Kane County IL Archives News.....Just Reminiscing August 22, 1974 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/il/ilfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Dianna Williams gammadi1@newwavecomm.net May 2, 2011, 11:49 pm Copley Newspapers August 22, 1974 JUST REMINISCING Copley Newspapers Thurs, Aug 22, 1974 Sitting by a back door and looking across the river at the willow tree and other trees that help to make up the back yard of the H. Haertel home, often brings to my mind some of the many ways I had to spend my summer days. For many years I lived on the corner of Third and Railroad Streets. It was home to me and it always in its own special way will be that way. A lovely five-room house on two lots, an attic over the entire house and a full basement below. A lovely front yard, with a large apple tree, spaced just right to hang a hammock from it to the corner of the house. A large stone pile with stones of all sizes, shapes and colors covered with creeping vines. Beside side the house on the north side was my garden of wild flowers I had transplanted from the woods and meadows I roamed around in during early spring. In the fall I went back thru the same places and found nuts and thornapples. These I would bring home and after eating some, grandmother would make a glass or two of jelly. The flowers I picked in the early spring were shooting stars, butter-cups, violets, some white some purple and some mixed blue and white. There were Jack in the pulpits and of course you could always pick cowslips between the logs in the pastures which you usually jumped, one to another because it was more fun taking a chance on slipping off of one than to walk all the way around the pasture. Now all this land has been developed into a lovely setting for big homes and estates. It was quite a number of years ago that Mr. McIntosh purchased the land later to become known as Lakewood Estates. We had a lovely big garden in our back yard and we raised all the potatoes and vegetables we needed for the coming winter months. During the summer I learned how to can and pickle, make jam and jelly and catsup and chili sauce. My first lessons in helping with the housework came when I was about six. Scrubbing the front and back porches and the little square house at the end of the lot was my first assignment for outdoor work. Indoors I learned the above mentioned jobs and as I grew older I learned to bake bread so by the time I was 12 I knew how to make five loaves of bread and two coffee cakes every week. These lessons were never forgotten for I find myself doing the same thing once in awhile during the colder months when heat from an oven and the smell of freshly baked bread help to make a drab evening more pleasurable. I also learned to sew and to mend. Grandma bought me a Kupie doll about six inches tall with movable arms. Then gave me cloth, needle, thread and scissors and showed me how to cut and make clothes for the doll. For a place to keep my things in, Mr. Rakow our butcher, who owned and operated a meat market over on River Street, gave me a dried beef box. It was about 12 inches long, four inches deep and about eight inches wide. The cover was on hinges. Grandpa painted the box and made three partitions in it. There I kept my things, always folded neatly, and thread and needle in a small box. I would lay in the hammock and watch the clouds, making them into all sorts of things. Some looked like sheep and I remember the song "White Sheep White Sheep" that our singing teacher, Miss Isabel Gay taught us. During the first series of my column I wrote about a similar item and I did receive a very lovely letter from Miss Gay, who at that time lived in the northeastern states. Someone had sent her a copy of the paper and although she was a bed patient she did write to thank me for the item. I was very pleased to hear from her. But to go back to just across the river. Our home was only a block east and I can remember when in the very early spring people would bring their bottles and cans and toss them in the many willow trees that were there. The high water would carry them down stream and I suppose some went quite aways. In the spring evenings my brother and his friend would go fishing at the end of Railroad Street. Just across the street from the river lived a little old German lady who did not like the idea of young boys fishing there in the evening with a bonfire to help keep the bugs away and also help bring fish in closer to the shore line. She would go over there when the fire was at its best and since she always walked with a cane, she would scater the fire until it was out and chase the boys home, calling after them "Out with the fire, out with the fire.” Of course she said this in German but since I cannot write German nor would you be able to read it and know what it means, I have used the English version of it. On our block lived the Albrechts, the Readesils, the Witts, the Poffs, the Schultzs, the Schmietendorfs, the Mutchows and incidently my name was Decker. Most of these families are no longer with us but for a few of the children of these families, the situations I have mentioned will be familiar. I brought many little wagon loads of bottles and cans to throw into the river, and many trips were made to the fishing spot by grandpa and I, just to throw stones and there too I learne how to throw a flat stone and make it skip, some times three or four times. Guess I better sign off for now and I’ll try to tell you more about the Dundees I knew when I was a child and there were only dirt roads and farm wagons. Bye, Vi Rouley Additional Comments: Dianna Williams is the granddaughter of Vi Rouley. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/il/kane/newspapers/justremi200gnw.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/ilfiles/ File size: 6.1 Kb