52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History - Dinner Time

Week 32: Dinner Time. On a typical childhood evening, who was around the dinner table? Was the meal served by one person, or was it a free-for-all? What is dinner time like in your family today?

Usually around our dinner table it was my Grandma, my Mom, my sister and I. Dad was at work. We all had a hand in setting the table and we always sat at the table to eat. Not like today when everybody does their own thing and eats when they are ready.

I could never understand why Mom cooked 2 big meals. I always wondered why she didn't just cook extra when she was cooking the meal for Dad before he went to work. But I guess she wanted to have fresh for us. In the summer or during school vacation she only cooked 1 big meal before Dad went to work. That was a lot easier on Mom. Not so many dishes to wash either.

Then as us kids got older and was working or doing other activities after school we would just grab something to eat or eat later.

52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History - Grandparent's House

I remember as a young girl going to my Great Grandpa and Grandma's house in Fostoria, Michigan.

There house had burned down at some point and they turned their one barn into a house. In the back of the house there was a door that went into where they had a stall for a couple of horses. They had no inside plumbing. The main part of the house that I can remember is where the kitchen and livingroom was at. It was all one room. Grandma was a short heavy set lady and Grandpa was tall and thin. There was just enough room between her counter and the table for Grandma to get through. I remember her table always had the dishes on it ready for the next meal. Grandma and Grandpa didn't have much because they had lost most of everything in the fire. But I remember Grandma making a meal out of whatever she had and it was good.

My Mom stayed with them for a while before I was born when my Dad was in the service. I have pictures of my mom hanging diapers that she made on the clothesline.

I don't remember if they had a TV or not but am pretty sure they had a radio of some type. I remember a big dresser along one wall and it had an opening under it and they kept a few toys under there. One toy I especially remember was a pull toy that was a dog. We used to play a lot with it. Grandpa's chair was not far from this dresser.

Grandma and Grandpa didn't have a phone. So Grandpa had to run down to the neighbors to call the doctor. My sister was born in this house and my Grandma delivered her. She had been a midwife and saved everything for the doctor who arrived after my sister was born.  Grandma didn't even realize she didn't have her glasses on until after everything was over. My sister was breech and the cord was wrapped around her neck but Grandma saved her. We always wondered if that was why my Sister was a little slower catching onto things or not.

This is a picture of my Great Grandma Sewell and my Grandma Gibbs and Whitey on the left side of the picture by Great Grandma. This was taken in July 1952 before I was born.

Whitey was born a few months before me. I don't know exactly when he was born but I know he was older than me.

There was a lot of Clay soil at Grandma and Grandpa's. I remember my Mom telling of my Grandpa trying to teach my Grandma Gibbs to drive the tractor in the field. She never did learn how to drive.

I remember us going out to visit Grandma and Grandpa and playing in the dirt. We sure would get dirty. A little soap and water cleaned us up pretty quickly. I wish I had a picture of the house and the barn that shows how the place was set up. But I don't have one. I remember the house was on the right side and there was the outhouse, and on the other side of the driveway was a big barn. I wonder what ever became of the place after Grandma and Grandpa passed on. I know it was in probate for a long time but don't know if it ever got settled or not.

52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History - Neighbors

I grew up in a small subdivision on a private lake in Lapeer, Lapeer, Michigan, USA. It was at Pleasant Lake. And most of the time it was pretty pleasant. Of course there was the occasional neighbor kid that would throw sticks or rocks at the dogs and the little spats with our friends which didn't last long.

All in all though all the neighbors pretty much got along and if one neighbor needed help there was always someone to come to the aid of the neighbor. Everybody pretty much looked out for each other.

My Mom was like the neighborhood babysitter. We had several families in the neighborhood that worked days and when we didn't have school or one of the neighbor kids was sick but not sick enough for their parent to stay home, Mom would watch them. She rarely got paid for it, it was just the neighborly thing to do. Neighbors heading into town would stop and see if anyone needed anything. And if there was a Walt Disney Movie playing in Lapeer our happy little bodies would be in their car headed into town to watch it.

Back then you didn't worry about locking your doors. Nobody ever bothered anything. If they stopped by they might open the door and holler and sometimes leave a note on the table. I have to laugh thinking back on it now, because one day one of the kids mom had been watching played with the locks on the door. We didn't notice it and left to go to town to do our shopping. Got home and door was locked. We didn't have a key on us. (It took one of those skeleton keys). The front door out by the lake was locked because sometimes strong winds would blow it open so we had to lock it so it wouldn't blow open. It took us quite a while (seemed like forever) to break in. The windows all had latches on the inside and then there was the long curtain rod that went across the whole length of the windows. We finally got in but it sure was a job. Let me tell you we always checked from that day on to make sure that door wasn't lock before leaving the house.

In the summer we had a neighborhood picnic, everyone bringing a dish to pass and Halloween there was always a Halloween party in the park and at the one neighbors garage which always bobbing for apples went on.

As we got older in our high school days, some of the neighbors moved and the ones that moved in were not always good neighbors. That was when we put new locks on the door and we all had keys. The older neighbors still watched out for everyone but it just wasn't the same as when we were younger. I sure miss those days!!!

Where we live now it is nothing to see law enforcement at a neighbors house or going past sometimes several times in one day. A lot of breaking into homes and out buildings, drugs, fights, you name it. You never know if it was a shot or fireworks going off. We still try to watch out for our neighbors but it sure does get hard at times. You don't know if that vehicle belongs there or not.

52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History - Weather

Week 18. Weather. Do you have any memorable weather memories from your childhood? How did your family dope and pass the time with adverse weather? When faced with bad weather in the present day, what do you do when you're stuck at home?

I don't remember to many spring or summer memorable weather. I can only remember one time of mom having us kids go down in the basement because of a possible tornado. We had most of our bad weather in the winter time. Sometimes being snowed in for a week or so.

We didn't have our so called up to the minute weather bulletins (which sometimes they don't tell us now about all the time until it's already went through). We didn't have the news like we have now. Only real important news would break into our regular programming.

We would get the rain, wind and someone was always complaining about the weather in some way or other. Much like we do today.

If the power went out we had candles or lanterns we would light and we always tried to have a flashlight handy with good batteries. When it was nasty out we would  play games, or work jigsaw puzzles. Not much different than when it wasn't nasty out.

The one thing I really hated was when I was babysitting and had to walk home in the nasty weather especially if it was lightning out or foggy and windy. I would usually have been watching a scary movie, so my mind would play tricks on me. Especially if we were having the same kind of weather that was in the movie.

I still don't like lightning and when it is close by I move away from the windows as much as possible, and I don't run water. I unplug the computer and router when it is thundering and lightning. I'm not as bad as I used to be. I used to unplug the TV, VCR, Microwave and then after I got a computer it would get unplugged also. We always have a flashlight handy, I have my soy candles in different places around the house and we have our oil lamps. I always try to make sure we have some water in jugs and alot of times I make the coffee for morning when it's nasty just in case of power outage. That way we will have coffee in the morning just have to warm it up.

I think because of all the modern technology we have today we hear more about all the adverse weather all over the world more than we did when we were kids.

My thoughts and prayers go out to all that have been affected by the weather. I have family and friends all over the globe.

52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History - Pets

Week 17. Pets. Did you have any pets as a child? If so, what types and what were their names. Do you have pets now? Describe them as well. If you did not have pets, you can discuss those of neighbors or other family members.

Growing up I can never remember a time when we didn't have pets. Our pets was usually dogs but we also had some cats and some fish. One time we had a turtle, but I don't think it lasted long.

My Mom had a dog before I was born that she called Whitey (My Great Grandpa Sewell called him Spottie). He was a black and white Spaniel. He lived to be about 17 years old before Mom had the neighbors take him to the vet and have him put down. That was a very sad day. He got around like a young pup. He would jump the picket fence and him and the neighbors dog would visit but when another dog in the neighborhood came around a dog fight would break out. Whitey had a big lump on his neck and Mom was always afraid of one of the dogs breaking it open when they were fighting. I wish I had a picture of him. Maybe someday I will get down to Mom's and take my computer and scanner and scan her pictures. Then I will have some pictures of him and I think his mom.

Whitey was always where we were and watched out for us girls. It was funny when we moved to our Pleasant Lake house Whitey never came upstairs. He always slept at the foot of Mom and Dad's bed or in the doorway to their bedroom. When he got older he was losing his eyesight and was getting real hard of hearing. Dad tripped over him several times during the night because Whitey didn't hear him.

Our family pets started enlarging when my Dad's stepbrother Uncle Lew gave us their Toy Manchester Fox Terrier. Her name was Duchess. She went everywhere with Dad. She would ride on the top of the front seat right behind Dad and her stubby tail would poke him in the neck. Sometimes on long trips up north to Grandma Gibbs at Sand Lake by Tawas she would lay in the seat beside him. We would get to this certain road and she seemed to know. She would start watching for Grandma's house.


Then we added another pet. She was a beagle. Black and brown with markings on her face like Mickey Mouse. Her name was Bootsie. She was about 5 or 6 years old when we got her. She slept upstairs with us girls.


One night us girls were upstairs in our bedroom and we heard a noise on the steps. Everybody was in bed. We were a little scared, but we finally gathered up enough courage to see who or what was making that noise. It was Whitey!!! After 11 or 12 years of never coming upstairs here he was making his way up the stairs. All because of this new dog we had. He wanted to see what was going on up there. It took him a long time but he made it. Getting down stairs in the morning was a long process as well. From then on he would lay at the foot of the stairs right next to the bathroom door. Needless to say he got tripped over many times.

Then about 1966 our neighbors had a cat and she had a batch of kittens. And we were going down and taking care of their animals while they were gone. Well we fell in love with this one kitten. Us girls finally talked Dad into letting us have her. He always said he hated cats. But... to be continued. She was black and white and was part Siamese. We named her Mitzie. What a treasure she was. She became a great hunter of mice and ground squirrels. She would spend alot of time outside and when she wanted in she learned to go down in the basement (we had to leave the door open a little bit for her) and then she would climb up the clothes shute which was in the bathroom and scratch and meow at the clothes shute door. She did that most of the time because the dogs had a habit of barking and she would run off.

Our neighbors on the left side of us (Mr. and Mrs. Hastedt) were amazed at her hunting the ground squirrels and ground moles that kept getting in the flowerbeds.

Then we decided to add a fish aquarium and fish. We got a couple kinds of guppies, Angel Fish, Kissing Fish, Bumble Bee Fish, Black Mollies, and I can't remember the rest. The poor bumble bee fish came up missing so we figured one of the other kinds had to have ate him. Eventually the only ones we had left were guppies. Mitzie would lay ontop of the aquarium for hours watching them fish. Sometimes she would swat the outside of the tank but she never offered to try to get in the tank (course it had a hood and light). Even when we would clean the tank out and change the water she just watched the fish.

Well Mitzie had a batch of kittens. (Dad was going to have her fixed but the vet said to let her have a batch of kittens first because sometime they would get mean if you didn't let them have a batch of kittens.) She blessed us with 5 of them little critters. Smokey, Snoopy, Tina, Snowball and Tinker. Now we have a zoo or circus. Not sure which.

After a time we found homes for some of the kittens. But we kept Smokey and Snoopy.

I was the only one that could do anything with Mitzie. When I was crocheting or knitting she was always on my lap or beside me playing with the yarn until she got tired. We had a cat fight every morning. To hear her you would of thought I would have been ripped to pieces but no marks on me anywhere. If I ignored her she would swat me. Every morning she layed on the kitchen cupboard by the doorway coming from the dining room and as I went by she would swat me till I had the cat fight with her then she would be set for the day.

One time Mitzie got distemper and we had take her to the vet. We didn't have a cat carrier so we had to put her in a pillowcase. What fun that was. She did not like riding in vehicles. She loved laying in the back window of the car getting the sun but as soon as the car started she was off like a flash of lightning.

We were not supposed to feed the animals at the table. But every once in a while during the meal Dad's hand would go under the table and then he would reach down and give the cats some all the while saying how he hated cats. If you looked around Dad's chair the animals were all around him, waiting anxiously. But they never begged or barked just sat patiently waiting.

I think it was in my freshman year in high school in 1966 when Mom had Whitey put down. We came home from school and mom was crying. She had had his mother too. I was born in 1952 and he was born before me. Dad wasn't able to take him so Mrs. Reid our neighbor took him. She even had a hard time. He'd been in the neighborhood since 1955 and played with her dog and her kids too.

Then my Mom and Dad got a Toy Poodle. They called him Taco.


Smokey got hit by a car. Snoopy had scratched Bootsie's eye when they were playing so Dad had taken him to the vet to get declawed and he had some kind of reaction to the anesthetic and died on the operating table. Bootsie died after I left home in 1970 sometime but before I returned home in October of 1973. Duchess died in 1974 she had some of the same health problems my Dad did. That was hard telling him because he was in the hospital not doing so well himself.

I had bought some property in Otter Lake, Michigan and had moved my trailed on there. (More about this story sometime in the future). In 1978 I think it was Mom sold the house at the lake and was moving in with me. I was having surgery for my gallbladder so I had to move as much as I could for her before I went in to have the surgery. So I moved Mitzie. We borrowed a crate from one of our friends and it took me an hour or better to get her in that thing. She pretty much screamed at me the whole time it took me to get her to the trailer (about 20 minutes). She settled in pretty well at the trailer. Then one day she came up missing. My neighbor across the street hated cats and I have a feeling while she was out hunting he shot her because I had heard shotting before she didn't come home. At first we thought maybe she was trying to go back to the house at the lake, so we took several different routes and looked for her and went back to the house and the people that bought it said they would keep an eye out for her. But she never showed up.

I'm not sure what happened to Taco.

After leaving home and starting my own family we have had alot of pets. I'll have to tell the stories about them some other time. But right now we just have Maggie. She's a story in herself. She has many, many friends. Maybe I will do her story in the near future.

52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History - Restaurants Week 16

What was your favorite local restaurant as a child? Where was it located, and what was your favorite meal? Did you know the staff personally? What is your favorite restaurant now?

We didn't go out to eat alot when I was a kid. My Dad usually worked 7 days a week on 2nd shift, but once in a while he did get a day off. We didn't always go to the same restaurant, but there was a little restaurant in Otter Lake, Michigan that we would go to sometimes. It was by the railroad tracks. I don't remember the name of it. It was an old building.

The meals there were fantastic big servings. My Mom usually had Deep Fried Shrimp and French Fries, Dad had various meals and us 2 girls was always Hamburger and French Fries. That was what us girls ordered almost all the time. Dad would always say "Don't you kids ever get tired of Hamburger and French Fries?" Us girls would respond with "No!!!"

You could order any kind of potatoes with your meal and you always got salad. We usually picked coleslaw. But whatever meal you got it usually involved getting a doggie bag to take home.

We didn't know the staff personally but they were always very friendly.

I wonder if that restaurant is still there? That was back in 1960's I think.

Today we rarely go out to eat with the economy the way it is. But we do like Country Buffet, unfortunately they closed the one we used to stop at in Muskeon when we would go to Sam's Club or some of the other stores in that area. Now when we are on the road traveling it's usually a quick stop at Burger King. That's a rare occasion now, but used to be almost every Friday evening and Sunday afternoon when we were doing craft shows around our great state of Michigan.

Can't wait to read about some of your great restaurant stories.

52 Weeks of Personal Genealogy & History - Spring

SPRING AT PLEASANT LAKE IN LAPEER, MICHIGAN

We lived in a private subdivison on Pleasant Lake a private lake. It was not far from where my Step-Dad was born and raised in Elba.

The road to get down into the subdivision was a dirt road. You know how dirt roads get when all the snow melts and you get the spring rain. Some sections of the road would be really bumpy and other sections would be soupy with ruts. Well the guys at the lake had bought a big road grader one year. They called it Big Bertha. There was usually Shorty Reid, Joe Elston and Dallas Haynes that would run the road grader on their weekend off from working. (Usually this would happen once a month and usually a few beers to go along with it). They would get it smoothed out and it would be nice for a while. Thanks Guys!!!

Mom would be out working in her flower beds. She had Lily of the Valley planted along one fence line. They always smelled so nice. The back of the house faced the road and the front of the house faced the lake. On the side of the house between us and the German Family (Hastedt's) next door she had flowers all along the fence between us. Some Roses were in there, and right up next to the house by the bathroom window she had a white lilac bush. That always smelled good when it bloomed. Then at the corner of the house on the front side she had a Peony bush. She was always checking it for blooms. Going down to lake on the German Neighbor side she had terrace she had put in with rocks between each terrace and she phlox and I don't remember what all but it sure was pretty. On the other side of the front of the house was the entrance coming out from the basement and terraces below it. The top of the entrance to the basement was a cement slab with gravel like stones like in it. (We would sunbathe on it and sometime picnic there). Along that fence line was wild grapes we never ate them but we would have to chop down dead stuff and clear runners that might have took hold in the ground.

Dad would put the dock in when the water warmed up some. Then us girls would rake the bottom of the lake on both sides to the property lines to get weeds out. There must have been a hundred or more steps to get down to the lake. They were not deep steps narrow between each so we usually would skip every other one. Then Dad would put our aluminum rowboat in the lake next to the dock and throw the anchor up on the bank. We weren't allowed to take the boat out in the water but sometimes we would sit in it and fish.

Dad had put a seawall in on the bottom terrace and that's where us girls would sometime stand and fish. Sometimes we'd fish from the dock, but most of the time it would be from the seawall. Dad had taught us girls how to bait our hooks and we would go out and collect worms and nitecrawlers. When mom was working in her flower beds sometimes she find some and put them in a container for us. Thanks Mom!!!! 

If we wanted to fish we had to get our own bait and hook our own worm on the end of our cane poles. That's what Dad had bought for my sister and I. We had to take fish off the hook but mom would clean them and fry them babies up. Never caught real big fish from the seawall but they were good eating.

I don't ever remember Dad fishing with us just showing us the ropes.

Those were the good ole days!!!