My mother's earliest days were spent on a tiny dairy farm in the Brooklyn Township of Susquehanna, PA. I don't know just when her mother died, but I do know that she was taken by Aunt Ella Lounsbury to raise while she was still in her teens. Mother's only sister, and my birth mother, Dora Richards, had left the farm and had married Ira Pratt. That left mother alone with her father on the little one-man dairy farm on a rocky mountain side. Grandpa Richards had enough pasture to support a few cows that he hand milked to fill two or three cans. He would place the cans in the spring house until the milk train was do for arrival. Mother tells that as a child she would find a wheat straw and secretly suck the risen cream from the milk cans. The isolated farm was no place to raise a motherless girl. Years later, Mother and I would take the steam train from Norfolk, Va. and travel all the way to Hop Bottom, PA where grandpa would pick up with horse and buggy. He would let me hold the reigns. On one summer trip, the local train took us to the milk stop just below grandpa's farm, and we walked up to his house and surprised him. He was busy at the spring house and paid little attention to me, thinking that I was Walter, my brother. When his eyes finally fixed on me, he exclaimed! My God, Bertha is here."
I only know what mother told me of Aunt Ella. She was a lady of fashion and entertained the dignitaries of Tenafly, NJ. Her husband was a jeweler and the had a fine home overlooking the cascades. They also had a live-in maid named Josie. Mother grew fond of Josie and cherished a small cross that Josie gave her. Aunt Ella sent mother to a 'Finishing School' where she was taught deportment and rhetoric. Later Mother graduated from the Normal State Teachers college with honors. Aunt Ella's home was furnished with oriental rugs of great value, and she had beautiful furniture including a number of Hepplewhite pieces. She cherished a walnut desk built at the Roycrofter's factory of Elbert Hubbard. She knew Elbert Hubbard and acquired several of his autographed books. Mother spoke fondly of Aunt Ella and there was love as well as kinship there. When Aunt Ella passed on, mother became beneficiary of some of her antiques, the oriental rugs, and a dining room table and 12 lovely carved chairs, two with arms. During the great depression on the farm, mother was forced to sell some of the valuable pieces to provide living expenses. When my sister Rena was married, Mother gave her six of the dining room chairs to help furnish her new home on the Shumadine farm.
Dora Pratt's death left seven motherless children which were too much for an alcoholic father. My birth brothers and sisters fared badly. Sister Agnes died of tuberculosis while still on the Pratt farm. Sister Helen, the oldest, was 18 years old. She soon married Frank Rush, a good man, and they moved to Willow Grove, Pennsylvania. She made a noble effort to raise her two brothers, Elbert and Walter, but her efforts failed. As soon as Ira Pratt remarried, Elbert and Walter returned to live with their stepmother, Stella. Sister Rena came to live with Mom and Dad and earned her nursing degree while living with us. She married Jack Shumadine, a young man from an adjoining farm. The wedding was performed in our front yard. I was about four years old, and they had me carry the wedding rings on a velvet cushion. Brother Elbert lived with Sister Helen for a brief while, but she could not cope with him. So, when he was about 15, Mom and Dad took him in to live with us on the farm. Elbert was unruly and refused to go to school. He soon took up with local boozers at Roberts' Store and became addicted to alcohol while still a teen. Mom and Dad expected more of him than he was willing to give, so he departed to be on his own. Much later, after I had married and left home, Sister Eva, had marital strife and she and her daughter, Edith, also came to live with Mom and Dad until she could sort out her life. As you can see from this synopsis, Mom and Dad, gave generously to children that Ira Pratt sired, but did not take care of. All of this happened during difficult economic times.
My earliest memories include my mother reading to me. I looked forward to the daily adventures of Danny and Nanny Meadowmouse in the daily paper, and also to the harrowing experience of Peter Rabbit as he escaped from Reddy Fox in the briar patch. Long before I started the first grade at Kempsville she had read to me the exploits of Blackbeard and the pirates. I can remember Mrs. Peters, calling upon me to tell a story of the pirates to the first grade class. Early readings included the books: "The Cave Twins", "The Bluebird of Happiness", "King Arthur and Knights", and "Treasure Island." Mother loved poetry and she read many poems to me, and recited some of them. I cannot remember specifics of all that she read, but the rapture of these early readings are part of me soul. Thank you Mom.
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