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Beth – 23-mar-2020

Things I remember:  Barb, in your really good layout, (meaning it reinforces what’s in my head!) you wonder about a 3rd bedroom upstairs—I picture only those 2, with Mike and Jim staying at Keltings.’   (Hence your fogginess, Mike.)  Our bedroom seemed Huge, with 2 beds.  One for Barb and me, which must’ve sagged to the middle, making that center line really hard to maintain!  Yes, that attic space was a trove—old dolls, books with brown pages of varying thickness w/i the same book, wooden marbles.  My secret find was a little pamphlet on child-birthing, found under the mattress of a little cradle.  Don’t remember pink toilet, but do strongly remember the big bar of soap, green?, with a strong good smell.  I don’t remember Grandma being allergic to strawberries, but do picture her ever-present sunhat in the cactus-filled entry, for going to pick the berries.  Suppose she picked other things, but only the strawberries, to dip in little sugar dishes, remain.  And Grandma always said how Jim loved them.  O’Henry bars, of course, and packages of multi-colored jelly candies.  Living room, we were hardly ever in, but see big dark purple or brown sofa with doilies.  That pantry-type room off the kitchen, with big dark dresser.  Yes, scary stairs, but especially at the top—seems like it would’ve been easy to plunge right down from the hall.
Front porch, definitely, just flat, no rail, painted gray.  Tires, or half-tires, I remember as painted silver, but can also picture white—maybe a repaint job along the way.  Hollyhocks between the glider swing and the road; Grandma showed me how to make 2 blooms into a doll.  Lightning bugs caught in glass jars.  Sitting on the *glider with Grampa while he rolled his cigarettes.  I think you could see, or at least hear, trains.  Also watching him pour off some “java” into his saucer to cool and then slurp.  Grampa calling the hogs, watching him feed them shelled corn in water, watching the pigs eat.  Playing in a little room at the side of the barn/garage near the pigs, that was heaped with cold, hard corn kernels.  On the concrete near the house entry was a type of manhole cover—maybe old pump?  Scary, dangerous, hands off!
Drive-in area was yellow gravel, and smelled, I now know, of pineapple weed or chamomile.  
*Visited the Grandview Scenic Overlook near Ellison Bay a few years ago.  Glider swing, just the same, white with silver-painted hardware, 2 seats.  I stole a few minutes away from the group and swung away—it was sweet:)  
This has been fun!  I sometimes think of how few times I was actually there, yet the heavy impact it’s had.  
Oh, can’t forget the drive out there.  Stopped at country schools to picnic and use the outhouses along the way—Not a favorite, as I was afraid of the spider webs/”wubs.”  Jim:  “C’mon in Mom, it’s a two-holer!”  Also, we drove past a mental hospital, which Mike and Jim called the looneybin.  And Mom would say that she hoped they’d be kinder when she was there.
Keep well!LoveBeth

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