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| Gerow Siblings and Parents |
I believe this picture was taken when Aunt Lucille and Uncle Earl were home from Florida and it was decided that we needed to have a family picture taken. This is taken in the lower yard on the farm on Bryant Road in Charleston Township.
Left to Right in the back: Ardys Gerow Hazelton, Norma Gerow Plumley, Lucille Gerow Beeman, Eloise Gerow Drew, and Ethlyn Bush Gerow Goodwin and in the front, Gale C. Gerow and Marietta Clark Gerow.
Aunt Ardys married Harry Hazelton and they had three children, Robert, Connie and John
Aunt Norma married Ward Plumley and they had one son, Dale Alan
Aunt Lucille married Earl Beeman and they had five children, Patricia, Earl Ray, Janet, Roger and Pam.
Aunt Eloise married Raymond Drew and they had two sons, Eugene and Daniel.
Mother Ethlyn married Burt Goodwin and they had two children, Kathy Elaine and Gerald Burt.
Grandma Gerow was a very kind and caring person, who had a love for people and animals. She always had a pet cat, usually by the name of either Snooky or Pepper. She loved to play with the kids and could entertain us in many different ways. She loved a clean and neat house. She was hard of hearing and depended on her hearing aid. She and I would sit together in a large wooded rocking chair and rock and talk and she would quote poems to me. She always chewed "teaberry"gum and took it out just before going to sleep and laid it on a dish beside her bed. She would brush her hair each night and clean her brush and roll the hair and deposit the hair into a special dish on her dresser and that hair would be used in her needlework. It was beautiful when finished.
One of the poems that she would say to me that I remember to this day is as follows:
Words
"Keep a watch on your words, my darling:
for words are wonderful things.
They are sweet like the bees' fresh honey;
Like bees, they have terrible stings.
They can bless like the warm, glad sunshine
and brighten a lonely life.
They can cut in the strife of anger;
like an open two-edged knife."
This little poem is still very appropriate today, rather they are typed on the internet or said in person, they still can hurt.
Grandpa Gerow was also a very kind person and had a love for animals and had to have his chickens and milk cows and piggies. In the years that I remember him, he milked his cows by hand and he had a creamer that he separated the cream from the milk and sold the cream and kept the milk. He had Jersey cows. Grandma made home-made butter and always had buttermilk and home-made dutch cheese. Grandpa also raised big white rabbits that he sold for meat and I tried not to get attached to the rabbits, as I knew where they were going.
Grandpa had a round chicken house and I thought that was really neat, but that way, the baby chickens did "pile up" in a corner and suffocate as they often did in a square house. The house was painted red and looked really sharp. I was sad to see the new owners tear it down. It would have made a super "play house"!!
We will talk about butchering time a little later on, as that was a favorite time in the farming year and Grandpa was always present at that event. Grandpa was known throughout Charleston Township for his Black Linamint. He would cook it outside in a cast iron kettle over an open fire. It was used for healing for humans and animals. When I worked for a local pharmacy one summer, the pharmacist at Kentch's Pharmacy showed me the recipe they had on file for this in Grandpa's hand writing and they made me a copy and I still have that copy with his signature. One of my prize possessions. Other folks have tried to make it since his death, but it has not been the same.
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| Eloise and Lucille on Lady |
This picture is taken in 1923 at the house where Grandpa and Grandma Gerow lived in Catlin Hollow. The house is no longer there. It burned when I was in second grade 1949 I think. Leonard and Ruth Reese lived there at the time. When Grandpa and Grandma moved from Knoxville in 1919, this is where they moved to. The barn was across the road from the house and it was a rather lovely and large farm. Grandpa build a large corn crib that was in my life time inhabited by a gentleman as his home. Eloise was born in Knoxville; however. Lucille, Norma and Ardys were all born in this house.
The pony's name in the picture is Lady and the dog is Jack, it is my mother is the side holding her doll, this doll was later refurbished and given to my daughter Krista. She had a porcelain head, feet and hands and leather body and legs and arms. She also had real hair, a lovely doll for the early 1900's.
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| Grandpa and Grandma's House in the 1950's |
I do not know when Grandpa and Grandma moved from Catlin Hollow to the Bryant Road. That was not the name of the road at that time. We called it Grandpa's road. There were only two houses on the road. Glenn and Mary Peer and Grandma and Grandpa. I have reason to think it was right after World War II started. I base that on a story that I was told, but I choose not to write it, as some might find it in poor taste.
This is the only place I remember them living and I loved this setting. There was a working wind mill up beside of the barn and how I loved to hear the swish - swish sound that it would make. Jerry and I would often walk up to the windmill and just watch it go round and round. We were both fascinated by it.
The house was huge and I often dream of being inside and I can see it so clearly, it was an enchanting home to me. They had a huge enclosed back porch with lots of rocking chairs. That is where the cream separator was kept. Boots were taken off here along with our heavy coats and hung on special hooks. We walked into the kitchen and you know what was there? Grandma's beautifully polished wood fired cookstove with a warming oven, hot water holder the works, it was beautiful, beside of it was Grandpa's rocking chair and behind that was the entrance to the summer bedroom. That was a beautiful room. White ruffled curtains to all of the windows. Roses on the wallpaper, white painted woodwork, high poster bed just inviting you to come lay down and read a book and open the windows. Behind this room was the wood shed a huge winter storage vegetable room.
Back to the kitchen was a large kitchen table with a oil cloth table cloth, pitcher pump, huge sink and then the pantry, with a huge window facing the west with lacy curtains. All of Grandma's cupboards had etched glass and the shelved were lined with pretty shelf paper with lace edging. She had her ice box in this huge pantry. She did all of her baking in here, it was a lovely room and smelled of fresh herbs and apples. In the kitchen was a back stair case that led to the attic and Jerry and I would love to go up there, what a treasure chest that was. This attic even had windows and it was warm, as it was over the cookstove!
As you leave the pantry and start to the living room to the left is a door that will go down cellar to the coal stove and the canned goods and to the right is a love seat, where the toys are stored, not just toys, but anything that she thought us kids would enjoy. Catalogs, books, etc.
Next into the Dining room/Living room w/ huge bay windows. This housed a huge dining room table, chairs and buffet, two rocking chairs, sofa, desk and chair, two comfortable chairs, radio and later a television. Off to the left their bedroom. On further an open staircase to the upstairs. On to the parlor, with a piano, all the girls played the piano, large sofa, end tables with beautiful blue glass tops. Wall paper was a velvet brocade in gold. Several overstuffed chairs and rocking chairs and straight chairs. I am fortunate enough to have several of those chairs.
The upstairs has five rooms and a full bathroom. There is a half bath downstairs also. How that lady kept all of that clean and found time for her garden and still read, I don't know, but she did and she loved to read. Maybe that is where I found my love for books. They also loved to travel, Grandpa had a Kaiser car and they made the trip to Florida every winter to visit Aunt Lucille and Uncle Earl. Remarkable folks.
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