heart murmur. The doctor said not to let him on his feet for 2 months, we carried him everywhere. No heart problem since. Harold's tonsils were bad. He was having sore throats and earaches. I put salt pork on for his sore throats, tried so many things for his earaches. Someone told me onion juice was good. It worked. Many nights I was in the kitchen grinding onions to get the juice.
Dr. Wager took Harold's tonsils out on our kitchen table when he was 4 or 5 years old. David's Aunt Sadie was an R.N. She assisted Dr. Wager. Stanley stayed with Laura that day.
Another time, Harold was sick for a couple of days. Laura asked if he would like some of Roger's books to look at. She brought them over. A few days later, Harold had Scarlet Fever. Roger had Scarlet Fever when he read those books. We figured Harold picked up a scale from the books. Stanley had it a few days later. Harold was on a cot bed, Stanley in the crib in our room. David had to move out because he was working in the store for his father. He stayed at his mother and father's until the quarantine was lifted. I didn't catch it. I had never had it.
When Stanley was playing in the sand pile with Harold, I asked Harold to watch out for Stanley. Stanley didn't like Harold telling him what not to do. They really played quite well together.
Stanley started to be left handed. I wanted him to use his right hand. He put things in his left hand, I put them in his right hand. When he went to school he wasn't doing as well as he should. The school nurse came to see me, she asked about his left hand. I told her I had changed him to use his right hand. She said I never should have changed left to right, it was bad for the child. I didn't know that. There was always something he did with his left hand. I think it was throw a ball.
David and I tried so many things to make an extra dollar. David set strawberry plants, the soil wasn't right. He put in raspberry bushes. We sold some. I made raspberry jelly, sold some of that to the store. One time I made five dozen doughnuts for the store every morning. I baked for the summer people. 50¢ for a cake, 50¢ for a pie. One woman had a pan of baked beans, 2 pies and a cake every Saturday. David planted extra peas to have some to sell in the store.
Harold and Stanley liked to read, mostly comic books. They worked on model air planes and boats. Stanley worked more on boats than Harold. They both had air planes tacked to their bedroom ceilings. They cut, pinned and glued, all put together as well.
The boys dammed up the brook in front of our house. They didn't get in it very much as it was so cold. They liked to ski and skate, played tennis and baseball in the park with their friends. Went hunting and fishing with their father. I took Harold, Stanley, Bob Monte and Donny Binder to Springfield for piano lessons one night a week. Bob Monte was the only one to stay with it. Both Harold and Stanley were very interested in photography. They did some developing, enlarging and tinting.
Donny Binder, Forrest Huff and Harold had a printing press in Binder's cellar. They had a little business going. After about three years it was moved over to our cellar.
Papa died very suddenly August 26, 1947 at the age of 80. After breakfast, he sat in his chair in the kitchen. He said to Mama, 'I would like some lemon juice'. When Mama brought him the lemon juice, he was gone. After Papa died, Mama stayed in the big house until it was sold. From there on she went and lived with each of her children a week or two at a time, until she was hospitalized. She was in a coma two weeks before she died, April 8, 1952 at the age of 77.
When Harold and Stanley were in Grammar school, we went to the Connecticut Lakes fishing for 5 days. Not many fish were caught.
Another time we went to Cooperstown Baseball Hall of Fame and Howe Caverns.
Harold graduated from High School in 1948. He found work at H.B. Smith Foundry in the stock room. For a while he rode to work with Louis Herrick, then bought a Studebaker. One morning when it was freezing rain, I told him I thought it would be better to go to work by way of Russell. There wasn't as many steep hills. His car slid over the bank by Pat Robbins and hit a tree. Harold wasn't hurt. After his car was repaired it was never right. Two years later he bought another Studebaker.
Harold, Stanley, Donny Binder and Bob Monte went to the west side of the Mississippi River, a 2 week vacation to the Blue Ridge Mountains, Washington D.C. and other places of interest.
Harry Wyman and Edmund Nye built our 3 story hen house and slaughter house. April, 1940 David bought 300 day old chicks for 10¢ each - $30 from Alvin Case in Southwick. Over the next two years, the day old chicks were increased to filling the hen house. I don't remember how many that was. David bought wire pails to collect the eggs in. He gathered them twice a day. He bought an egg grader and put that in the cellar. That was a big thing. There were two tracks. David put the eggs on, they rolled down to the dividers, they tipped off according to weight. The first divider was for extra large, next large, medium, small and peewee. As they rolled down the divider, I put them in crates according to size. We did that every night after supper.
David built range houses on the side hill in back of the house. The pullets were put out there until they started to lay eggs, then brought in to the hen house. It was a full time job. One day after a freezing rain, the cellar steps were all ice. Carrying a full pail of eggs in each hand David slipped on the icy steps. All eggs were scrambled. One year the hens had a disease. They went from laying 1,200 eggs a day to 12 eggs a day. David knew what it was and what to do for it. It was 6 weeks before they were back to normal. A blow to our pocket book.
David bought a feather picker, a big drum with rubber fingers on it. As the drum turned, David held the scalded chicken or turkey, turning it to the drum, taking off the feathers. It did a good job.
David's cousin, Roland Hall talked with David about going in partnership with him raising turkeys. Roland helped to make 2 long wire turkey pens off the ground. David did all the work caring for the turkeys. Roland had orders for Thanksgiving and Christmas, David had orders. Roland helped to dress them. After a couple of years Roland didn't want any more of it. We had chickens and turkeys until the Massachusetts Turnpike took our farm in 1955.
We bought the Warren Bodurtha house on Wyman Road in Blandford, Mass.
During the Korean War, before we moved to the Bodurtha house, my next door neighbor and I went looking for work. We didn't find anything in Westfield. In West Springfield at Perkins Machine and Gear we were hired for the 3 - 11 shift to work on lathes. We started on the smaller lathes. I went on to the Turret Lathe grinding down gears for air planes. When the war was over, Perkins Machine and Gear closed its' doors.
Soon after that we moved to the Bodurtha house. I had taken the Bonner sisters to Springfield, shopping. It had rained hard. There were floods. When I went to the parking lot to get my car, the attendant said there was no way I was going to get back to Blandford. All the roads were washed out. David had left word for me at the Bonner apartment he was coming down. He thought he could make it by way of Moses Lake with his van. He was going to pick Harold up first at the Foundry. We left our car in Westfield overnight, went back in the van. There was one place that had to be filled in with stone before we could get over it.
The next day we were moving. I opened the cellar door. Water was right to the top step. I had visions of the house floating away. It had stopped raining, so the water didn't get any higher. Was I scared.
We spent a lot of money on the Bodurtha house, closed in the front porch, David wanted a porch on the back that was closed in. Painted, papered, bought new dining room furniture, bedroom set, rugs. There was a 2 car garage attached to the house. Cement cellar bottom, my washer and dryer were down there.
David had a rose bed, a white fence with roses in front of it. Roses in the corner of the house. David had a vegetable garden every year.
Our life was so different after we moved to the Bodurtha house. David worked at gas stations, first on the Turnpike in Blandford, then in Westfield. In 1956 I went looking for work again. I worked at Anderson and Sons for 14 years. When I retired, the employees gave a party for me at the Westfield Hotel. I worked on the machines blanking out metal name plates. I liked working on the machines. I was given a wrist watch.
Two years later the house was wired for electricity. A large refrigerator was bought. Also a Maytag washing machine. Clothes were hung on lines in back of the house to dry. Always a basket of clothes to iron the next day.
My cousin, Blanche Porter came to work. Mama paid her $6 a week. She had room and board. I was excused from going to high school because my mother needed me to help with the work.
After a while my father sold his horses and helped around the house. He planted a big garden on property in back of the Fair Grounds. When the vegetables were ready, he would walk cross lots to get what was ready for eating about every other day. He kept the wood box full summer and winter, peeled potatoes, set the table mornings for the working men, and many odd jobs. Papa didn't need an alarm clock. He was in the kitchen every morning at 4:30, started the fire and put a kettle of water on to boil. Mama always made a cooked breakfast for the men. Cereal, potatoes,(boiled or fried), bacon and eggs, or codfish gravy or dried beef gravy, hash or whatever there was. Made their lunches, filled thermos bottles. Their work started at 7:00 a.m.
Mama bought a second hand Dodge touring car. Frederick taught me to drive. Mama was very anxious for me to drive the car and get my license. When I was 16, Frederick and I went to Westfield to try for my driver's license. A man from the registry was at the Police Station. He had me drive to High St., stop and start on the hill without rolling back, turned around at the top, back to the Police Station. I had my permit to drive. My license came by mail.
After that Mama did most of her grocery shopping in Westfield, mostly at the A&P. She saved many dollars. I took her to Springfield for sheets, pillow cases, towels, numerous things. Mama had very sore corns and callouses. I took her to a podiatrist every other week. She also had a heart condition. She would feel an attack coming on, quick get the Spirits of ammonia. She was soon back working again.
In the winter there were Whist parties every Friday night. They could be at the Grange Hall or at someone's house. I went to those. I joined the Grange.
I had an evening 16th birthday party. Japanese lanterns were hung from the porch to the trees. I think the summer boarders did that. Mama and Papa gave me a Bulova wrist watch. My first watch.
I had boy friends. No one serious. I knew David Ripley, not very well. He was a little older than I. He went around with those nearer his age. David went to Huntington High School. At that time there was no town transportation to Westfield High School. After finishing high school, he took a two year course at Amherst Agricultural College on Poultry. After graduating from college his folks bought baby chicks. After about two years they decided there was no money in chickens.
Before they had chickens, they had a flock of sheep. I don't know how many or for how long. I know they sold wool, also had blankets made from the wool, sold some of the blankets. Apparently after the sheep were sold there were blankets left. Each child was to have had a blanket as they were married. David never had one. The chicken yard was plowed and planted to potatoes. Mama ordered her winter supply from them. A few days after, David delivered the potatoes, he called, asked me to go to the movie. He was driving his mother and father. His mother had a second hand Studebaker, had her drivers license, she didn't like to drive. She made raised donuts for some of the stores in Westfield. She delivered those. She drove around town.
David (Ripley) asked me out quite often, sometimes taking his mother and father to the movies or to a fair. His father liked to watch the horse racing.
David gave me a diamond. I was so happy. He was always so good to me. He had more patience than I did,
Mama wasn't well enough to have so many boarders, only a few working men. I learned to run the switchboard at the telephone office. I worked part time. Not many hours a week for 50¢ an hour. Some weeks I only worked a couple of hours, some times 4 or 5 hours. Social Security started. Cecelia seldom took anything out of my pay for Social Security. She thought she was doing me a favor. When the telephone office was taken out of Blandford, I couldn't collect Social Security because enough hadn't been paid in. After the full time operator left I worked full time.
We were given a shower. The men went to showers in Blandford at that time. We had many nice and useful gifts - a box of groceries from my mother and father, dishes, cooking dishes, cookie jar, rolling pin, can opener (not electric). Pink was the color that year. Pink goblets, pink juice glasses, pink sherbet dishes, pink wine glasses, sheets and pillow cases, blankets. The men who worked on the road with David gave us five dining room chairs. They told David they got them at a reduced price because there were only five. Many other gifts. I can't remember.
David worked many places, for the town of Blandford, saw mills, Gypsie Moth, drilled rocks with a jackhammer at Cobble Mountain when the damn was being made, Russell Paper Mill, Westfield Grinding Wheel.
David and I were married October 12, 1927 in the Second Congregational Church on the Hill in Blandford, Mass. I was 20, David was 24. Emily was my Maid of Honor. Marion and Doris, my flower girls. Kenneth the ring bearer. David's college friend George Kahroush was Best Man." "My wedding dress was a below the knee white Georgette crepe, we couldn't find a long white dress on the rack. Henrietta said I could borrow her long veil. My bouquet was white rose buds. Emily carried white asters.
Our wedding night was in Hillsboro, N.Y. The second night was in Rye, N.Y. at Wallace and Clara's (my brother and his wife). The next morning we took a bus to Brooklyn, N.Y. to Uncle Elbert's and Aunt Frieda's. We were there 4 days, saw a show and some of the sights. Back to Rye, N.Y., stayed another night, then back home. Some of the way home it was rainy and cold. The side curtains didn't keep all of the cold out. There was no heater in the car. It was well after dark when we reached our apartment. Cecelia Ripley had rented us three rooms upstairs over the telephone office. She and Laurence lived downstairs.
We bought what little furniture we needed from Lambera Furniture Co. in Westfield. Paid $10 a month on it. I bought a kitchen cabinet to put in the room I used for a kitchen.
Harold Eugene Ripley was born October 26, 1928, at Mother and Dad Ripley's farm on North St., about 2 o'clock in the morning. I had a mid wife, Auntie Oaks to care for Harold and I. It was ten days before I was out of bed. We went back to the apartment soon after. I was soon working at the switchboard again. I took the bassinet downstairs to put Harold in. It worked out fine. Cecelia loved children. She couldn't have any.
Before Harold was born, I had sent an order to sears Roebuck for many yards of Birdseye Diaper cloth for diapers, cut and hemmed them. Harold was in slips and dresses until he was about 10 months old, about a year old before he walked. Mama had told me not to let him walk too soon, his bones weren't strong enough, he could be bow legged.
Dad Ripley had told David that he heard the Dunlap property was for sale for $1,800 and we should buy it. We did, borrowed the money from the Cooperative Bank in Westfield, paid $18 a month on the home.
The rooms were wall board, insulated with newspapers. A very large living room, 3 small bedrooms, a kitchen and bath and attic, a porch all the way across the front of the house. One year I had a Thanksgiving dinner with tables all the way across the porch for the family. There were 41 relatives there. David had put plastic all around the porch, had a real warm fire going in the living room stove, left the outside door open to put some heat out there. I roasted 2 big turkeys and cooked the vegetables. Others brought in the pies.
Stanley Howard Ripley was born August 24, 1931 in our house on Russell Rd., about 3 o'clock in the afternoon. I had the same mid wife, Auntie Oaks. She was very good.
I never bought a jar of baby food. Both boys were started on bread and milk, then I mashed vegetables for them, applesauce, something soft.
Before Stanley was born, Harold had whooping cough real bad. He would whoop, then up chuck. That left him with a heart murmur. The doctor said not to let him on his feet for 2 months, we carried him everywhere. No heart problem since. Harold's tonsils were bad. He was having sore throats and earaches. I put salt pork on for his sore throats, tried so many things for his earaches. Someone told me onion juice was good. It worked. Many nights I was in the kitchen grinding onions to get the juice.
Dr. Wager took Harold's tonsils out on our kitchen table when he was 4 or 5 years old. David's Aunt Sadie was an R.N. She assisted Dr. Wager. Stanley stayed with Laura that day.
Another time, Harold was sick for a couple of days. Laura asked if he would like some of Roger's books to look at. She brought them over. A few days later, Harold had Scarlet Fever. Roger had Scarlet Fever when he read those books. We figured Harold picked up a scale from the books. Stanley had it a few days later. Harold was on a cot bed, Stanley in the crib in our room. David had to move out because he was working in the store for his father. He stayed at his mother and father's until the quarantine was lifted. I didn't catch it. I had never had it.
When Stanley was playing in the sand pile with Harold, I asked Harold to watch out for Stanley. Stanley didn't like Harold telling him what not to do. They really played quite well together.
Stanley started to be left handed. I wanted him to use his right hand. He put things in his left hand, I put them in his right hand. When he went to school he wasn't doing as well as he should. The school nurse came to see me, she asked about his left hand. I told her I had changed him to use his right hand. She said I never should have changed left to right, it was bad for the child. I didn't know that. There was always something he did with his left hand. I think it was throw a ball.
David and I tried so many things to make an extra dollar. David set strawberry plants, the soil wasn't right. He put in raspberry bushes. We sold some. I made raspberry jelly, sold some of that to the store. One time I made five dozen doughnuts for the store every morning. I baked for the summer people. 50¢ for a cake, 50¢ for a pie. One woman had a pan of baked beans, 2 pies and a cake every Saturday. David planted extra peas to have some to sell in the store.
Harold and Stanley liked to read, mostly comic books. They worked on model air planes and boats. Stanley worked more on boats than Harold. They both had air planes tacked to their bedroom ceilings. They cut, pinned and glued, all put together as well.
The boys dammed up the brook in front of our house. They didn't get in it very much as it was so cold. They liked to ski and skate, played tennis and baseball in the park with their friends. Went hunting and fishing with their father. I took Harold, Stanley, Bob Monte and Donny Binder to Springfield for piano lessons one night a week. Bob Monte was the only one to stay with it. Both Harold and Stanley were very interested in photography. They did some developing, enlarging and tinting.
Donny Binder, Forrest Huff and Harold had a printing press in Binder's cellar. They had a little business going. After about three years it was moved over to our cellar.
Papa died very suddenly August 26, 1947 at the age of 80. After breakfast, he sat in his chair in the kitchen. He said to Mama, 'I would like some lemon juice'. When Mama brought him the lemon juice, he was gone. After Papa died, Mama stayed in the big house until it was sold. From there on she went and lived with each of her children a week or two at a time, until she was hospitalized. She was in a coma two weeks before she died, April 8, 1952 at the age of 77.
When Harold and Stanley were in Grammar school, we went to the Connecticut Lakes fishing for 5 days. Not many fish were caught.
Another time we went to Cooperstown Baseball Hall of Fame and Howe Caverns.
Harold graduated from High School in 1948. He found work at H.B. Smith Foundry in the stock room. For a while he rode to work with Louis Herrick, then bought a Studebaker. One morning when it was freezing rain, I told him I thought it would be better to go to work by way of Russell. There wasn't as many steep hills. His car slid over the bank by Pat Robbins and hit a tree. Harold wasn't hurt. After his car was repaired it was never right. Two years later he bought another Studebaker.
Harold, Stanley, Donny Binder and Bob Monte went to the west side of the Mississippi River, a 2 week vacation to the Blue Ridge Mountains, Washington D.C. and other places of interest.
Harry Wyman and Edmund Nye built our 3 story hen house and slaughter house. April, 1940 David bought 300 day old chicks for 10¢ each - $30 from Alvin Case in Southwick. Over the next two years, the day old chicks were increased to filling the hen house. I don't remember how many that was. David bought wire pails to collect the eggs in. He gathered them twice a day. He bought an egg grader and put that in the cellar. That was a big thing. There were two tracks. David put the eggs on, they rolled down to the dividers, they tipped off according to weight. The first divider was for extra large, next large, medium, small and peewee. As they rolled down the divider, I put them in crates according to size. We did that every night after supper.
David built range houses on the side hill in back of the house. The pullets were put out there until they started to lay eggs, then brought in to the hen house. It was a full time job. One day after a freezing rain, the cellar steps were all ice. Carrying a full pail of eggs in each hand David slipped on the icy steps. All eggs were scrambled. One year the hens had a disease. They went from laying 1,200 eggs a day to 12 eggs a day. David knew what it was and what to do for it. It was 6 weeks before they were back to normal. A blow to our pocket book.
David bought a feather picker, a big drum with rubber fingers on it. As the drum turned, David held the scalded chicken or turkey, turning it to the drum, taking off the feathers. It did a good job.
David's cousin, Roland Hall talked with David about going in partnership with him raising turkeys. Roland helped to make 2 long wire turkey pens off the ground. David did all the work caring for the turkeys. Roland had orders for Thanksgiving and Christmas, David had orders. Roland helped to dress them. After a couple of years Roland didn't want any more of it. We had chickens and turkeys until the Massachusetts Turnpike took our farm in 1955.
We bought the Warren Bodurtha house on Wyman Road in Blandford, Mass.
During the Korean War, before we moved to the Bodurtha house, my next door neighbor and I went looking for work. We didn't find anything in Westfield. In West Springfield at Perkins Machine and Gear we were hired for the 3 - 11 shift to work on lathes. We started on the smaller lathes. I went on to the Turret Lathe grinding down gears for air planes. When the war was over, Perkins Machine and Gear closed its' doors.
Soon after that we moved to the Bodurtha house. I had taken the Bonner sisters to Springfield, shopping. It had rained hard. There were floods. When I went to the parking lot to get my car, the attendant said there was no way I was going to get back to Blandford. All the roads were washed out. David had left word for me at the Bonner apartment he was coming down. He thought he could make it by way of Moses Lake with his van. He was going to pick Harold up first at the Foundry. We left our car in Westfield overnight, went back in the van. There was one place that had to be filled in with stone before we could get over it.
The next day we were moving. I opened the cellar door. Water was right to the top step. I had visions of the house floating away. It had stopped raining, so the water didn't get any higher. Was I scared.
We spent a lot of money on the Bodurtha house, closed in the front porch, David wanted a porch on the back that was closed in. Painted, papered, bought new dining room furniture, bedroom set, rugs. There was a 2 car garage attached to the house. Cement cellar bottom, my washer and dryer were down there.
David had a rose bed, a white fence with roses in front of it. Roses in the corner of the house. David had a vegetable garden every year.
Our life was so different after we moved to the Bodurtha house. David worked at gas stations, first on the Turnpike in Blandford, then in Westfield. In 1956 I went looking for work again. I worked at Anderson and Sons for 14 years. When I retired, the employees gave a party for me at the Westfield Hotel. I worked on the machines blanking out metal name plates. I liked working on the machines. I was given a wrist watch.