My grandfather was a very hardworking man, also a man of few words, probably due to his lack of hearing. He did wear a hearing aid and at that time there was a battery pack attached by wires to the hearing aids that were placed in his ears. He always wore bib overalls so there was a small pocket to put his battery pack. He spent the winters in Florida and when they returned in the spring, he began his planting. I recall him planting sweet corn, potatoes, strawberries, raspberries, squash, green beans, pumpkins, cucumbers and tomatoes. There were probably other vegetables but these stick out in my mind. He worked hard in the fields and his yard and farm was always neat and tidy as he took care of everything. He kept everything mowed and constantly worked at keeping the weeds down. I can vividly remember him coming in from the field with a hoe and before putting it away he would oil it and wipe it down and stow it in the shed with his other hand tools.
I loved to go and stay with he and Grandma, it was always a treat. You helped with whatever job he was doing and as I got older, I was able to stay for a few days and can remember picking strawberries, earning .10 a quart for each quart picked. That was big money at that time! I can recall staying with my cousin Jo during June and picking berries that he would sell at his stand. We also picked raspberries early in the summer. Later in the summer it would be sweetcorn. He would pick bushels of it in burlap bags, placing it in the shade of a tree in the front yard and spraying it with the hose to keep it cool so it remained fresh. If he had any left that didn’t sell, he would call my mom and she would get it and we would can corn. During the time we stayed we also got to help work in the stand and wait on customers. Grandma would usually be available to work the stand but she also assisted in the field work.
He would take vacation during the summer between crops and would go north to Carp Lake to their cabin. He loved to fish and would head out in his boat while Grandma and I stayed at the cabin. It was a small cabin with no running water, you had to pump it to get water, and thankfully the outhouse was attached and just off the back step! During the day Grandma taught me how to play solitaire and we would knit or sew while waiting for Grandpa’s return. I can remember going to town (Mackinaw City) to the hardware store for something Grandpa needed or going to the grocery store with Grandma. I was there several times with them and also a couple of times with Mom & Dad and siblings. In later years we drove by there to find the cabin and see how it had changed but he had sold it by then.
There is a book that Grandma made notes that tells of which crops they planted and how much they planted each year and also tells of building the cabin with uncle Flip. It is very interesting but at the moment I can’t recall where the book is.
When I stayed with them during the summer, Grandpa would sit in his chair and he had a small stand that sat next to his chair. He had built it, it had a drawer in the top and then a small door on hinges as I recall. He always kept a large (1 lb.) Hershey bar in that drawer! He loved ice cream and in the evenings after the work was done and the dishes done after supper he would have ice cream, he would get a large bowl and he and I would have some, trying to outdo the other on how much we could eat! I love ice cream but can remember eating way too much of it and kind of feeling sick!
I loved being with him, he didn’t say much but told you what he wanted you to do with few words. You always tried to do what he wanted and to please him. He also had a small wooden footstool he built and it may have been in front of Grandma’s chair. After he passed, she took both the stand and the footstool with her to her trailer. After Grandma passed, Jacque, aunt Leta’s daughter, took the stand and Mom kept the footstool and recovered it and it passed on to me.
We always had a big birthday celebration for Grandpa as his birthday was in May. Uncle Flip’s family and ours was there to help celebrate and he always had all of his candles on his cake. One of the last birthdays that I recall Mom had to make a double cake to get all of the candles on it! We also enjoyed the time with our cousins whenever we all got together. Since they lived down Seymour Road not too far away, they were there quite a bit. Grandpa also farmed some more land near Uncle Flip’s house on Seymour Rd.
In October the squash and pumpkins would ripen and he would have big piles of them in the back yard, customers would drive the circle drive and pick out what they wanted and he would cover each pile at night. He also had a wagon full of pumpkins, squash and gourds that would be near the stand by the road. When the season ended, they would pack up and head to their place in Florida in November. The last trip they made was 1969, they were going to drive down and then fly home for my wedding in December and Grandpa was going to walk me down the aisle. Unfortunately, on the way down, in Gainsville, Fl he had a massive heart attack and died. Mom and Dan flew down and brought Grandma home, later Dan drove to Florida and retrieved all of their stuff from the car. Grandma paid for Dick & I to fly to Florida for our honeymoom, pick up their car and we drove to Englewood to their trailer to retrieve the list of things she wanted before she sold the trailer as she didn’t want to return to it, she said that was Grandpa’s dream to go south, she didn’t really care for it.
– Becky Lienhart Crites