Cold lemonade with hot rolls fresh from the oven

So it is me, Genno, trying to write about something that might interest a few people. I am going to blog about the early days of my life.

For the first time in 50+ years, I have been spending time remembering the early years of my life. Events of the past crowd my mind as I try to organize my thoughts. There is a dream-like quality in the remembering — a reflection of someone else other than who I see in the mirror.

My father and mother, Paul and Bertha, were married in 1908. They set up housekeeping three miles north of Hamilton, Illinois in Hancock County. Their first home sat on what is today part of the river bed of the Mississippi. Three years later, the U.S. government bought their house and land. A dam and locks were constructed near Keokuk, Iowa. When the project was finished, the water of the river, above the dam, was known as Lake Cooper. This part of the river had little current and in the summer people used it for swimming and fishing and in the winter for ice skating. A new house was built atop a high hill and the house had a wraparound porch and the view from the porch was spectacular and extended from the dam and locks near Keokuk to many miles north of where we lived.

That is where I grew up, went to school — swimming every afternoon in the summer and working outside with many different duties. My parents were fruit farmers with 15 acres of earl and Concord grapes, several acres of strawberries and tomatoes. There were five children in our family and as soon as we were able to help there were many chores, such as helping with the crops. In the early summer there were strawberries to pack in 24-quart crates after the berries were picked by hired help from Hamilton. Dad would go into town in his truck and probably 25 to 30 people would come back in the truck to pick berries and what was the pay? Around 3 cents a quart but I am speaking of times long gone, when bread would be 5 cents a loaf.

Then in the early fall the grapes would be ripe (the early ones) so there was always plenty of work for everyone including hired help. At the end of the day, the children of neighboring farmers would come over to our house and we would all go swimming in the river and that was so much fun for all of us and late in the day sometimes Dad would join us. It was a good way to cool off. An hour or so before dusk, we left the river and played games in the backyard. Sometimes there would be a gallon crock of lemonade on the kitchen table for us, chilled with a big chunk of ice chipped from the block in the porch icebox, along with hot rolls from the kitchen oven.

Now I am tired just writing about it!!!