This was, undoubtedly, one of the many green, plaid dresses my grandmother bought all my female cousins, my sister, and me. I wore the same dress in increasing sizes for years!

Growing up: In 1949 or 1950, we moved to a wonderful place. The first year we rented a big, old house in Lyon Station, Pennsylvania. It was my introduction to the Pennsylvania Dutch. A group of children came to meet me and asked, "Cho, Cho, do you vant to see our chumping beance?" (Translation, "Jo, Jo, do you want to see our jumping beans?") Right next door was a blacksmith's shop. We would visit the blacksmith at work. There was a real grocery store with large barrels of pickles, flour and the like, just like you see on Little House on the Prairie. It was an interesting world

For the next three years, we rented a little house at Sally Ann Furnace. The property we were on held the manor house, several storage buildings, and a granery. The adjoining property had the old iron furnace. We lived on several acres where we could run and play freely. Our little house had a stream running through the dirt floor basement. That was a great place to keep sodas cold!

There was a little pond on the property. We would catch salamanders in the summer and TRY to ice skate in the winter. Down the road was a cluster of pine trees. We hollowed out a fort inside and spent many hours playing there. Heaven only knows how many spiders and other crawlies we dislodged. I'm fairly certain that I would NOT be crawling around in there today!

In October, 1954, hurricane Hazel passed through Pennsylvania. A large willow tree was blown over, but the roots remained in the ground and the tree continued to live. The property owner cut the lower branches off the tree and provided us with our "horse". Because the tree was so flexible, we were able to sit on one of the larger branches and ride it up and down all afternoon. The tree stayed there until we moved.

The very best memory, though, was the swimming hole. Dad and a couple friends dammed up a small creek that ran through the neighboring woods. There was a large, flat rock next to the stream. Mother would take the three of us and a picnic lunch to the creek. We could stay all day, swim, crawl out onto the rock and eat, then swim again. They were wonderful summers. One thing to remember though, if you ever get to swim in a creek, is to throw your inner tube in first. Then, do a "fanny flop" into the center of the tube. That scares away snakes or anything else lurking in the waters!

Unfortunately, I do not have pictures of the manor house or our little stone cottage, but here is one of the fountain (I think that is the "hideout' to the left). The one, and ONLY time I ran away from home, I left early in the morning and without shoes. By the time I got to the fountain (not even a city block distance from our house), I was cold and wet. I crawled into the fountain and sat there, probably for only 10 minutes. I decided that running away was not such a neat thing and returned home. I don't recall Mom making a stir or even mentioning that I had been among the missing!

While we lived in Lyon Station and Sally Ann, I attended the Kutztown State College Lab School. It was a school where some of the future teachers did their student teaching. Dad was the sixth grade teacher and principal of the school. He also taught some courses at the college. It was interesting to go back to Kutztown as a college student. There were lots of things I remembered about the place from these earlier years.