She was such a nice
person, everyone loved to go there. Her husband John was a huge man
and just as nice. They lived on a farm and raised food for Lakemont
Academy, a school for boys. Their farm was next door and owned by the
Academy.
Sometimes we would go to the farm the night before and stay over,
sleeping in the house, on the porches, even in the hay in the big
barns. The older boys used to drink beer and play cards all night out
in the barn. The house was on a hill about one quarter mile from the
lake with a lane running down to a boathouse on the shore. In later
years I can remember going down with Clarence and Gordon to sleep in
the boathouse which was out over the water. It was a wild spot in
those days with no cottages nearby. The hill from the house to the
lake was all grape vineyards and there was a railroad track right
through the vineyard. When we heard a train coming, we would run down
and toss big bunches of grapes to the train crew as the train went
very slowly due to the up hill grade.
In 1925 Clarence and Gordon went to Florida for a couple of months in
the winter. In those days the roads were not very good and the cars
undependable. While in Florida, living in a tent, they worked on the
road repair gang and also picked fruit. I remember they picked apples
all that fall on a farm near Geneva in order to earn enough money for
their trip. I recall their return from Florida late one night during a
bitterly cold snowstorm.
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