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By: Jim Fitzpatrick |
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Email: jim@nunica.com |
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Local Farmer in Polkton Township writes for the Coopersville Observer. |
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Along Brandy Creek By Jim Fitzpatrick
The Coopersville Observer Nov 28, 2005- - No. 62 |
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Aunt Minnie and Aunt Eliza were Grandpa Will’s sisters. Aunt Eliza married Emmett, who was a farmer. Aunt Minnie married Martin; they had a store at the crossroads in Dennison. Martin was shot and killed by a robber. Minnie and baby Ethyl moved into Coopersville, they never did return to the countryside to live. That was a very long time ago.
Years later, when the sisters were well into their grandmother years; there was a grandnephew growing up on Grandfather Will’s farm. The boy and his younger brother often stopped at Aunt Eliza and Uncle Emmett’s farm, as they walked home from school. They would angle down along the railroad tracks, up through the old orchard; show up at the back door. They liked Aunt Eliza a lot. Plus, they knew she often had applesauce cake with thick white frosting, home made bread with butter and brown sugar. Sometimes molasses cookies, too.
One very hot summer day, the grandnephew decided that he would go over and hang out in Aunt Eliza’s kitchen. Get out of the heat of the day for a time. Aunt Minnie was out from the city to spend the week with her sister Eliza. And, the strawberries were overdue for picking in the garden. First thing Aunt Minnie did was to direct the boy out to the strawberry patch to get the job taken care of. That was not at all what grandnephew had in mind for the afternoon.
The boy is now almost as old as the two sisters were back then. He can still recall and almost feel the sweltering heat and stifling humidity of the day – out there all alone in the strawberry patch. Aunt Eliza never asked him to work when he stopped over! She would feed him goodies and ask no favors. What gave Aunt Minnie the right to boss him around? In the back of his mind, he knew that city folks didn’t know much about good hard work, anyway |
