My memories of Pennsylvania when young are ones I hold dear. Dad and Mom took me up there at least once a year. It was a three story home that literally was up on a hill. The kitchen and storage room were on the first floor with the formal living room on the second floor at the top of the stairs. No one ever went in there (it was only for formal company). However, the "live-in" room was across the hall with a pot belly stove. The third floor was up the "crooked stairs". Three bedrooms were in front and a fourth was around a corner with a floor that was slanted. This is the one I slept in with two of my aunts. Can you believe, in the winter Grandma would heat a brick and wrap it up and we would go to bed and freeze until we finally fell asleep?
Grandpa Burns worked in the mines and to everyone he was really gruff, but really deep down he was a softy. Dad and Mom used to take me to PA in the summer for vacation and then leave me and go home. That was often short lived though, I would get home sick after a short while and back they would have to come and get me.
When I was there, I would wait for Grandpa Burns to come home from the mines because he always had a part of his sandwich that he saved for me...remember, I told you he was a softy. Grandma Burns had chickens that ran around the yard. I would run when it came time to catch one for dinner. She would catch one, chop off it's head and yes...it would run around the yard without it's head. Trust me, it took me a long time to eat chicken after that.
There was no bathrooms in the house. We had pails to use at night. During the day, there was a two hole "john" that was in the rear of the yard. We would run to it under the grape arbor. The toilet paper was the Sears catalog (No Kidding!). The bathtub was a round tin tub that Grandma had to heat the water to pour in. That was fun (Only kidding)....sounds like an old western flick, eh?
There was a huge field of huckleberries, which are wild blueberries across the street from the house. My assignment was to pick them for pies. I have to admit, I ate more than I put in the pail for the pies.
Although the accommodations weren't five star hotel standards it was family, home sick or not, single ply Sears paper or chicken trauma I look back and wouldn't trade my Pennsylvania time for anything.
Bette
How cool to read all this, cousin Bette! Thanks for sharing those memories. I'm glad to hear some memories of Grandpa Burns, as those are few for the "younger" of us.
ReplyDeleteI remember my Dad (Tom) talking about the "more important" use for the Sears catalog. I never look at a catalog again without thinking of that.
And there is a picture of Grandma Burns going to the outhouse, bucket in hand. We'll have to dig that one up. It's a classic!