Dorothy Helen Anderson

Dorothy Helen Anderson I was born on August 29, 1941 across from the Landfried Store in Ripley West Virginia. We had just moved into this little house across the creek called New Town. My mother was on her way home heavy with child. There was a flood and the only way to get home was by boat. They got a boat and rowed my mother to the house. As soon as she got home, I was born. So you could say I was born in a flood and in a hurry. Maybe that's why I like to walk along swollen streams, and when I need to get something done I go at it like there's no tomorrow.

I've been married twice. The first time was to Henry David Lemley. We had two beautiful daughters, Mary Ann Lemley Garnes and Rhonda Sue Lemley Sites. My second husband was Camden Lee Anderson. Together, we had a lovely daughter, Mona Lisa Anderson Derenberger and a wonderful son, Camden Lee Anderson III. Concerning my marriages, I would rather let the details remain unsaid. Out of those marriages I was blessed with four beautiful children, eleven grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. My second husband Camden Lee Anderson passed away in August of 1984 at the young age of 42. We had our good times as well as the bad, but I loved him very much and missed him when he died.

We lived in our home on a hill just south of Ripley until all the children had grown, married or left home. After that I sold our house and moved in with my daughter MaryAnn and her husband Teddy Garnes over in Kenna, WV. I've never been in one place very long, wonder where I got that from? Seems to run in the family quite a bit.

My father and mother married in 1931. Dad was 22 years old and Mom was 18 years old. There was a child born almost every year for twenty-two years. I always said that we (the children) were their pleasure. We don't know how Mom and Dad did this, but there were 11 boys and 11 girls, seems so peculiar that there were the same number of girls as there were boys. There were 3 children that died at birth, 2 boys and 1 girl. As of 1999 there are 15 living.

With such a large family to take care of, Mom and Dad worked long, hard hours to provide for us. My father was a farmer most of his life but later went into business for himself cutting and processing lumber. My mother did with Mom's do, had babies, cooked, cleaned, washed and took care of her husband, children and household. It was a full time job and life was hard back then. Mom and Dad didn't have the many electronic conveniences that we have today to help lessen the burden of their workload, but they never complained. Now that's LOVE!

My earliest recollections begin around the age of 5 years old. We lived in a little white house off the Hemlock Road which we called the Tribbit place. Being so little, I could only remember certain things. One summer it was so hot that Dad built us a little round swimming pool in the back yard. He made it out of concrete and it's still there today. We go back most every year to see the old place. One evening our oldest sister Mary was watching us while Dad and Mom went to town. It was almost dark when this tall colored man came up to the door. My sister Mary asked what she could do for him. He said he was hungry and if she could spare anything for him to eat. He said he would appreciate anything she could give him. Mary went in to the kitchen and fixed him some biscuits with fried potatoes and a large glass of water. He was very thankful. He also wanted to know where the Ohio River was. We didn't live very far from it so she told him how to get there and he went on his way. Some of us little ones were afraid because we'd never seen a colored man before, but he seemed very nice and well mannered. There was a big field out in front of the house. In June when the lightening bugs were out, we'd go out after dark and get some of Mom's jars, punch holes in the lids and catch lightening bugs in them. We'd spend long hours in that field just running around and playing.

As you read this, you might get the impression that we were a bunch of gypsies, but we weren't. Dad and Mom were very responsible parents and times were hard, work scarce and Dad had to go where the work was. That meant moving a lot. We didn't live on the tribit place very long. From there we moved over on the other side of the hill about a mile away. The place was called the Perry Haggart land. My Dad and Grandpa Benson built our first hourse there. It had three bedrooms a large livingroom, diningroom and kitchen. It also had a large basement. We had a lot of places we gave names to in that area where we would play. On top of the hill in front of the house, we called that place the big sand pile. We would take little spoons and cups and play in the sand for hours. There was also a big huge tree just over the hill where we had a swing on a large limb. Seems as though we could swing high enough to reach the clouds!

As you go around the hill, I remember there were some pine trees. When the nights were so pretty with the moon shining brightly, we'd hear the whippoorwills singing from the trees. We'd go and play in the trees, climbing up and sliding out of them. Farther around the hill was the Emmett Pullins farm. There were three big oak trees where we'd spend time playing also. We had a lot of good times on that hill. There were so many of us that we had our own ball and tag teams. Most of us liked being outside. Our toys were things we made or things that were given to us. Back then we'd ride bicycles a lot in the summer and in the winter we'd ride in a sled made from an old hood of a car. Dad would also take us sleigh riding on a homemade sled that the horses would pull.

Four of the children were born in that house that Dad and Grandpa built. One of the children was our baby sister Brenda Lou. She was a beautiful little girl and died when she was only 3 month's and 5 days old. I was young, but I remember going to her burial, she's buried in the Casto family cemetery on Spencer Road beside our little twin brothers Bobby and Billy. We missed our little sister a lot. When we heard she had died, my younger brother Dean and I walked back and forth in the front yard crying until we were exhausted.

As time passed, the family kept getting bigger. Dr. Monroe delivered all the children born in the house built on the Perry Haggart land. Many times his daughter Charlotte would come with him. She'd play tag or softball while her dad delivered the baby. He would always brag on what a good housekeeper my Mom was. She was always working at something, her work was never done because it was hard raising a family of that size. From time to time some of the older children would go off to find work to help the family out. My oldest brother Jack worked over on the other side of the hill on the Emmett Pulling farm. He did all the farm work, milked cows, put up hay, plowed fields, planted and harvested crop. He had year round work as long as he wanted it. He worked there several years, working hard and putting in long hours on the farm, he'd bring his pay home and it helped us a lot.

I remember when I was about six or seven years old. I walked over to the Pullins farm to see my brother Jack. It was a hot afternoon, as I was going towards the milk house, I wasn't feeling very well. There was a long board outside milk house. I laid down on it and fell asleep. My brother found me and took me home, come to find out I had come down with the 3 day measles. Back then you went to bed in a dark room and stayed there for 3 days so the measles rash would break out on you. I didn't care because I felt so bad, I was glad to just stay in bed.

Our Dad had an old homemade tractor, I think it was part tractor and part cut off old car. Jack would put us kids on it and take us for rides out to the main road and back. We had a lot of fun on that old tractor. Other times Jack would take us swimming down over the hill to a place we called the Sand Creek. He would take us out and swim us on his back, we loved our big brother a lot, he took good care of us and we looked up to and trusted him.

Later on our older sister Mary would take over watching us, since my brother worked over on the farm. Mary said I used to follow her and pull on her dress and cry for her all the time. Maybe that's why I look like her. I remember when she met her first beau, his name was Glen Dale McKeown and he was in the service. I'd have to agree he sure was a good looking guy and still is. She was so crazy in love with him, he just swept her right off her feet, she didn't know what was happening to her. They were married and she left home to take on her new life with her husband.

One late afternoon my Dad and brother Jack went over to the Louis Pullings farm to trade tractors. While they were gone a bad storm came. Next to our house there was a big, new cistern that Dad had built. It had a ladder that went down to the bottom and there wasn't any water in it at the time. My mother was terrified of storms so she took all of us kids down into the cistern to protect us from the storm. It passed over us and we were all safe.

I was 8 years old and it was time for me to go to school. When my mother would get me ready for school, she'd try to brush my hair out. It was so curly that Mom couldn't get a brush or comb thru it, so she cut it. I cried for so long over it and didn't want to go to school, but I had to anyway. I went to the Ravenswood Head Start and next door to it was the R.H. School that went to the third grade. I remember one day in particular in the 3rd grade Mrs. Bells was the teacher. On our lunch break, a bunch of us kids had gotten into the coat closet and knocked down the coats. When the bell rang, we all scrambled back to our seats. Mrs. Bells found out what had happened and had us all come up front and line up. We saw her get the big paddle out and she went down the line and gave everybody a whack. When she gave me a whack with the paddle, I wet myself. I always had a problem with that anyway when I got a whipping and sometimes when I laughed too hard. The old school has been torn down and a new one built in it's place, I have grandchildren that attend there now. My sister JoAnn, Betty, Patty, my brother Donald and myself went to that school. We had to walk a good mile to catch the buss. A lot of times in the winter, our bus driver Carl Paxton would pick us up on the way so that we wouldn't have to stand out in the cold so long. Many times our neighbor John and Kite Barbars, who lived at the end of the road where we waited for the bus; would bring us into their house and give us hot cocoa to drink until the bus came. I'll never forget their kindness, you couldn't ask for any better neighbors and friends. John has passed on, but every once in awhile I see Kite. We knew John's brother Bill also, his wife lives out on Grass Lick Rd. He had two other brothers Wayne and Archie, they're all good, kind people that I'll never forget.

The neighbors up the road from the Barbars were the Wheatons. We went to school with Dorothy and Danny. The last I heard, many years ago was that Danny had died in a house fire. Over the hill from them was a large family also, they were Bob and Lucille Shockey. I think they had 13 children. We knew them for several years while we lived nearby. Those born on Ravenswood Pike were: Darrell, Barbara, Roger, Brenda Lou and Peggy.

My mother's nephew and wife would come down from Parkersburg real often. We were close to them, their names were Bud and Louise Homan. They couldn't have any children of their own at that time, so Louise picked out Darry, he was just a small little boy, but she fell in love with him. Everytime she'd come down, she'd go get him and hold him on her lap. Much later on they adopted a boy for their own. Unfortunately, my cousin Bud never got to see his son grow up because he died from a heart attack not long after the adoption. I thought a lot of my cousins Bud and Louise. I nicknamed my one and only son Bud. Whenever one of us would catch anything (cold, flu etc.), all the other kids would get it too. There was a time when we all had the chicken pox, we looked like a bunch of speckled chickens. Whooping cough and the croup seemed to plague us for a long time as well. Mom would make up a mustard poltice and put it on us when we had the croup or a chest cold. Back then, unless it was something real serious, you used home remedies to treat the most common ailments.

My mother would sometimes send us kids over to the Crow Summit Store. We had to walk out a long flat and down over the hill where we'd have to cross a fence into a field with a bull in it. We'd look to see if that old bull was anywhere in sight, if he wasn't we'd run like the wind to get to the other side. We couldn't wait for the day to come when we didn't have to go through that bull field again. Well, finally Dad bought his first truck. We thought it was a Cadillac! In reality, it was just a truck but we didn't care what it was because we got to go places now. With Dad and Mom in the front and all us kids in the back of the truck, they'd take us to Marches Grocery Store. They had ice cream there and oh boy! We'd all get a big cone and down the highway we'd go. Now we was living the high life! That was always a big event for us, just about every weekend, we sure did look forward to it.

After Daddy got his first truck, we all, as a family, would go to a lot of places. Mom would pack a big lunch and get a big watermelon and they would take us to the races down at Evans. It was so much fun, we couldn't wait for the next time. On hot summer weekends my Dad and Mom would put us all in the truck and take us down on the flatwoods road where we called the Blackburn Place. There were pockets of water holes, some pretty deep. We'd stay there most of the day enjoying ourselves in the cool water and having a good time.

Summer was over and in the winter of 1949 and 1950, we had the biggest snow ever. The only way you could get in and out was by horse and sled. I wasn't very old, but can remember the big snow quite well, it drifted around our front porch. I took a step off and went into the snow over my head, I got back up ok and wasn't hurt. It seemed like a longer winter than usual that year. Christmas had come around and Dad hadn't worked for awhile, so our prospects for Christmas presents didn't look too good. Then my father's sister Bernice and her husband Tony came and brought us big baskets of fruit, hams, turkeys, candy, clothing and you name it! Aunt Bernice and Uncle Tony were our Santa Claus every Christmas, we loved to see them come.

Grandpa Casto was a big man, he loved to fox and coon hunt. He also loved kids and we loved him. He'd pick us up and put us on his knee and if he had any suckers, we'd surely get one. We were so sad when Grandpa Casto died at the age of 61, we surely did miss him. Our Grandpa Benson lived in northern Ravenswood, he was a Barber and had his own shop in the back of the house. When the boys needed a haircut, Grandpa would cut it for them. He loved to talk and tell stories, I'm sure he made a lot of them up, but everybody that knew him loved him for his smiling face and witty character.

Bedtime at our house was always a challenge for my parents. All six of us girls slept in the same bed, we would giggle at all hours of the night for one silly reason or other. Many times Dad would knock on the wall between our rooms and tell us to quiet down. We would for a little while and then we'd start to giggling again. After so many warnings, Dad would finally bring this big leather razor strap in and whack us all a few time, half laughing and half crying, legs would be going every which way trying to avoid the strap. "Oh Daddy! We won't do it anymore!" we'd cry. Not long after he'd left the room, we'd start snickering quietly again. Dad would do most of the disciplining of the children. Once in awhile Mom would crack us over the head with the broom handle. It was hard trying to raise so many children, but my Dad was so good to help Mom with us kids. Everytime Mom would have a baby, Dad would change diapers, wash them out and help take care of my mother.

Winter had passed and it was the spring of 1951. Dad was out of work, but he found a little house and moved into it. Their was a big dairy farm just out the road from where we lived. My brother Jack had gone to work for the Parsons'. He knew all about that kind of work having worked on the Emmett Pullins Farm. My sister Patty went to work for Mrs. Parsons as a housekeeper. The older children who were school age were enrolled in the school in the bottom. We made a lot of friends at school. I can still remember some of them. Hazel Tonkery, Violet Sams, Jackie Rhodes, Dean Laughly. We had so much fun. During those times, hayrides and picnics were a common event. There were lots of times we'd take a hayride out the New England ridge on a beautiful moonlit night. We all had our beaus and would be hugging, kissing and nestling close together singing songs. By the Light of The Silvery Moon and Allegheny Moon were some of the sentimental songs that were favorites in those days. The Platters were a big hit at that time too.

It was Christmas time and Dad was out of work again. We hardly had anything in the house to eat. On Christmas day the Salvation Army came with the most food we had ever seen. Even though my Dad was prideful, being the head of the household and couldn't provide for us like he wanted to, he was very thankful for what the Salvation Army had given us. I've always remembered that deed of kindness and whenever I can at Christmas time when they ring those bells in front of the store, I give as it was given to us. My Aunt Bernice and Uncle Tony who lived in New York owned a big farm about 5 miles outside of Ripley. They wanted my Dad and Mom to move there, so Uncle Tony was to pick my brother Donald and me up after school in his big 18 wheeler. School had let out and Uncle Tony was waiting to take us to the big farm. We hated to move from our home and leave our friends, but we knew we had to. They were waving and crying goodbye at us, it was a sad time but exciting too.

Moving to the big farm was the break that my Dad needed. Things got better and life was a little easier once we moved there. The farm was about 240 acres with a big two story house that was old, but fixable. There was a large barn and some outbuildings and lots of nice bottom land, hayfields and also wooded areas. Just what we needed with such a large family. Dad went to work fixing up the house and cleaning out the well. The boys cut the grass and weeds and with a couple days of hard work, the farm was looking pretty good. Later on, Dad built Mom a cellar house to put all the canned goods in. There was lots of garden space so they started plowing and preparing the ground for planting. One of the first crops to be planted were potatos, and lots of them. We planted everything we could, carrots, beets, tomatoes, corn etc. There was a large garden beside the house and it was easy to take care of. The long bottom lands were planted in corn and beans and the long upper bottom had cane in it. Up by the barn was a real long flat, one year my Dad planted a huge crop of watermelons, they sold well and brought in some money. We had all the usual farm animals, milk cows, horses for plowing, pigs & ducks. Of course we had plenty of milk from the cows and in the late fall, the pigs would be butchered. Mom would can everything she could get her hands on because she knew that's what would sustain us during the winter months. Rising early every morning and humming a gospel song, Mom would sweep the porches and even some of the ground. One thing my mother could not stand was cigarette butts on the ground. So you never saw any of those in our yard. Mom would put a big pot of coffee on and you could smell the aroma winding up the stairs into the hallway to our bedroom. Mmmmm, smells so good, most morning she'd have big pans of biscuits, fried potatoes, eggs, brown gravy, jellies and sorghum molasses. You've probably noticed that everything is big, that's because it was. Our kitchen looked like an army mess hall. The table was long and had benches on both sides. The kettles Mom cooked out of were super sized! McDonalds doesn't even have anything on my mother. Mom cooked large meals everyday. The rest of her time she not only cooked for us, but we'd have a lot of company and relatives come to visit. A lot of our relatives could play and sing music. Some played banjo, others guitar and fiddle. When they visited, they would often stay well into the night, we enjoyed those times so much.

Sometimes when we'd be hoeing the corn out in the long bottoms, Dad would yell and say, "c'mon kids, let's go to the swimming hole". Boy, he didn't have to tell us twice! The creek ran close to the corn field and we had a pool of water where we'd go swimming a lot. Most of us liked the water, I think there were only two of us that didn't, that was Mom and my sister Betty. The rest of us were water dogs, we loved to go swimming.

My Dad has a nice cane mill just down from the house, close to the pond. Every fall when it came time to make molasses, we'd have to blade the cane. We hated having to do it, but it had to be done. The cane had to be good and ripe, if not the sorghum would be bitter. We'd cut the cane, load it onto the wagon and haul it to the mill. We'd have a lot of people to come and watch us make the sorghum molasses. We all had to do our share of the work, I helped out in the field more than in the house at first. Later, when I was old enough, I would help with the cooking, cleaning and washing. Washing clothes was an all day job, we had to get creative when hanging the clothes to dry. We'd hand them on anything that would hold them, clothes lines, fences, bushes, you name it. Mom wouldn't let us be sloppy about anything though, if you didn't hang the clothes on the line right, you had to do it over. That was pretty much the rule for all other chores also. Mom was strict with these kind of things, we were taught to work and do it right from an early age on. The only exception to this was the last four children, they got by without doing much of anything and were spoiled, but good kids.

The farm gave us most of what we needed in ways of food. Other supplies were purchased. Mom and Dad would go to a little general grocery store up on Spencer Road a couple of miles from where we lived. Edwin and Corrine Parsons owned the store. Mom and Dad would buy things they needed; sometimes they'd pay cash and other times they would have to charge their purchases. The Parsons were very good and kind to us. Edwin also was a schoolteacher at the school on Joes Run. Mr. Parsons would come and pick up about 5 of us in his jeep every morning and bring us home after school. He was just like one of the kids, if we played ball, we was playing too. If we played tag, he was playing with us as well. We liked him not only as a teacher, but as a good friend too.

One summer my Mom got very sick and had to stay in bed for several weeks. We took care of her the best we could and carried on with the chores. Our closest neighbor's were Nellie Hite and her two daughters. They lived in a little log cabin that my Aunt Bernice owned, it was over across the main road and it was part of the big farm. Nellie's husband had passed away several years before we knew them. For some reason, we didn't seem to get along with her two daughters Nora and Ilene. We were always fussing and fighting with them but later on we did become good friends. Mom didn't seem to be getting much better and when Nellie heard about it she came and stayed with us and took care of Mom. Soon after my mother started getting her strength back and was on the road to a complete recovery. We'll never forget Nellie's kindness, she's gone now but we still see the girls every now and then.

The family was still growing, three more children were born in the big house. Sharon, Denny and Steven. Harvest time had come and the kids would pick the corn, beans, tomatoes etc and Mom would can it and put it away for the winter months. She'd fix large crocks of pickled corn and pickles. The potatoes were plowed up to dry out and then we'd put them in the potato bin in the cellar. When we'd pick the corn, Mom would take out a big pot and fix us some corn on the cob, we loved that! We always had three good meals a day. One afternoon after dinner I went to go upstairs and I heard someone gasping for air, it was my brother Dean and he couldn't get his breath. I screamed for my sister Patty who was taking care of us that day. She came running to see what was the matter and saw that Dean was choking. She hit him on the back several times, to no avail. Then she picked him up and carried him over the hill and across the creek to the main road. It had to have been God's providence that my Uncle Howard came up the road and stopped to see what was the matter. My sister told him about Dean being choked and he took them to the doctor. The doctor said if another 15 minutes had gone by, Dean wouldn't have survived. Thank God for my sister Patty and my uncle Howard for getting him to the doctor in time. Dean was a little skinny fellow, for a long time he was the one who had the croup so much. Dean was a good kid and a hard worker.

When we weren't going to school or working we was outside playing. Somewhere out around the hill from the house was this big beechnut tree that looked like it came out of a fairy tale. The limbs were huge and low to the ground and the bark was smooth and easy to carve on. All of our names are somewhere on that tree. When one of us would come to the age of courting or dating, we would carver "so and so loves so and so" somewhere on that tree. The big tree is still standing, but not as gracious and beautiful as it was. You can still see some of the initials on the tree, but most of it has rotted down a big hole through the center of the tree. Ah, a lot of good times and memories were made around that old tree.

The time came when I was old enough to take charge of the children when Mom and Dad went to the store or to town. One day my brother Donald wouldn't do anything I told him to do. He was always defying me because he thought he should be the one in charge instead of me. On this particular day we got into an argument and I just took all I could from him. I wadded up my fist and hit him as hard as I could in the stomach. I shouldn't have done it and thank goodness I didn't hurt him, only knocked the wind out of him. It seemed like he did show me some respect after that though. He'd say, when I get big, I'm going to beat you up. We've had our squabbles as most siblings do, but we grew very close as time went by. Donald loved to ride horses. One day he went and got this horse called Nick out of the pasture and brought him up close to the house. With no shoes or shirt on, Donald grabbed the horses black mane and hoisted himself up on the horse's back and took off like the wind. I didn't think we'd see him again; he flew across the fields and across the hill back up around the barn and then back. It put you in mind of an Indian riding bare back. I was afraid of horses, and especially Nick because he was wild. Nick was a coal black stallion.

In November of 1952 came a sad time in our lives. My baby sister Sharon was 6 months old when my Aunt and Uncle from New York came to visit. My Aunt Bernice loved children very much but couldn't have any of her own. She and Uncle Tony fell in love with Sharon. Knowing that Mom and Dad had so many kids to care for already, they asked if they could take Sharon and raise her as their own. It wasn't something that Mom or Dad wanted to do, they loved all their children and didn't see any of them as a burden, but they also knew how much Bernice and Tony wanted a child and how helpful they had been in providing a place for us all to live, so out of the goodness of their hearts, they made an ultimate sacrifice and allowed my aunt and uncle to take Sharon. My Aunt Bernice was true to her word and brought Sharon home for a visit 2 or 3 times a year. Sharon was given the best of everything and never wanted for anything, just as my aunt and uncle had promised. In 1953 another brother Dennis Ray was born and a year later in 1954 my brother Michael Steven was born. We were used to having several little tots crawling around in diapers.

In the year of 1955 devastation struck. I was 13 years old, we'd gotten out of school and were walking home; as we got to the top of the hill, we looked over at where the house was and it had burned to the ground. Everything was gone! My knees got weak as questions raced through my mind, was Mom, Dad and the younger kids ok? What would we do and where would we go, what are we going to wear? Seems like a hundred things rushed through my mind in seconds. Thank God no one was hurt. A grease fire had started in the kitchen and it couldn't be put out quickly enough so it had spread throughout the house. We were all bewildered about what had happened, but we were just so thankful that no one was hurt or killed in that fire. We were also fortunate that our Aunt and Uncle from New York owned the little cabin across the main road that the Hite's lived in. They had moved to another town and the cabin was part of the big farm. The log cabin set up in a hollow away from the main road. Most of the land was hillside except in front of the road where it was flat. Oh, it was so little and cramped compared to the big house, but we made do until my Dad could get back on his feet.

It wasn't long before my Dad bought an old sawmill and an old logging truck and went into the timber business. The business took off pretty good and the older boys helped, Dad wouldn't allow them to cut the trees, but they would trim and help load the logs onto the truck. Dad would them haul the raw lumber to the sawmill and cut them into railroad ties. Once the ties were cut, they'd be loaded onto the truck once more and taken over to Reedy where they were sold. Dad and my brothers worked hard, long hours and it wasn't only hard work but dangerous too. The equipment was old and something was always breaking down, if it wasn't the mill it was the truck or other equipment. Seems like Daddy would take two steps forward and four steps back. He'd come home so tired and worn out, I'm sure he felt like giving up many times, but he never did. There was so much timber on that land that dad would cut out lumber for a house. After awhile cutting the lumber and letting it dry, he would be able to start building the new house, and we needed it more than ever. In February 1956, the last child, my sister Linda was born.

Again things seemed to prosper for awhile and life was a little better, but not for long. My brother Jack went into the army, and not long afterwards, my brother Donald went into the army also. Dad had to double up on the chores and then he got sick. We found out that he had active Tuberculosis and had to go away to a sanitarium in Bluefield W.V. That was so far away to us. We hated to see Dad go and we cried when he got into the car to leave. He was there for 6 months, we missed him so much, but he was faithful to write to Mom and tell us kids to take care of Mom and help her. He would sign his letters "With Love xoxoxo Dad". When Dad finally was able to come back home we were so happy to see him. He looked like he had aged a lot, he was also pale and weak, but each day he got a little stronger. Sunshine and being home with his family would make him feel better, soon he was completely recovered, but never did seem to get all his strength back as before. The family continued to expand outward as the older children married and moved away from home and taken on a new life of their own. My brother Darry went into the army and served during the Viet Nam war. Before long all the older boys were out on their own and Dad was unable to handle the logging business by himself.

There were four out of the family that had no children. My sister Sharon that was raised by my Aunt Bernice and Uncle Tony in New York was the only girl in the family that had twins. They were girls, Penny and Candy and had red hair like their grandma, but of course their father had red hair too.

Finally the time came when all the children were gone, the house was too big for Mom to keep up with so they sold the house and moved into a small trailer close to the main road; just down from the house which was separate from the other. It was big enough for them, most all of the children lived close and came to visit often.

Another sad time came in our life when our Grandma Casto died in April of 1976. Seemed like death loomed over our family for awhile as less than a month later my Aunt Bernice in N.Y. was killed in an automobile accident. Just a few months later, my Dad got a call from the State police saying that my youngest brother Steven had been killed in an automobile accident on the Pennsylvania turnpike. There were 4 boys in the car and only one lived as we understood it. My brother Steven was 22 years old and married with a daughter by the name of Christy. I remember my little brother well, I had diapered him many times and carried him on my hips. It took a toll on my Dad and Mom both, there is probably nothing worse than losing a child. With each blow my Dad weakened and he became sick. In November 1978 our beloved father passed away. With Dad's passing, Mom's health began to decline also, she managed to hang on for 4 more years, but our beloved mother passed away in June of 1982.

Through the following years we lost more of our family. In August 1993 my sister Nola Lee Folden (nicknamed Patty) passed away. Later that year in December, my sister Leona Marie Johnson passed away also. As of June 1999 there are still 15 children living.

Thru it all our father and mother raised us the best they could. They struggled to keep the family together and provide for our needs, their children will always remember their dedication and sacrifice for their family. We were all very thankful to have a wonderful Mom and Dad and we loved them very much.