From Horse and Buggy to the Moon Land Rover

From Horse and Buggy to the Moon Land Rover (1)

Corresponds to cover of From Horse and Buggy to the Moon Land Rover

From Horse and Buggy to the Moon Land rover

1800's to 1900's

By Bernard and Lola Dell Searles

From Horse and Buggy to the Moon Land Rover (2)

Corresponds to title page of From Horse and Buggy to the Moon Land Rover

From Horse and Buggy to the Moon Land Rover

1800's to 1900's

By Bernard and Lola Dell Searles



Community Library
Sunbury, Ohio
1995

From Horse and Buggy to the Moon Land Rover (3)

Corresponds to Acknowledgement page of From Horse and Buggy to the Moon Land Rover

Acknowledgement

There are several people that have been
instrumental in aiding me in the writing of my
"epistle'. First of all, I thank Bob Green for
his book To Our Children's Children. Without
Green's direction through the questions in his
book, my memories would never have been written for
the future family generations. Those questions
were like a spring board for my project. Second, I
than my husband, Bernard, for his patience with me
while relating his experience growing up and
especially while reliving his army trama and
travels. Third, I am deeply grateful to Polly Horn
and Marian Whitney of the community Library for
their direction and actual printing of the memoirs.
Last, but not least, my thanks goes to grandson,
Jay Wampler, for making the family tree on his
computer and for drawing the cover, "From Horse and
Buggy to the Moon Land Rover."

My deepest gratitude to all of you!
Lola Dell (Lolly ) Searles

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter I - Lolly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Story of Jennings Family and Lolly from Birth
to 5 years.

Chapter I I - Bernard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Story of Bernard from birth to 6 yrs. and his
family story.

Chapter III - Elementary School - BJ - Lola . . . . . 22
A comparison and contrast of our elementary
years.

Chapter IV - Holidays and Celebrations . . . . . . . 25
Special holidays as they were celebrated in
our separate families and our own family.

Chapter V - High School . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Both of our experiences as we attended and
graduated from Sunbury High School.

Chapter VI - The Interval . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Lola's experience during college and teaching
during the war years.

Chapter VII - An all Expense Tour . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
BJ's army experiences 1942-1945

Chapter VIII - Marriage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Our experience of almost 50 years of marriage.

Chapter IX - This and That . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Individual stories too important to omit


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FORWARD

This "epistle" is written for pure enjoyment,
using simple and easy to understand words and
sentences. It is not to be rated, criticized, nor
used for solving arguments. Bernard and I have
shared our experiences, good, and bad, with you. We
hope they bring more smiles than tears, but
remember we were never promised a rose garden
without thorns. Throughout the story Bernard or
B.J. and Lolly or Jen are synonymous, so we have
interchanged them often. Lolly's story is told in
first person; B.J.'s is in third person as he
related it. During our married years "I" and "he"
became "we" and "us." We also added a "This and
That" chapter of happenings that we forgot as we
wrote the manuscript.

The last 49 years of married life have been
full of love, loyalty to each other and family, and
a laboratory of laughter and mistakes. Now as we
come to the winter years of life, Barnard says,
"The old pioneer is heading for the frontier that
is no longer there." Jen is in his shadow.


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LOLLY

Second Sunday, October 10, 1915, a little
greenish blue eyed girl was born to Bessie Farris
Jennings and Daniel Oscar Jennings - little Lois
Dell, a Libra. I have been told that I was a fussy
baby, but I really don't believe that myth.

My mother died in February 1918 during the flu
epidemic of WWI. A week before I was five years
old, Dad married Millie Leach - the best step-
mother that was ever created. Mother and Dad had
two children, Raymond Leach (Ray) and Mary
Elizabeth (Lib). We never used the word "half."
We were brothers and sisters. I always said that I
was there first, so they didn't know I was a
"half."

What a lucky girl I was to have grandparents
living very close to our family. My birth mother's
parents, Anna Culver Farris and Daniel Farris lived
about an 1/8 of a mile from us. Since both my dad
and grandfather were named Dan, people called them
"Dan and "Old Dan." As a result I called them
"Dad and O'dad." From then on, Grandpa became
"O'dad" to everyone. My step grandmother, Sophia
Leach, lived in Canal Winchester, and that was a
day's trip, so I didn't see her too often. Her
husband was dead when Mother and Dad were married,
thus I never knew him.

Grandad Jennings's father John was married to
an Indian. Notice the high cheek bones in some of
our relatives. Grandad (Jerry) had two brothers,
Dan who went west on the Gold Rush of '49 and was
never heard from again, and Oscar who lived on the
Knox -Delaware County Line Road. Uncle Oscar had a
music box with big copper disks. As a child I
loved that music box, but it was sold at an auction


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From Horse and Buggy to the Moon Land Rover

to Oatfield Whitney, Sr. I hope someone in the
Whitney family still has it. Dad was named after
these two uncles.

Grandad married Mary Elizabeth Williamson and
had four children - John, deceased at age
seventeen, Dad, Netta (Kirkpatrick) and Eve
(Stockwell).

I had many aunts and uncles from three
families. My birth mother's sisters and brothers
were close to our family as were Dad's siblings.
The Farris family was Mae, a maiden lady who lived
with Grandma, my namesake, Lola Dell who died in
her youth of scarlet fever, Wello and George.
Uncle George lived in Philadelphia, and when he
visited everyone was ecstatic.

Mother's Leach family was quite large. Ray
who was killed in WWI, Emerson who served in the
Rainbow Division of WWI, Harold, Tom, Mary, Nan,
Alice and of course Mother. It was a true
excursion when we visited Uncle Harold family
as they lived in Dayton.

Grandma Farris's brothers and sisters, Jay
Culver, Belle Gorsuch, Bertha Headington and Erne
Culver, were very close to our family too and were
always included in family dinners - especially at
Christmas. Uncle Jay helped Dad with the farming,
gardening, butchering, etc, but his love was
fishing. He caught fish were no one else could.
I have the application for his 1913 fishing license
which I'll give to grandson Jay someday. Uncle
Jay's favorite saying was "By Jolly." He prefaced
almost any statement with "By Jolly."

There is quite a story about Aunt Bertha and
Uncle Erne that embarrassed the family through the
years. Aunt Bertha's first husband Howard Trimmer,


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ran off with Uncle Erne's first wife Lucille. That
wasn't done in those days! Grandma always said
"To boot, Howard took the best horse and the fancy
buggy leaving Aunt Bertha with a nag and a
clunker." By the time I was old enough to
remember, Aunt Bertha had married Fred Headington
and Uncle Erne had Blanche as his mate.

My grandfathers were both characters. O'dad
Farris was a painter and plasterer. He always had
a big garden, but on a painting job he fell from a
ladder and had to let Grandma take over the garden.
He loved baseball! Every fall he and mother would
listen to the World Series on the radio.

O'dad's brother was Hi Farris who was Ethel
Wilcox's grandfather and Mardell Shultz and Bonnie
Higgins' great grandfather.

Grandad Jennings was a widower and in his 70's
when I was a child. He lived with us the last
twenty years of his life and died at age 93 when I
was a freshman in college. In his youth he was a
Pony Express Rider. We kids were told big stories
about his experiences, but when we researched we
found he had ridden between Columbus and Newark.
At our house, he drove a horse and buggy, picked
berries, hunted yellow root, ginseng, etc., and
sold them to our local drug store. He had no teeth
but could eat anything he liked. He'd say "I
better eat it, or it'll spile." He chewed tobacco
constantly, but in the house he never spit.
(Mother would have exploded!) During the summer he
sat outdoors under a shade tree and spit a good
long spittle. One summer he was sitting under the
maple tree when a load of gypsies in a big black
car stopped. One woman tried to touch Grandpa's
pocket watch, he grabbed his cane and said, "You


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x+x+x-bitch, back off or I'll knock your head off."
She must have believed him as she went back to the
car and they left. Two grandparents so different,
but we loved them both.

I had a cousin, Honor Farris (McClenathan),
who as a child came to stay every summer with
Grandma. She and I played house in O'dad's
corncrib. Our house was special with spool
telephones and an outside sun oven where we baked
our mud pies and cakes and decorated them
constantly with weed seeds. I'd go stay with her
in Edison later, but no mud pies.

Dad's sister, Aunt Eva, lived in Berkshire. I
went to stay with her for a week but got so
homesick Dad had to come get me after 3 days.

Dad's sister Nettie Jennings Kirkpatrick had a
large family. Russell, her oldest died quite
young. Her sons Don and Gerald were near my age,
Cecil was Ray's age, and Doris was Lib's age. We
had lots of fun with that family, but we lost track
of the younger ones, Dorothy and Leah, after Aunt
Nettie's death from meningitis after having her
teeth pulled. Aunt Eva had one son, Lawrence, who
was so much older than we were, we thought of him
as uncle. Her husband, John Stockwell, had been
killed when his steam engine went off the old Alum
Creek bridge on Rt. 37 years before.

We really had no family reunions - but we
always celebrated Christmas with the Farris family.
What fun we had. In the summer we had Jennings
family picnics and in the fall - Leach Family
picnics. The Kirkpatricks and Jenningses made a
big group!

Our family were all Presbyterians and
faithfully attended church. Dad was a trustee and


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later an elder. He always said the preacher
couldn't flush the toilet unless he called Dad. We
kids rode to Sunday School with Grace, Edgar and
Clara Condit. When I was a child, I rode with them
in a surrey with the fringe on top.

One of the important events of my youth in
church was Children's Day. We didn't have Daily
Vacation Bible School, but we spent many days
practicing for our Children's Day Program. We
always had new dresses then rather than at Easter.
The finale of the program was a "Drill" that Miss
Carrie Wilson taught us. I can hear her yet "1-2-3
turn" etc. She was strict. Even I didn't giggle.

Our family never took vacations when I was a
child. My Dad was a farmer and always had cows to
milk night and morning every day! Once in a while,
he'd get a neighbor to do chores, and we'd visit a
step uncle, aunt or grandma. One thing we did
every year was our State Fair trip. We left after
the morning chores, took a picnic lunch, left it at
the Dispatch building for safe keeping and went on
our way to see all the sights of the fair. After
we had eaten our fried chicken picnic supper, we
trekked to the Grandstand for a great program and
the big finale of fireworks. What a great time we
had, and the ride home was so peaceful for our
parents, as the kids were asleep.

An important person in my childhood was my
Grandma - how I loved her! When we had
housekeepers after mother's death, I spent many
days and nights at Grandma's. In the summer we ate
in a summer kitchen with a four burner kerosene
stove. There were no screens on the windows or
door, but Grandma had a big fan she used to keep
the flies away. I loved it! However, after Mother


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came into the family, she didn't approve, but she
always let me go to Grandma's. Grandma in her
sunbonnet, Aunt Mae in an old straw hat, and I
picked blackberries together in the woods which
happens to be on our farm now. Grandma could jump
a fence like a deer. Grandma and I fished together
at the same place Uncle Jay caught big bass, but we
caught sunfish and bluegills - lots of them. She
would fillet every one of those fish and we'd have
a feast! Grandma always helped with the butchering
at our house. She let me clean the hog intestines
(tripe) and help stuff them for sausage links.
When Dad threshed the wheat, Grandma would bring
her straw tick down to fill it with fresh clean
straw; then she and I hauled it on my little red
wagon up the road to her house - giggling all the
way!

I know now that Dad was the boss of the family
- but a loving one. He handled all the finances
and was always telling, "We missed the sheriff's
sale this time." He shaved with a straight razor
and honed it on a big razor strap (actually 2
fastened at one end). I can't ever remember his ever
hitting us with it. All he had to do was crack it
together! He did "skutch" me (as he called it ) once
with a corn stalk all the way home from our
neighbors for running away. That corn stalk hurt
nothing but my pride, especially when the folks
from the Condit Store came out on the porch to
watch Dan "skutch" that kid.

Mother never worked outside the home, but
worked constantly at home. She was an outstanding
cook and baker. Too she mended everything we had!
I know now what an effort that was as she hated to
sew and actually didn't know how, but she could


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darn socks and patch overalls. Mother had one
method for her own money. The egg money was hers
for groceries, but her big money maker was raising
ducks every year for her Christmas money. I
remember one July I came downstairs as a youngster
seeing Mother pitting cherries with tears running
down her face and dripping into the pan of
cherries. A mink had been in the duck pen and
killed every duck by biting it through the throat.
There went her Christmas money!

Our family always ate meals together. Dad set
at the end of the table, Mother on one side and
Grandad opposite her. The youngest always sat on
the right of Dad between him and Mother, the next
older sat on Dad's left. I sat at the end opposite
him. Ray thought he was big stuff when he moved to
Dad's left.

Grandma Farris was the seamstress in our
family. She made almost all my clothes - many of
them from Elizabeth Ketcham's hand-me-downs.
Ironically she was the daughter of the family who
owned our present home. Grandma always had trouble
keeping me quiet as she tried on my cloths. She'd
say. "let it go - it'll never be seen on a
galloping horse anyway." Mother wanted me to learn
to sew and had me join 4-H. Grandma and I got A's
easily. When Lib was four, I made her a dress in
4_H. Grandma had me rip out the tucks on the
shoulder so much she had to patch it, but we got an
A. Lib became the seamstress in the family. She
tailors shirts, suits and makes beautiful dresses.
Too she is an outstanding quilter and teaches a
class in our church.

The Great Depression affected everyone, but
some how we kept our farm payments paid and always


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had food, vegetables and meat as we raised them.

Hog butchering day was a fun time, but lots of
work! Uncle Jay and Dad built a fire and put a big
iron kettle of water over it to get it boiling hot.
After the hog was shot, they poured the boiling
water in a barrel to scald the hog. To do this
they slowly dipped the hog in the barrel scraping
it across the rim to loosen the hair, repeating
several times until the hair could easily be
scraped off the skin. Then they raised the hog
with a block and tackle and gutted it. They tried
to choose a sunny but cold day so the hog would
"cool out" fast. However the process took an
entire day. The next step was to cut it up into
hams, shoulders, side meat, back bones, ribs and
tenderloin. Plus all the fat was saved and the
next day Dad and Uncle Jay rendered lard from the
fat in that same big iron kettle. Lard was our
shortening in those days. From this rendering came
pork rinds or "cracklings" - Oh so good! Dad cured
the hams, shoulders and some side meat and stored
it in the cellar.

Some of the meat was brought into the house to
the women who ground it into sausage. Grandma and
Aunt Mae came to help Mother - maybe several days.
One of the duties of the women was to clean the
tapes (intestines) and soak them in salt water for
stuffed sausage. We had a sausage press which
pushed the ground sausage through a tube to which
the tape was fastened - presto sausage links!
Grandma and I had that job, but we made it fun and
giggled through the process. Some of the sausage
was made into patties which Mother "fried down" and
canned, covering it with grease to preserve it.
Too, she "cold packed' the tenderloin. This was


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the method of putting the tenderloin in cans then
putting then in a water bath in a wash boiler and
boiling for three hours. Delicious!

When we butchered a beef, the front quarters
were cold packed, but the hind quarters were kept
in a cold room where Dad cut roasts, steaks, etc.
as we needed them.

During the Depression we used feed sacks for
everything. Mother boiled the plain sacks until
they were pure white as snow and Grandma made
sheets, pillow cases, and towels from them. The
printed sacks she made into aprons, and Lib and I
even had dresses from them. We didn't feel
under privileged as everyone we knew was doing the
same thing.

We were always a happy family although we
worked hard but we enjoyed it and always had the
necessities of life. Dad and Mother belonged to a
community club that played "Rook" and to the Guild
of the church, a social group for families. Dad
was a member of the Masonic Lodge in Sunbury, but
Mother never joined Eastern Star. Mother belonged
to the "Larkin Club," a group of community women
who had social meetings, ordered from a book almost
anything they wanted and somehow received prizes
for certain orders. Mother did her mending at the
meetings: Mother mended something constantly.

No one in our family caused trouble. Ray had
a temper but Dad controlled that early on. Ray
teased Lib a lot - but Mother didn't understand.
As a child Lib loved to color pictures with
crayons, and she was very particular about staying
in the lines, etc. Ray would take a pencil and hit
her crayon just enough to send it out of the lines.
Lib would cry and say, "Ray's mean to me." Mother


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immediately called from another part of the room,
"Raymond, don't touch Elizabeth. "Ray did not tell a
lie, he'd say, "I didn't touch her!" He didn't but
his pencil was surely knocking that crayon around
ruining her pretty picture.

Dad worked hard, but always took an hour at
noon to rest and smoke his pipe. We had one chair
in the house that was Dad's. Whoever was sitting
in it was up immediately when Dad entered the room.
He'd say "Sit still," but believe, no one did.
His theory was - 'It doesn't pay to sit around
worrying. If you can do something about a problem,
get busy and do it! If it's beyond your control,
let it be!' Also he believed a person had to take
a stand on his beliefs, but never be disrespectful
in doing it and be able to take criticism. He
always said, "You never find rocks under a green
sour apple tree." Aunt Mae just didn't understand
Dad's theory about worry and said, "no one down
there ever worries, so I have to do it. Someone
has to take care of them and do a little worrying."

We always had pets growing up. Our old dog
"Watch" lived to be very old. Our cats were barn
cats. I can remember Dad squirting milk, and the
cats sitting there by the cows catching it in their
mouths while he was milking.

I was born in a big square white house which
still stands on Rt. 61 just north of and on the
same side of the road as the Nazarene church, but
we moved a year later to our family home old 3C,
the first house east of the junction of old 3C and
Condit Road. It too was a large two story white
house with three porches, a summer kitchen and an
attic. After my mother died, Dad sold the place,
all the animals, etc., and we lived with my Uncle


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George in Columbus. I'm not sure of the story, but
in 3 months Dad had bought back everything, and we
moved home. When I was teaching in Miamisburg in
1942, a group of us went to a fortune teller who
told me the above story which I had never heard.
When I asked Dad he said, "Yes that happened, but I
never told. you. You were too small." Scary, huh?

I can never remember having our back door
locked. In fact - we didn't have a key. After the
3-C was built, our front doors were kept locked,
but no one ever used them. Everyone followed the
stone walk to our back door.

Until after I graduated from college, our
kitchen and dining room were combined in one room
with a walk in pantry off it. As a child I do not
remember an ice box. We would hang our food down
in the cistern in a bucket to keep it cool. Too,
our "cellar" was cool, and we kept some foods plus
all our home canned goods down there. That cellar
had 12 inch square black walnut beams in it.

We had a "Watkins Man," Dave Allison, who came
by to sell us vanilla, spices, and liniment. "Nan,
he was your friend, Joyce Edwards' grandfather."
He seemed to manage to arrive at our house about
noon and ate many meals with us. Another huckster
who dealt with us was a man named Hogue who sold
fresh fish. Mother always bought or traded eggs
with him for fresh pickerel. I think they are
called walleyes now. Mother saved her egg money
and on Saturday nights we went to town to buy our
groceries. Until I went to high school, we shopped
at MacGuire's grocery, and Miller and Tuttle
Department Store in Centerburg.

After I started high school in Sunbury, our
family traded at Kroger's and Root's Department


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Store in Sunbury. The eggs that we didn't sell
along the road, we'd trade to Kroger's for
groceries. Saturday night was a big night as I
could meet friends and walk around the square while
Dad and Mother shopped. I'm sure I walked a
hundred miles during those years. Eddie Haller had
a popcorn machine and sold popcorn on the street.
Somehow he liked me and would give me a couple
sacks every Saturday night to munch on as we
walked.

We lived on a farm in Condit on the 3-C
Highway. In fact Dad helped build the road in
1922. Of course that road is now called old 3-C as
we have a new Rt. 3. Dad used his horses and a bit
slip shovel to move dirt for the road bed. Mother
hated it as everything was covered with dust the
entire summer and Ray was a baby.

Turnbulls, who had two daughters Emogene (my
age) and Marjorie June (Lib's age), lived on the
corner of Rt. 3 and Condit Road. Francis Ryan,
Ray's friend, lived close by, too. In summer we
played croquet - never took the set down except to
mow. We girls swam in the creek down by Turnbull's
bridge. Emogene saved Lib's life there. We held
on to a board to swim in deep water. When Lib fell
off, I just screamed, but Emogene pulled her out as
she was going down the third time.

Eloise Tucker was another childhood friend
with whom I played. One day she sat in a cow pie
(by mistake). I used Mother's spatula to try to
scrape it off, but couldn't. We took her clothes
to her house and put them in the washer with cold
water. Needless to say we were in BIG TROUBLE!

An event I'll never forget was the Klu Klux
Klan renting a pasture field from Dad and burning a


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big cross. There were hundreds of people there.
Only a few wore Klan outfits, but it was the
biggest celebration of the time. Why Dad let them
do it I do not know.

Our corner grocery was across from Turnbull's
house. We ran a running bill which Dad paid every
week. Charley and Lucy McElwee (Mr. and Mrs. to
us) owned the store and always gave us candy. Once
when Ray wanted something and Mother said we didn't
have the money, he said "Go to McElwee's. We
don't have to pay for it there."

We lived so close to Grandma and O'dad Farris
that I was at their house as much as at home.
O'dad died in 1933, just before I started college,
Grandma in 1940. when Grandma died, my Uncle Wello
gave me a black ugly stand which I didn't want, but
Mother made me take it. Many years later when I
married, she gave me the stand. Again, I didn't
want it, but Bernard said, "We'll take it," and now
it is one of my most prized possessions. Bernard
took the black paint layer off with a toothbrush.
It has birds eye maple insets which couldn't even
be noticed when it was that awful black. Also I
have 6 handmade chairs that were my great
grandmother Culver's. My grandma always wanted
them, but one of her sisters, Belle Gorsuch, had
them. She willed them to another sister, Bertha
Headington, who later willed them to me. Poor
Grandma was gone, but I have the chairs.


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BERNARD

Five Searles brothers come to New Jersey and
each went to a different state. Frank Peter
(Bernard's great grandfather) came to Paulding
County then to Croton and next to Delaware County
in 1826.

November 18, 1914, Bernard Jay Searles was
born to Minnie E. Mead Searles and Jay M. Searles
(Peter's grandson). He joined his brother Arlo and
sisters Lillian and Mildred.

Bernard's grandparents all lived close to him.
His grandfather Theodore Peter Searles and
grandmother Helen Searles lived just a half
mile down the road from him, so he could always get
Grandma's cooking including her cookies that she
kept in her special cookie jar. Grandpa kept dried
beef (which Bernard loved) hanging behind the
stove, but Bernard never learned Grandpa's method
of drying meat. Grandpa Searles was in the Civil
War in Co. H 121st Infantry of the Ohio Volunteer
Infantry. He never wanted to talk about his
experiences in the war but he said to Bernard,
"Son, someday you'll be in one." Bernard was in
WWII.

Bernard used to sit on a block of wood beside
his grandpa to listen to many stories after he had
helped with chores - shelling corn for the Plymouth
Rock chickens, sawing wood with a cross cut saw,
and gardening by learning to plant by the signs of
the moon. Grandpa also taught Bernard weather
signs - mare's tails, mackerel skies, rings around
the moon, and rainbows. For some reason neither
ever found the pot of gold at the end of the
rainbow. Some of Grandpa's sayings that Bernard
remembers are: "Take anything that anyone gives


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you, even if you throw it away on the way home" and
it's a damned poor ride that doesn't beat a walk."
Every fall these two buddies gathered walnuts and
hickory nuts for Grandma's goodies.

The Mead grandparents, Bailey T. Mead and Eva
Orcutt Mead lived in Sunbury on Columbus Street.
He was a painter and paper hanger. However,
Bernard didn't enjoy the profession. He worked for
two weeks for this grandpa and never received even
a "thank you," so he quit!

Dad Searles' sister, Ora Searles De Haven and
daughter Helen of Cleveland visited the Searles'
farm for several weeks each summer. During that
time other aunts and uncles including Mrs. Searles'
sister, Pearl, and husband Walter Engel came for a
big picnic.

The Searles family all attended and were
members of the Methodist Church in Berkshire. The
kids walked to Sunday School every Sunday to earn
the special attendance pin. Berkshire also had
Children's Day celebration for which they practiced
and again the Searles kids walked in the hot sun to
practice. This was not Bernard's favorite event!

Bernard realizes now that his father handled
the money in the family. Times were rough,
especially during the depression. He also ruled
the family with a kind hand. There was a big
cherry tree in their back yard, and when Bernard
was big enough to pick cherries, he had to use a
ladder because the first cherry was 30 feet above
the ground. He was sure this was caused by dad
pulling sprouts off to switch him for "little"
mistakes, so when he picked that first cherry he
ate it! You see his dad had killed a peach tree
from pulling sprouts. What does this tell you


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about young Bernard? There must have been many
"little" mistakes! Since Bernard was the baby of
the family, he was bossed by everyone, or so he
felt. Older brother Arlo caused BJ trouble until
he was big enough to get control of the situation.

One escapade that Bernard remembers is the
horse purchase. Mr. Searles bought a horse at a
sale about 15 miles from their home. Early the
next morning Bernard was supposed to lead the horse
home, but after several miles he was so tired that
he stopped the horse by a culvert and crawled on to
ride. Everything was going well until Dad Searles
arrived with a sandwich for Bernard's lunch. Mr.
Searles was not a happy man! He made BJ get off
"skutched" him, and said "I don't want you to ride
this horse, lead it!" Again poor Bernard wore out
and started to ride. In fact, he rode that horse
up to the barn door. Mr. Searles said nothing. Do
you think he realized at that moment that Bernard
had a mind of his own?

The family dogs, Old Fannie and Old Shep, were
like family members. Do you think they were called
"old" as pups, or was that word added in honor of
their age? Once a bull put Mr. Searles up a tree
until Old Fannie heard him calling, "Fannie
Fannie." She came running, took the bull by the
tail and chased him across the field so Dad Searles
could get down and out of the field. All the
family credit Old Fannie for saving Mr. Searles'
life.

BJ's mother was a good seamstress, sewing not
only for her family, but for many people in the
community. She also did beautiful needlework which
her daughter Lillian learned well from her.
Everyone in the family has a doily or scarf as a


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keepsake. Also Mother Searles controlled her part
in the family. They always had their meals
together, and when she rang her dinner bell,
everyone headed for the house with no questions
asked. Anyone who didn't come when the bell rang.
didn't eat! She fixed a meal one time and one time
only! Also each person had a special place at the
table. Bernard sat between his mother and dad. BJ
is sure that his parents were happy although they
had to work very hard and be very frugal. They
belonged to community clubs and enjoyed those
social times. Dad Searles belonged to the Masonic
Lodge and both belonged to the order of the Eastern
Star, serving as Worthy Matron and Worthy Patron,
and in later years Dad Searles served as Worthy
Patron for his daughter Lillian.

Bernard remembers his dad believed hard work
was good for a person and always said that a man
with a gun and/or a fishing pole would never amount
to a damn. Peculiar, as Bernard loved to hunt and
trap and was an avid fisherman, and surely was
not a failure!

The Searles home on south Galena road about
one half mile south of Berkshire was a big brick
house with four bedrooms upstairs and a living
room, parlor, kitchen and dining room on the first
floor. Everyday meals were eaten in the kitchen,
but Sunday, company and thresher meals were always
in the dining room. They had a solid oak table
that would extend to seat fourteen people.
Nan and Keith have that table as their dining room
table. now.

The Searles' had a piano in their parlor which
Bob Searles has now. It is a beautiful piece of
furniture. Both BJ's mother and Lillian played the


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piano, and Bernard took lessons, but he hated every
minute as he couldn't understand his teacher who
had no palate. She was the daughter of Frank B.
Willis who was running for president but had a
fatal heart attack on the stage at Ohio Wesleyan
while giving a campaign speech.

There were five fireplaces in the house, but
they were all blocked off as they were not heat
effective. However, they made good places to hang
Christmas stockings.

The Searles' front doors were always locked as
the house was so large that no one could hear the
front door opening . They kept their food in a well
as my family did until BJ was a freshman in high
school. Then they had an ice box and the ice man,
Wello Crowl, delivered ice once a week. Of course
living in the country, they had their mail
delivered by John Domigan in a horse driven buggy.
However there was not so much junk mail as today.

Dave Allison sold them Watkins goods too, but
BJ doesn't remember having him stay for lunch.
Bernard's family traded eggs for groceries at the
Red and White Store on the corner of the east side
of the square.

The Searles family farmed, milked cows, and
raised turkeys. Bernard says that his mother
raised Turkeys and he chased them. He had many
chores even as a young boy both morning and evening
with the light of a kerosene lantern. On chilly
mornings when he went after the cows barefooted,
he'd run from cow to cow and stand, where it had
been lying to warm his feet.

An old gentleman, Emery Young, gave Bernard an
old ewe, and from that old ewe he had a flock of 33
sheep which he sold when he left the farm to work

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at Sears after graduating from high school.

As a young boy BJ mowed with a real type
mower, the big yard which surrounded their house.
He mowed not only his yard but also his
grandfather's and a neighbor's (Roland Neilson) who
gave him $.50 for mowing a BIG yard.

Two events of Bernard's youth impressed him
all through the years. First is the reading
session his mother had every time the Ohio Farmer
arrived. Zane Gray had a continuing story about
Indians and settlers in the magazine. Mrs. Searles
read the story by kerosene lamp to the entire
family, and everyone looked forward to the arrival
of the magazine. The second is seeing the burning
of the effigy of Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany in the
Sunbury square after the end of WWI. Sitting on
his father's shoulders he could see and hear the
entire celebration. Two of Sunbury's businessmen,
Herb Irwin and Chan Root, were standing on either
side of Mr. Searles. They each patted Bernard on
the shoulder and said, "You'll never forget this as
long as you live," and he hasn't.

As a small child Bernard like to run away and
see his neighbors, as I did. The neighbor always
called his mother, and someone would go after him.
His mother stopped that by tying him to the
clothesline!

Although there was a group of boys who played
together, Carl Hough and Alton Wigton were his best
buddies. They swam in the creek and slid on the
ice in the winter. These activities were only when
there wasn't farm work to be done.


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ELEMENTARY SCHOOL - BJ AND LOLA

Bernard went to Berkshire Elementary School
which still stands on Rt. 37 across from the
present Bent Tree Golf Course. His neighbor Paul
Curtis Williams started in first grade with him and
graduated with him 12 years later. Kindergarten
was not heard of in those days. When a child was
ready for school he went. Of course Bernard walked
to school with the other neighborhood kids for the
first four years. The school was consolidated with
Sunbury just before his fifth year, and he rode the
bus from then on with his dad as driver. Since
there was no cafeteria, Bernard carried his lunch,
and he says he lived on cheese and bologna
sandwiches.

I guess Condit wasn't as advanced as Berkshire
as I went all eight grades to country school about
1/2 mile from my childhood home. In fact it was
next door to our present home at 4568 North State
Route 3, and the kids carried water from this house
to the school for our big common water jar with its
dipper. Condit was proud of that one room brick
schoolhouse with the big round stove in the center
which the teacher fired. In my eight years, we had
five different teachers who not only taught but
acted as janitor too. A coal shed and two
outhouses completed the school "campus." Of course
I walked to school too with a group of kids from
down the road. We had no Phys-ed in those days and
didn't need it. Although I started school in
September and wasn't 5 until October, I made it! I
was driving my Dad crazy so the teacher, Mabel
Huffman, made a deal. She'd let me try, if it
worked OK, if not I'd repeat the grade. Everything
was easy and so much fun! As a result, I passed

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every year and graduated from high school at age
16.

One of our games in elementary school was
"ante-over" the shed. The bigger boys played it
over the school house. Tag, Run Red Rover, Hide
and Seek were good games too. In winter we slid
down the hill in a field near the school house.

I was very cold in the winter so Mother made
me wear long underwear. When I got to school, I'd
go to the "outhouse" and roll my underwear above my
knees. Sometimes I'd forget to put them back down
before I left school, so I'd have to fix them while
sitting on the front porch before going into the
house.

As I look back on it, we had some strange
people in our school. We had a bully in our
school, Hezz Conner. One day as we were lined up
to march into school at recess, Hezz set Violet
Condit Lee's hair on fire. The last I heard of him
he was in jail. We had 2 brothers (Forest and Jim
Edwards) in school who really disliked even the
idea of going to school. In the spring and fall
during good weather, they'd jump out the window and
go home. No one ever did anything about their
escapades.

One fall a boy, Willard Schoonover, ran away
from school out into a corn field where he sat
beside a big cornshock. A storm was brewing so the
teacher took the entire school, all 15 of us, out
to hunt him. When we found him, he picked up a
big, big rock and holding it over his head said,
"Don't come near me or I'll drop it!" The teacher
made us all turn around and go back to the school.
All the way back I kept thinking, I'd have said,
"Go ahead!' and I'd have gone right up to him.


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I'm sure he was bluffing. Later during the storm
Willard came in dripping wet to sit by the big
stove to get dry.

We always had programs at school which the
community attended. One Christmas, Dad picked up
all the neighbors in our big sled pulled by two
horses to take them to the school program. The
program was so long and the students had to stand
on the stage the entire time. I had to go to the
bathroom so bad, so I did! My long underwear was
really absorbent, so nobody knew! BUT after that
cold sled ride home, the long johns were frozen
stiff when I took them off. Even Mother thought it
was funny!


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HOLIDAYS AND CELEBRATIONS

I can't remember birthdays when I was
very young, but during my teenage years I always
invited friends for a meal. Mother was an
exceptionally good cook and loved making special
dishes. One time 4 girls were birthday guests.
They weighed themselves before dinner and after.
Each of us gained either 4 or 5 pounds. As I grew
older I always helped Mother celebrate all
birthdays.

Christmas was a great time at our house. We
always had a real tree with popcorn strings, and
beautiful glass balls, and real candles. Dad let
us light the candles once on Christmas Eve, but he
stood by with a bucket of water to douse it in case
of fire. In 1934 Columbus and Southern Light
Company came to the corner below our house, and Dad
built his own electric line to our place. From
then on we had electric Christmas lights. However,
we always had a real tree.

Mr. Searles and the boys cut their Christmas
tree from their own woods, and Mrs. Searles and the
girls decorated it. Bernard made paper chains and
sewed popcorn strings but ate more than he strung.
They had no lights or candles - too dangerous.
With all their fireplaces there was plenty of room
to hang their Christmas stockings. Each sock had
an orange, some candy and a surprise.

Even after Bernard and I were married until
Nan was married we still had real trees. After her
marriage in 1969, we bought an artificial tree for
$13.95 on sale from Sears (their first). Now the
same tree is $89.95, but we still have our same


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tree. However, last year, 1994, we did not put up
a tree - we missed it!

Every year Mother made pounds of homemade
candy - chocolate drops, stuffed dates, divinity,
chocolate and peanutbuttter fudge. She'd hide it
from us until she was ready to use it, and we never
did find her hiding place, but we tried! Too, she
bought nuts in the shell - pecans, English walnuts
and Brazil nuts. Oh, were they delicious! Bernard's
mother made pounds of candy, too. H e especially
remembers peanutbrittle and seafoam that melted in
your mouth!

Christmas morning, Mother and Zada Longshore
raced to see who could call and wish the other
"Christmas Greetings" first. Zada kept that
tradition with me until her death.

Our Christmas dinner was always at Grandma
Farris's place with my birth mother's family as the
Leach tribe (Mother's family) were too far away. I
know now that Mother was really closer to my birth
family than her own because of the distance.

The Searles and Mead families always came to
Bernard's parents for Christmas dinner and gift
exchange in the afternoon. It's kind of ironic
that all of us had big Plymouth Rock roosters
roasted and stuffed with dressing. Neither family
had turkey. Grandma's house was small, but the
joy and love were big-big!

After I began teaching, I bought enough gifts
for Lib so that she could open one each day from
the day I arrived until Christmas. She really
enjoyed the times I had early dismissal for
Christmas.

The year Ray graduated from high school he


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wanted to give his senior picture to his girl
friend. He was to take my car and pickup his
picture in Delaware. We had a terrible ice storm,
but Ray couldn't take "No" for an answer so we slid
all the way to Delaware and back, but
Ray got his pictures.

Years later Bernard wouldn't take "no " for an
answer either. Dad told me to call Bernard and
tell him not to try to come out on the ice on the
Christmas Eve of 1945. He came, he fell, he
conquered! In spite of falling flat on his rear in
our driveway, he brought my present, stayed a while
and spent an hour getting back to Sunbury (4
miles). I was sure he had had an accident, but he
made It!

We never celebrated Halloween as a family, but
when I was in high school, I'd stay overnight with
my good friend Mildred Gelston Amstutz, and we'd
get a group to go around Sunbury, ringing
doorbells, throwing shelled corn on porches, and
turning over chairs. We thought we were big stuff!
The high school boys often went out in the country
and tipped over "outhouses." In fact when I came
back to teach in Sunbury and lived at home, some
boys tipped over Dad's "two-holer." Of course it
wasn't used any more, but Dad was angry!

Bernard went Hallowe'ening with his buddies in
Berkshire, but they were never destructive nor did
they tip over "outhouses." There was no such thing
as "trick or treat" during our youth. By the time
Nan was a child, "trick or treating" and dressing
in costume was the custom. Even in the country
parents drove their children around the
neighborhood. I always took Nan as Bernard was
milking cows at that time. Later when she had Jay


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he enjoyed "trick or treating" too. After Nan was
older the community children came to our house.
The news traveled fast that Lolly had homemade
popcorn balls. Kids took for themselves and their
parents.

Both Bernard's and my families had lots of
Easter eggs. Our mothers colored the eggs and hid
them in the yard. Also both mothers made their own
chocolate covered candy eggs. - delicious! Since
both families were church oriented they stressed
the Christian beliefs of the Easter story.

Fourth of July was a big day in our community.
A huge celebration was held every year at the
Charley Rinehart home on Centerburg Road. The Mt.
Pleasant Church had a program, homemade ice cream,
cake and pie and fireworks for a finale. Everyone
from surrounding communities came, except
Berkshire. Bernard had never heard of this big
affair. His family always had their own
celebration with firecrackers and homemade ice
cream. One year at about age eight, I remember in
particular; I was the center of attention. A
couple days before, I had been wading in our creek
and cut my foot very deep. I was determined to go
to the Rinehart celebration, so Dad made me
crutches out of croquet mallets. What a night but
it was fun! By the way, I still have the scar from
that cut! As a child I enjoyed this fireworks , then
as a teenager I enjoyed meeting the gals and guys
and having fun!

When Nan was in high school, she was a life
guard at our local pool with Polly Whitney Horn.
Polly organized a synchronized swimming team which
gave a program on July 4th weekend. Nan and
Malinda both participated in this production which


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was outstanding. Several years later Sunbury had a
Flea Market, food, program and fireworks at the
high school. Our Sesqui and Bi-Centennial programs
were very special. Bernard and I were co-chairmen
with Bill and Margaret Fisher for the Bi-
Centennial. However Dan and Eva Jane Williams
helped much more than the Fishers. Mary Perfect
had charge of the Flea Market. For the Sesqui
Lucille Peregrine Campbell and I wrote and directed
a play "Our Town - Sunbury" which surprised many
people. The closing scene was of Nan portraying
the Statue of Liberty with a big flag from FT.
Hayes behind her - very inspirational!


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HIGH SCHOOL


Bernard and I both went to Sunbury High School
(now an elementary school) on Harrison Street and
graduated together in 1932. Our class rings cost
$12.25. Mine was the smallest and Bernard's was
the largest. I could put my ring inside his
easily. There was no school bus in my area my
freshman year, so I rode with Wendell Day. He took
Pauline Lane Reuwee and Merrill Courter, too.
Wendell played all sports, so we were always late
getting home. One day Pauline, Mary Hayes and I
decided to take a ride in Wendell's car although
neither of us had ever actually driven a car. I
shifted gears, Pauline steered, and Mary put on the
brakes. For some reason we never got out of the
school yard as one of the trees got in our way. It
dented a fender - well crumpled it. Mr. Day made us
pay for it or he said he'd tell our parents. I had
to get that money from Dad, but I couldn't ask for
a large amount, so I talked Mr. Day into paying on
the installment plan and never mentioned "fender"
at home. I bought so much paper, pens, pencils,
etc., but they finally paid the bill. Mother was
glad to see the big yellow bus the first day of
school my sophomore year. Pearly Stockwell was our
bus driver and was still driving the bus when Nan
went to school. Bernard's dad drove his bus.
Actually sometimes Bernard drove for his dad in
emergencies.

Bernard had a trap line which he ran night and
morning during his high school years. He caught
mink, muskrat, skunks, coon, and possum. After
skinning and stretching the skins on shingles, he
sold them to a fur buyer. He bought his own
clothes and some "spending money" - fun money.


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My spending money came from my summer jobs. Our
neighbor Charley Lane, paid me 2 cents per quart to
pick strawberries for him. Money didn't add up
very fast. Too, I dressed chickens for a couple of
ladies for 25 cents a chicken. I was in the money!

We had a class of 25 people who graduated.
Our class was the first to wear caps and gowns.
Bernard was so angry as he had worked in a stone
quarry to get enough money for a new suit and had
to cover it with an ugly gray gown.

We had no Jr..-Sr. prom our junior year as one
board member would not let us dance in the school
building. We had a big party at Annabel Mundy's
home, a big brick house in Berkshire which was
later the Berkshire Nursing Home. We thought we
were big stuff! We'd shown Henry Wilson, Sr. that
he couldn't boss us!

Since we had no Jr.-Sr. prom to finance, we
had no Junior play, but we had a senior class play
and I had the role of Patsy - the slowest hired
maid in the world. That was surely not type
casting, but I had so much fun doing the part.
Bernard also had a part but his was a handsome
young man. He didn't have to act!

School was easy for me, but I was only
salutatorian of our class. Mildred Gelston was .3
points ahead of me. We were best friends and I
spent many "overnights" with her to go to
ballgames, parties, etc. I loved school - enjoyed
studying but also had lots of fun. My social life
didn't include dating per-se as Dad thought I was
too young, and I was!

I was not a rebel, but I was mischievous-
doing things like putting a tack on our principal,
Homer Fisher's, chair, setting an alarm clock to

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ring in Glenard Buell's history class - but putting
it in Lucille Cornell Bailey's desk. That time I
got the giggles early and was sent out of class
before the alarm rang. I missed all the fun!
Bernard always said that I had good discipline when
I taught because I had done everything in my high
school years and knew what to expect.

In the ninth grade, Bernard broke his right
arm cranking a Model T Ford school bus. He had to
use his left arm for a long time and tried to do
his homework although it was unreadable. Teachers
gave him good grades for his efforts - especially
the algebra teacher, Miss Huston. Bernard was her
pet!

This same teacher caused me to have the
nickname "Lolly." She insisted on calling me Lolla
Dell. She'd say "Lolla Dell, go to the board." Of
course the boys made it Lolly Dell, then "Lolly"
which has stayed with me all these years. However,
Bernard has always called me "Jen" from Jennings.

Bernard says that he never liked school, but
he was always there. He never skipped even one
day. I skipped school 1/2 day my senior year.
Junior Whitney, Bess Ross (later his wife) and
Snooks Baker and I went to Alum Creek and skipped
stones in the water. The ride was the most fun as
Junior had an old Model T - no top, no floor boards,
painted in wild colors. The gas was controlled on
the steering wheel by a lever that was worked by
hand. What a bunch of junk, but we had fun! Of
course our superintendent, Mr. G. E. McFarland,
caught us, and we had to make up our time after
school. Luckily I was a helper on the Debate Team,
so I had excuse to stay with Mildred Gelston.

I know it seems strange now, but we didn't


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have gym classes in high school. Our principal was
our science teacher (all classes), and the
superintendent taught the high school math except
algebra and practical senior math. Miss Carey, our
English teacher, had a maroon corduroy suit that
she wore every day from October to May. The boys
made fun of her all the time. Right then I vowed
that if I ever became a teacher I'd have enough
clothes to wear something different every day for a
month, and I did! After Miss Carey left we had an
outstanding English teacher, Angeline Stanforth,
who inspired me to teach English.

Bernard and I both were brown baggers with the
most boring lunches, - peanut butter and dill pickle
sandwiches for me, and peanut butter and cheese for
BJ. As bad as it was, neither of us would carry a
lunch bucket so we could have a variety. Most of
my friends were town girls, but I had my country
lunch group too. Truthfully, I guess the town girl
group was a clique. Bernard's friends were the
boys in the Ag class. Since he worked so hard, he
never had time for sports.

I had an extra year in high school as Dad
thought I was too young to to go to college plus money
was scarce. During that year I took typing and
Spanish and acted as an aide to the teachers. Mr.
Roland Neilson was the 8th grade teacher, but also
the high school music teacher. Whenever he went to
the high school music class, I was sent to the 8th
grade class and actually taught some classes.

The fall of '33 I enrolled at Otterbein
College in Westervile. Bernard farmed with his
dad for several years until he got a job at Sears.
Later he drove truck for John Shultz and visited
every state in the U.S. at that time. He worked


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for Shultz until he received his Greetings letter
saying "Your friends and neighbors have selected
you to to serve your country." He says he's still
looking for those "friends and neighbors." From
1933 to 1945 our paths did not cross although we
did correspond during the war.


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THE INTERVAL

When I entered Otterbein, a friend of Mother's
(Esther Moore) made arrangements for me to live in
a dorm (Saum Hall) where the girls did their own
cooking. Pauline Barton and I were roommates our
freshman year, but she didn't like the cooking
aspect and moved to another dorm. Ruth Morrison
Johnson became my roommate the rest of my college
years. We ate more burned toast and burned beans
than I knew existed.

My sophomore year was an experience I'll never
forget. Second and third floors had a feud - only
at nights! During the day we were friends, but oh,
the nights! We really did some crazy things like
cooked spaghetti in beds, mattresses carried to the
storage room. and rubber bands around the middle of
our clothes, for a few. Ruth and I cinched it when
we took clothes to another dorm stuck them in
closets at random. That ended the feud and almost
ended us. When our antics became too noisy, Ma
Ferguson, dorm matron, would pull the switch to
darken the entire dorm except the bathroom lights
which had to be lit. Many a night Ruth and I took
our blankets and math books to study math in the
bathtubs wrapped in our blankets. We just had to
have our math for our tough Professor Glover who
still graded on the curve in his math classes. The
next year Ma Ferguson made me her assistant for
which I received room and board, so I ate at
Cochran Hall. Too I was moved with Ruth to a
downstairs room. Ma said she had to bring the
noise downstairs. One of the requirements at
Otterbein was Chapel every day at 11:30 A.M. with 3
cuts allowed a semester. We were seated


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alphabetically and roll was taken very easily and
thoroughly.

Otterbein was such a friendly school and small
enough that every one knew everyone! As a result I
was active in many organizations. There were no
national social fraternities and sororities, but
local. I joined Kappa Phi Omega (ΚΦΩ). We had a
large pledge class and kept the actives busy. Of
course they retaliated with stupid ideas like
asking for hair from each of the professor's dogs,
asking for a nickel's worth of ride on the
Greyhound Bus then having to walk back to town.
Our motto was and is "Sisters and friends until the
end." Although there aren't many of us left, we're
still sisters and friends.

During my years at Otterbein, I was active in
the Drama Department and a member of Cap and
Dagger, honorary drama and speech organization. My
favorite professor was Prof. John Smith, my speech
teacher. He not only taught the principles of
speaking; he also taught the principles of living.
One of the plays I remember best was "She Stoops to
Conquer" produced in the band shell in the park by
the Alum Creek. I had a fun part in that play.

I worked on the school paper "The Tan and
Cardinal" for two years. Too, as a member of WAA
(Women's Athletic Association), I played intra-
mural sports; namely - basketball, volleyball, and
cageball. My junior year I was chosen as one of
the Winter princesses for basketball homecoming.

As a senior, I was one of five chosen to be a
part of "Who's Who in Colleges and Universities."
This was indeed an honor.

One of my best friends at Otterbein was Mary


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Otsuki, a Japanese protege of an outstanding
minister of the times in Columbus, Dr. Roy
Burkhart. Mary taught me a great deal about
caring, prejudice, and true friendship. When I
wanted to bring her home, Dad wasn't sure, but he
learned to love Mary as did everyone who met her.

We had several foreign students at Otterbein
who taught me many new ideas of different cultures
and made me see the wrongs in our own culture. For
instance, we had an African Prince who could not go
to the local movie at Kaufman's theater, unless
there was a white person on either side of him. If
he ate at Williams Grill better known as Willies,"
the college hangout, he and his companions had to
sit in a rear booth. Too "Willies" would not sell
a bus ticket to black or oriental students. They
had to buy them from the bus driver.

During my junior year of college, we had
problems at home. Mother had gall bladder surgery
at Mt. Carmel hospital. Three days after her
surgery, Lib ten years old, had an acute attack of
appendicitis and had surgery at Mt. Carmel too. I
stayed in the hospital with Lib overnight and
visited Mother as I could. Dad said he paid for
1/2 of the new wing of the hospital that was built
that year. There was no hospital insurance in
those days.

In the midst of all these happenings, I had
several jobs to help with college expenses. I baby
sat for professors' kids, ironed white shirts for a
very "persnickety" lady, cleaned house for a lady
who kept her table set for her dead son who had
committed suicide, and worked as a waitress at
Willie's for banquets and special parties.
However, my social life didn't suffer. I attended


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most of the fraternity dances and parties but never
had a serious boyfriend - just friends.

During the summers a group of Otterbein
students worked at Seaside Hospital at New Dorp,
Staten Island, N. Y. Otterbein let us take exams
early, and we traveled by bus to New York, then by
ferry to Staten Island and then by a small train to
New Dorp to this big charity children's hospital on
the beach of the Atlantic Ocean (Seaside). Student
nurses from a Catholic hospital in upstate New York
took their pediatrics training there. The children
brought there lived in the slums of New York and
many had never seen green grass. They came on a
Sunday, had tonsillectomies on Tuesday and left the
following Saturday. Then there were two wards, an
orthopedic and a cardiac ward, that stayed all
summer. The experience in that hospital almost
changed my career. When I returned to Otterbein my
senior year, I worked for and received a
scholarship for Western Reserve Nurses Training in
Cleveland. My dad said, "I spent this money. You
teach one year; then if you still want to be a
nurse, we'll talk."

So I started looking for a teaching job and
found one at Miamisburg, Ohio. In those days (the
dark ages) women could not teach if they were
married, and my good friend Evelyn Nichols was
planning to be married, so she gave me first chance
at her job - even before she resigned. Another
dear friend, Ella B. Smith, was teaching music
there and put in a good word for me. After twenty
attempts, I wrote a perfect letter of application
and was given the job for a salary of $1035 per
year teaching 8th grade arithmetic, English and
penmanship. Had I known about the penmanship


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class, I wouldn't have had such a perfect letter.
I was the first person in the class of '37 to have
a job before graduation, thanks to my friends. Dad
was an intelligent man. He knew I'd get involved
besides getting in debt and would forget nursing.

My days at Otterbein were very happy days,
plus I received a good Liberal Arts education with
a B. A. degree in Education, credited to teach the
following subjects: English, Speech, Mathematics,
French and Social Studies. Friendships made at
Otterbein have been lasting through the years.

For 7 years I taught at Miamisburg from 1937 -
1944. Four other teachers and I lived with a
wonderful woman, Rose Murray, whom we all called
"Mom." I paid $8.50 a week for room and board -
cooking like my mother's. She treated us all like
her daughters which we enjoyed. Her own daughter
Helen lived with us until she married. Those
Miamisburg days were good ones, and I still have
visits from some students there.

The summer after my first year of teaching I
returned to Staten Island, but the next summer I
started graduate school at Ohio State which I never
completed after that term.

During the summer of 1939, Mom Murrays's
daughter, Helen, and ex-daughter-in-law, Lila Mae,
and I went to the World's Fair in New York City.
The next summer I spent a great deal of time
helping care for Mother's sister, Alice, who was
ill with terminal cancer. She was being cared for
by Mother's other sister and husband, Nan and John
Pierson, in Canal Winchester. I came home on
weekends but spent the rest of the time with the
Piersons. Their daughter, Evelyn, and I became
very close and I later taught in Sunbury for her


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husband, Tommy Lang.

In 1939 I bought a new Chevrolet Coupe from
Wllliamson's in Sunbury for $939 financed through
General Motors. Can you believe I was naive enough
to let Dad and Ray convince me that Ray should put
the first 1000 miles on my new car? I loved that
car and still had it in 1946 when I married
Bernard.

Cars were not available after the war. A
person had to put his name in sort of a lottery and
hope he was lucky, as each dealer could get only a
few cars. Bernard had his name in with two dealers
but no car! My old Chevy kept us going for several
years.

Soon after my car purchase, World War II came
along. I can remember as if it were yesterday when
the news came over the radio on December 7, 1941,
of the bombing of Pearl Harbor. I was grading
papers as usual, at Mom Murray's desk. Both of us
started to cry. We were sure we were doomed! The
next day President Roosevelt declared war.
Immediately our lives began to change. Rationing
was set into place with shoes, gas, sugar, meat
and butter available only through stamps. Our
school was closed for several days as the teachers
gave out the stamps in the Miamisburg area. The
stamps were rationed according to need, size of
family, occupation, etc. it was really difficult
as no one was happy with his/her allotment. Some of
the rules were very strange. For example, the
school was not given gas stamps to use the buses
for athletic events, but teachers were given extra
stamps if they would drive different teams to
events. I drove the first string basketball team
to every game.


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Since my parents were farmers and had their
own meat and butter, they gave their meat and
butter stamps to Mom Murray, so we ate well. Shoes
were a problem for me but manufacturers began
making shoes with synthetic soles - no leather.
They didn't last long, but I had shoes!

Up to this time time women wore silk hose but they
couldn't be found, so nylon hose came into
existence. How we hated them! In the summer girls
"painted" their legs with regular leg make-up.
That worked well unless the gal was in the rain -
oh me, streaked legs!

Since Miamisburg was so close to Wright
Patterson Air Force Base, we had air-raid drills every
week. One drill which consisted of getting the
kids out of the building and into to nearby homes was
to be used if we had an early warning. The other,
getting the kids under the desks, was to be used
when their was no previous warning. The kids took
the drills seriously as the propaganda was indeed
specific and graphic.

All the eligible men teachers were drafted or
volunteered leaving the women with many jobs. For
instance, besides my regular teaching duties, I
acted as treasurer of the high school activities
accounts and as truant officer for the entire
system. Also I was score keeper for all basketball
games with no remuneration for any of these extra
jobs.

Many of the high school boys worked in the
factories in Dayton that had been converted to make
war materials. Those boys made enormous salaries
plus were in school full time - when I, as truant
officer, forced them. My principal, Frank Young,
and I spent several days in court to keep the boys and

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girls in school.

I had a special friend whom I met at Seaside
Hospital that became a captain in the infantry.
When he was on leave he visited our family in
Condit, and I went to Chicago to bid him goodbye
when he went overseas. He was critically injured
at Normandy.

To help morale (or so I said ) I wrote to many
boys from home and from Miamisburg. One day a group
of us gals went to a palm reader in Dayton, and she
told me that I would receive a letter that day from
the man I would marry. When I picked up my mail,
there was a letter fro M/Sgt. Bernard Searles. I
said, "Little does she know' we'd never marry!"
Well, we married - 49 years of marriage this May -
50 in 1996.

I taught at Miamisburg for seven good years
for a principal who taught me to be organized,
punctual, responsible, and yet have fun teaching.
Surprisingly he had retired from Miamisburg and was
Nan's supervisory professor when she was a student
teacher at Otterbein.

In 1944, Mother had a severe heart attack and
Dad needed help at home although Lib was there.
There was an opening at Sunbury High School on
Harrison Street in the same building where I had
attended high school. Tom Lang (my step-cousin-in-
law) was Superintendent. He hired my for $2000 a
year and at the same time he hired Helen Griffith
as home-ec teacher. We became the best of friends
and worked on many projects together, such as team
dinners before games, washing the basketball suits,
selling tickets at all games to name a few. These
duties were over and above our regular teaching
duties and all without pay!


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Mother improved from her heart attack and was
able to enjoy grandchildren in later years.

Lib worked at the Farmer's Bank - now City
National and rode with me. The only time we ever
quarreled was when she was late. She'd brush her
hair and fiddle around until one morning I left
her. Oh, that caused trouble as Dad had to stop
milking and take her to work. He yelled at both of
us!

April of 1945, President Franklin Delano
Roosevelt died, and we were sure we'd lose the war
but the war was beginning to wind down. On May 7,
1945, Germany surrendered, that day is Known as VE
Day. On August 6, 1945, the first Atomic bomb was
dropped on Hiroshima, Japan; then a second on
Nagasaki, August 9. Japan surrendered August 15,
1945! Those were big days in our lives at that
time. Many of our friends from home, college and
Miamisburg were killed or injured. We who went
through WWII never want to do it again!

That fall I went to see Lillian Searles, a
dear friend of mine, and guess who opened the door?
M/Sgt. Bernard Searles. He says that I told him I
came to see Lillian - not him! Maybe I did.
Before this story continues I'm going to have
Bernard's army experience chapter that will bring
him up to date when he opened the door for me.


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AN ALL EXPENSE TOUR

Related by BJ


In the late 30's Bernard quit working at Sears
and began working for John Shultz who had a
trucking business in Galena, Ohio. It was while
working there that BJ received that infamous letter
from Uncle Sam stating, "Your friends and neighbors
have selected you." In March 1942, Bernard was
inducted into the U. S. Air Force at Fort Hayes,
Columbus, Ohio, and was sent to Jefferson Barracks,
Missouri, for basic training. His next stop was
Airplane Mechanic School at Englewood , California,
from which he graduated with honors. The
government enjoyed giving the men travel
experience, so it sent BJ's group back to Columbia,
S. Carolina, where they were formed into a cadre
for the 340th Bomb Group of the Twelfth Air Force.
Also at Columbia they were visited by a violent
hail storm that ruined fourteen planes. Thanks to
the ground crews of which BJ was a part, the planes
were repaired in a few days. The next move was to
Walterboro, S.C., where the group received
"overseas" training for running missions.

January 30, 1943, the group climbed into
waiting trains and headed for a secret destination,
which everyone knew was Camp Stoneman at Pittsburg,
California. Bernard called this the monsoon season
as it rained every day. In spite of all the rain
and inclement weather, the group had days of stiff
tests, including imaginary air raids, debarkation
nets, obstacle course, and twelve mile hikes with
full packs.

The men were issued heavy cold weather
clothes, and rumors flew fast. The flight crews
left first, and on Valentine's Day the ground crew


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marched on to a G. I. Ferry, sailed down the bay to
board the U.S.S. West Point wile the band played
"Auld Lang Syne."

For the next forty-two days the group enjoyed
(?) and all-expense-paid tour of the Southern
Hemisphere. Bernard was seasick for may of those
days. They stopped at New Zealand to drop off and
pick up mail, then went on to Australia where they
picked up some food -"bully" beef and catfish.
After one day on land, again they headed to sea to
their next stop Bombay, India, where they smelled
the smells and saw the sights. Bernard has trouble
describing the filth there.

The GI's were told to walk always in groups of
three. As BJ and two other fellows were walking
along a street, a small boy kept bothering them, so
one guy gave him a penny to scram. He left but
soon came back with a baby saying, "Yours - you
paid." Some how the men got rid of him. The men
were also told to eat only what could be peeled
while they were off the boat. In spite of the
advice many became victims of the GI's." They
soon learned that "FAYN-mo-ra-HEED?" meant "Where
is the toilet?"

Finally the 240th reached their destination -
Suez. The boat anchored of shore, and they were
taken ashore in rickety native boats. On shore
they were herded into rickety trains that took them
to their field-camp, El Kabrit, Egypt, on Little
Bitter Lake beside the Suez Canal. Kabrit was a
big camp with buildings, but they had so many
shrapnel oles in the roofs and sides that the
birds had taken over. There was sand everywhere -
not a tree in sight - which made it very difficult
to set up tents. They had their first mail call


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there plus a shave and haircut for twelve cents.

Bernard had quite an experience at Kabrit
during a rip-roaring sandstorm. BJ and another GI
were sent to the airstrip to moor down the planes.
The sand was so fine and the wind so strong that
the visibility was practically zero. BJ heard a
human cry and told his buddy to keep talking so he
could follow his voice to get back from
investigating the cry. He found a little boy
sobbing his heart out. The child had come into the
air strip through a hole in the fence but could not
find his way back. The sand and tears had made
mudballs on his eyes. Neither could understand the
other, but BJ made the child understand to trust
him. Bernard took water from his canteen, washed
the child's face, put a wet handkerchief above his
eyes, and started back to his pal, following his
voice. The little boy clutched BJ's hand until
they got back to headquarters where an interpreter
learned where the boy lived, and he was safely
returned home.

At this camp in Kabrit, in between repairing
his plane to chase Rommel across the sand, Bernard
went to see the Sphinx and the Pyramids, plus rode
a camel. He has the picture to prove it. British
soldiers were helping in the Rommel chase, but the
8th Army got most of the credit.

Later at Medenine, Tunisia, the men dug their
slit trenches and tent "cellars" in the hardest
ground they had seen. Too, this place had been a
mine field, supposedly cleared, but the men were
very careful withtheir shovels and feet! They
were just getting settled and feeling halfway
comfortable, when (you guessed it) they had to move.


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Their new home (?) was in Sfax, Tunisia, in the
midst of an orchard of peach, apricot, almond and
olive trees and many grapevines. Bernard said the
grapes were bigger than his thumb, purplish-green
in bunches about a foot long - delicious! The
fruit diet was welcomed after their mess hall food.
BJ said he lived on grapes for a week. They also
found beans, giant peas, and scallions ready for
picking. The Germans had left in such a hurry they
didn't have time to pick them.

Easter Sunday was a bad day for the 340th. It
dawned bright and sunny, but turned out to be
black! Church was held in a poppy field under the
wings of planes. Just after noon they were briefed
for a bombing run, and as the planes circled the
field, two collided, plummeted to the earth, and
burned killing both crews. A good friend of BJ's
was killed in that collision.

Soon after that a colonel's ship took a direct
hit, killing all the crew, they thought, but later
several were located in German hospitals. They had
settled down into the business of real war! Night
after night they hit the trenches when raiders came
over, and the ack-ack started.

By May the enemy had been driven into the Cap
Bon peninsula, so the 340th left the cleanup to the
infantry and began destroying coastal batteries at
Pantelleria. The result was the demoralizing of
practically all defenses. After this drive, "The
first all out aerial offensive" white crosses of
surrender were displayed on the ground, and the
ground forces occupied the island in no time.

When the 340th left Cap Bon, the Germans
started on Enfedaville. They were warned to
surrender to the "Golden 18" (their name for the


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340th B-25's) or they'd be "done in" within 20
minutes. They didn't; the 340th did, and the
battle of Africa was over; the Axis folded in
Tunisia.

The rest of the stay at Sfax was uneventful
except for the horror of the war known as the
"GI's." Two necessary elements for this were speed
and accuracy. Some made it; some didn't; some
didn't try and bought new underwear and pajamas.
Next thing - it was moving day again.

The next stop was Hergis, Tunisia, which was
and is all sand, thistles, and cacti close to the
Mediterranean Sea with a mountain range in the
back. While here at Hergla, they picked up a
donkey and took him with them from then on. Life
at Hergla was crazy. In the morning there were
gnats; during the day, flies, lizards, scorpions,
and mice and at night mosquitoes and desert rats.

After supper one night a group of US B-25's
bombed Lampedusa, and with the help of the RAF they
had cleaned up Africa, Pantelleria, and now
Lampedusa. For the next three weeks they worked
hard getting eggs at 25¢ each and watermelon at a
dollar each. July 3rd they began bombing Sicily,
calling it the Sicilian Shuttle Service. To get
close to their targets, they moved again this time
to Comiso, Italy.

Comiso had been a regular Italian airfield
well equipped with permanent buildings, but when
the 340th arrived the buildings were shells.
Little did the guys know when they previously
bombed the place that they'd later have to clean it
up.

They found lots of Italian and German planes
that had made their last landing and had been left


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crippled. Those Americans GI's reconditioned the
enemy planes and soon had them ready to fly with
the allied insignia. Jake Morgan, BJ and Rocky
Petrozzi fixed one. Rocky was the only one who
could read Italian to decipher parts, etc.

Many missions were flown from Comiso to spots
like Randazzo, Adrano, and Messina (at the time
"the most heavily defended spot in the world").
Between missions the men relaxed in the grape
arbors. After the dust and the "C" rations at
Hergla, the free fruit and clean air made Comiso
seem like GI paradise. August 25th the group
held a birthday party, and everyone was sure that
after entertainment and eats, they'd be moving, and
the next day they did!

They went to Catania, Sicily, only to find the
British Eighth Army camped all over the place. The
place was on a big crater, and the buildings were
shells. The group "sort of" pushed the British
over enough to get room for the 340th. They missed
the orchards and vineyards, but they had a sandy
beach nearby.

Just as they sat down to dinner one night, the
Germans surprised them with a raid, but British
guns all around the area opened up and not too much
damage was done. They went back to meat and
vegetable stew without much meat. They had
frequent Jerry (German) raids with not much damage,
and the 340th flew quite a few missions to Italy
with they-hoped much damage. Again came order to
move. The A party left with the tents, and for
three days the rest found shelter wherever they
could as it poured rain and the mud was deep.

At San Pancrazino, Italy, the only difference
was that the mud was blacker. For the first time


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they were out of tents and into buildings. The
weather was cool and cans of every kind were made
into stoves. Bernard took a pipe from a wrecked
plane and made tubing to run gas through to his
group's stove.


The first Christmas packages arrived here.
Bernard's friend Joe Blanche had two sisters who
were nuns. They sent a card board fireplace and
Christmas socks filled with goodies. Lillian sent
Bernard a big book of cookies and goodies which were
completely ruined from getting the box soaked with
fuel oil.

Again the group moved to Foggia, Italy,
but the 340th was scattered all over southern Italy
for almost a week. Rain had everything a mess!
Some trucks were stalled on roads, some skidded
into ditches, and no one wanted to feed or help
them. When they finally got off the highway and
into Foggia, mud came half way up the jeep
radiators. Some of the guys used farm buildings
instead of tents, but it was a toss up - mud on the
outside or manure on the inside. Bernard chose
inside, manure and all!

At night the guns of the Adriatic seemed too
close for comfort. Finally the 340th got their
planes in the air., sending missions to Sibenik,
Jugoslavia, Port Gruz, Albania, and Guilianova,
Italy. Thanksgiving came and went. Some of the
fellows found sleeping quarters in a farmer's farm
building. Bernard and Jake Morgan found a famer
who sold them straw to fill their mattress covers
for a good warm bed. Soon everyone was following
suit. Christmas Day was like any other rainy day.
Bernard remembers eating his Christmas dinner on a
manure pile at one of the farms. The group still


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had their donkey, and he was getting fatter
everyday. In fact, he was kind of a pet.

New Year's Eve - rain again! However at
midnight every gun and rifle let loose. New Years
Day, 1945, was a mess! A gale sept in over the
sea; tents were down; men wallowed in the mud, but
the chow lines were a quarter of a mile long as
usual and ankle deep in mud. Later good weather
set in, and they got settled for the winter - they
thought. - Wrong! Orders came to move to Pompeii,
Italy.

At Pompeii their airfield was cut into the
grape orchard and vegetable farms of Terzigno at
the base of Mt. Vesuvius. There was always a halo
of smoke over the crater, and at night the bubbling
lava sent orange spurts up into the sky. They felt
safe though - safer than from the German bombs.
They were bombing Naples just twenty miles away.

The Anzio beach head was opened up by the
Fifth Army. The 340th lost more than a dozen
planes on that beachhead. On March 15, 1945, the
340th was told to level Monte Cassio Abbey because
the Germans were entrenched there and were killing
too many Americans. They had a little help, but
the mission was accomplished. The next night
thirty-five German bombers went over the camp on
the way to Naples and left some calling cards.

Bernard and Jake visited Mt Vesuvius, looked
down in the crater just before leaving for R. & R.
The next day, Vesuvius erupted, 340th lost many
planes and had to evacuate. Axis Sal announced
that the 340th was "finito." She didn't know the
12th Air Force. Of course, they had to move to
another location. They missed their donkey and
that night they had steak and gravy. Bernard


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swears they ate the donkey, but says it was good,
even if it was tough,

The next stop was Paestum, Italy. the men
thought they would have at least three weeks rest
before planes could be replaced, but in three days
they were operating full scale. They began bombing
transportation and communication targets - tunnels,
railroads, and highways. As the Germans repaired
the damage, the U.S. would bomb again. The weather
was great - sunny Italy. The Germans had an all
out raid on the camp; once more they were
practically wiped out. Again the 340th came
through and by July they had an all time high for
"hits." The group received Bronze Star citations
for participating in major battles.


Germany had surrendered in May, the war clean
up was winding down in Europe and by the end of
July men started going home. In August many of the
340th were leaving. Bernard let Rocky Petrozzi to
early as he was so in love with Minda. In fact
they were married before BJ arrived home.

Bernard's tour of duty was almost over. He
had started as a crew chief with one plane the
"Sahara Sue" as his responsibility, then flight
Chief with 6 planes and finally Line Chief of the
486th Bomb Squadron, with all twenty-eight planes
and their ground crews under his supervision. From
private he rose to Master Sargeant, the highest
rating for a non-commissioned officer.

Finally Bernard was at the dock ready to board
the boat for the U.S.A. The Inspecting Officers
checked his bags and said that he had to turn in
his prize gun, a little Italian Beretta. Bernard
said, "If I can't have it neither can you." With
that he threw it in the bay. The second day out he


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heard "Sunbury!" There was Jack Hedden a hometown
boy who was cook on the ship. He fed the guys ham,
ice cream - all kinds of food they hadn't had for
three years. You guessed it! Everyone was sick
plus had the "GI's" - what a mess!

The first Atomic bomb was dropped on Japan
August 6 while BJ was en route home, the second on
August 9. He landed at Norfolk, Va., then was sent to
Camp Attebury, Indiana where was released from the
service a free man!

Bernard arrived in Columbus August 18, 1945,
with no one to meet him. He went to Mildred and
Dwight Satterfield's to find that sister Mildred
was expecting twins who were born the next day
August 19 - Larry and Lora. Next stop - Sunbury
where in a few days, he says Lola knocked on his
door and said, "I didn't come to see you, I came to
see Lillian." After giving three and a half good
years on his life to his country, he was ready to
forge on.


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MARRIAGE

On November 18, 1945, Bernard's birthday, he
called for a date. From then on we dated steadily,
were engaged in March, and married May 26, 1946, in
the Condit Presbyterian Church with the Rev. Hugh
Ash officiating. That ended my teaching career
temporarily as married women could not teach in
those days. We had to have the wedding on Sunday
as we had had a very wet spring, and Dad didn't
want to take time off for a wedding in case the
ground dried and he could plant corn. Since no one
worked on Sunday, that was a safe day. Our wedding
was to be very simple. I hand wrote twenty-five
invitations to family and close friends. Lib was
my only attendant, and Carl Hough was Bernard's
best man. I didn't want a formal wedding dress, so
I bought two "simple" dressy dresses, blue for me
and gold for Lib, made exactly alike. We both wore
headpieces to match and long white gloves that went
above the elbow. I carried my Eastern Star Bible
with a beautiful white orchid which I later wore as
a corsage. Bernard and Carl wore navy blue suits.
Roger Day, Hal Tippett and Bob Burwell, all my
students, were ushers.

I walked down the aisle myself as I didn't
want Dad to give me away. Even at the age of
thirty I couldn't accept the thought of being given
away. It could have been because of the trauma of
housekeepers after Mother's death. Naturally, I
was a little nervous as I started down the aisle as
the church was full; people were even sitting in
the windows. Just as I stepped in the door, Morgan
Chamberlain whispered in a voice that could be
heard all over the church, "You should'a been a
preacher!" I ain't never seen a crowd like this in


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this church!" My nervousness left me!


Our reception was in the big Sunday School room
as the basement had not been built yet. My
neighbor teenagers, Iris Spences and Evelyn
Shoemaker who were also my students, helped my
friend Mildred Gelston at the hostess table. Mr.
Gelston, Milly's father, a professional baker,
baked our wedding cake. The person who found the
tiny wedding ring, baked in the cake, was to be the
next bride. Milly found it, and everyone cried,
"Foul!" People were sure she knew where the ring
was, but actually she had no idea. No one used
paper plates in those days so I borrowed dishes
from friends, but Mary Ellen Miller was the main
lender. The workers had a problem as they had to
heat water on a kersone burning stove, wash and dry
the dishes by hand, and serve from a tiny
classroom, but they made it.

Bernard and I didn't wait to witness the
clean-up. We took Carl Hough and his wife to the
Deshler-Wallick Hotel in Columbus for dinner. We
left them soon after dinner and headed for the
first night of honeymoon (I knew not where) in
a downpour of rain,. Bernard had reserved us a
hotel room in Wooster, Ohio. The next day we went
on to Niagara Falls - the popular honeymoon site in
the 40s. In the center of the city was a building
that looked like the subway stations in the middle
of New York City. After much begging form me, BJ
and I decided to go to this building and ride the
Subway. To my chagrin, we found it was a public
toilet. BJ's never let me forget that episode!

The honeymoon was great, but we were eager to
get back to our own little house on Morning Street
in Sunbury. We bought it from Mrs. O.W. Whitney


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(Pearl) agreeing to pay $25 a month until cleared.
Bernard saved money in the army from his pay and
poker winnings, so we completely furnished our
house with brand new furniture - all paid for and
ours! Bernard had worded for weeks before we were
married painting, sanding, and varnishing. He even
built a dining booth in the kitchen. Everything
was so new, so beautiful, and so perfectly
finished!

Bernard managed John Shultz's big hardware
store in Galena, and his dad sold machinery for
Shultz. Several months after our marriage, BJ came
home early and wanted me to go to Delaware with
him. I jumped at the chance, as I was home alone
all day. As we were coming home, I remembered that
I had eggs and potatoes on the stove cooking for
salad. Well - we didn't have potato salad that
night; the eggs had exploded and were splattered on
the ceiling. The potatoes were burned to a crisp
as was the the beautiful new copper bottom stainless
steel pan. One shower present to the dump!

Lib and Tom Brenner were married in September
of '46 after he came home the Navy. She made
a gorgeous dress from from a parachute that Tom had sent
home. We went through the borrowing of dishes,
etc., for her wedding too. I was always upset
about her always being late and had said she would
be late for her own wedding. She was on time, but
the florist brought in the flowers after the guests
were there.

Bernard and I wanted a baby so much and we
were really happy to find that I was pregnant in
November, but surprised to find that Lib and Helen
Jennings had both been pregnant since September. I
think I was sick every day of my pregnancy. My


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favorite food was popcorn and coke (cola - not
drug) which I kept close by me - even by my bed.
Lib and Helen had their boys Jerry and John in
June. I guess Nan couldn't wait until August as
she was born July 17, 1947 - Evelyn Anne Searles.

Her birth was a surprise as we had been in Dr.
Livingston's office on the eve of the 16th, and he
said, "You're doing fine, but you have a month to
go and you'll gain more weight." I had gained only
13 pounds and weighed 115 lbs. When Bernard called
the doctor at 2:00 A. M. he couldn't believe him,
but sent us to White Cross Hospital on Buttles Ave.
in Columbus. There were so many post-war babies
the place was overcrowded. Everytime BJ went out
for a smoke, he'd lose me as I would be in another
hall. These escapades went on all day and until
11:30 PM July 17th when Evelyn Anne Searles, 5 lbs.
2 oz. and 18 inches long finally decided to be born
with the help of doctor's forceps. She had a
bruised eye and and a funny shaped head because of the
forceps, but she was our baby! Everything was soon
"normal," but her eye turned blue in cold weather
until she was 5 years old. She lost weight in the
week at the hospital and weighed only 4 lbs., 8 oz.
when we brought her home. We all carried her on a
pillow as she was so tiny! She was our pride and
joy!

For six week she cried! BJ says that we wore a
path in our dining room rug walking the floor with
her. Ray had told Mother we were spoiling her.
When she was six weeks old, Mother had a family
dinner, and I told Bernard not to pick her up even
if she screamed. She did! Finally, Ray picked her
up, took her to the kitchen, weighed her and
brought back a formula saying, "Fill this before


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you go home and feed her tonight." We followed his
instructions, and she slept through the night --
first time in six weeks. Dr. Ray Jennings had
diagnosed correctly! I was told that I was like a
holstein -- plenty of milk, but no butterfat or
nutrients. iIstopped nursing her immediately!

Dad kept talking to Bernard about the the Ludy
Ketcham place and wanted him to buy it. B.J. and
Dad made all the arrangements, and Bernard bought
the 76 acre farm--- machinery and animals. The
cattle were used to no one but Mr. Ketcham, so no
one could ever milk them. Burr Edwards bought the
cows out of the stanchions. He backed the truck up
to the barn door, stepped in the milking parlor,
pulled the rope to open the stanchions and whoop --
- they all dashed into the big truck wilder and
more scared than a wild beast. In February 1948,
we moved to the farm. It was awful! The house was
dirty; the yard was brambles and weeds; the wild
cows were gone, but it was still awful! Now 47
years later we are still on that same farm. the
house is comfortable; the yard is beautiful; the
barn is empty except for groundhogs. It is home-
sweet-home!

How well we remember cleaning the grimy walls!
Tom and Lib helped us scrub. We put Jerry and Nan
in a play pen while we worked. Ketchums had had a
kerosene four burner stove that sent film and dirt
everywhere! After we scrubbed the walls, we
papered. In time that oily film came through the
paper, so we scraped and dug off all the paper and
painted. Again the oily film filtered through.
Now this was not an overnight project. It took
years! Finally, by 1969 when Nan was married,


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Bernard had finally paneled the downstairs. B. J.
conquered again!

In our early married years we labored! Bernard
still worked for John Shultz, farmed at night,
milked cows, and raised sheep. I tried to raise
chickens (hated them) and had to chase sheep, it
seemed constantly. The fences were bad on the
whole farm. Soon Bernard had to quit his hardware
job to farm on his own and with Dad on rented land.

On a hot, sunny afternoon while Dad and Bernard
were making hay, I took Mother to Centerburg to get
groceries. Two-year old Nan was standing in the
back seat with a balloon which flew out the window
as we went around a curve. Truthfully, I do not
know what happened, but I was told a tire blew out.
Anyway we went into a ditch, hit a culvert, which
pulled the rear wheels off the car, turned us over
on our side and threw Mother across the road. Nan
and I were not hurt except for a cut on Nan's knee
from which she still has the scar. Mother was
bedfast the rest of the summer. We just couldn't
get her to walk. I was devastated! Ray and Helen
were in California where Ray was stationed in the
service. He called in early fall and said that he
was coming home and wanted Mother to meet him at
the pump at the end of the side walk. Lo and behold
by the time he arrived, she met him at the pump.

The Reppart families, Wayne, Gerry and Bonnie
and Sam and Mary Margaret (Mayme) and boys, Bob and
Harold, were our best friends. Wayne, Gerry, BJ
and I used to play canasta until 2:00 A.M. We'd
put Bonnie and Nan to bed and play away. Of
course, the men were the ones who had to get up and
milk. However, they wouldn't quit while we girls
were ahead. Soon we got six couples together and


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started "Card Club." From the original group
including Dale and Lucille Bailey, Wendell and
Doris Day, Wayne and Gerry Reppart, only Sam and
Mary Margaret, Dud and Gladys Townley, and BJ and I
are left. We have added other couples, but always
we're losing more.

Ray had a cottage (??) on Lake Erie that was
large enough to sleep the entire card club. For
several years in August when the cows were dry, all
of us spent a week-end there, playing cards,
eating, swimming, and enjoying one evening at Cedar
Point. Stories, food and laughter did abound! We
always thanked Ray for those fun times.

By the time Nan was three years old, married
women were teaching, and Sunbury asked me to
substitute. Bunice Hicks (Bunie, to Nan) was
thrilled to keep her and loved her as her own, so I
did substitute work.

During the summers we had kids here all the
time. Jerry and Malinda Brenner, Lib's Children,
spent a lot of time with us. I had Jerry on a
chair in one room and Nan on a chair in another
room half of the time. They said Linda was my pet.
Lillian invited Mildred and Dwight's kids, Nancy,
Carol, Larry and Lora, to stay with her, but after
two days they would come to our house for two or
three weeks. I think that all these cousins helped
to keep Nan from being spoiled. She always had to
share.

New Years Eve of 1949 Dr. Livingston spent the
night until 4:00 A.M. at our house. Yes, Doctors
made house calls in those days. Doc had given Nan
a penicillin shot to which she violently reacted.
He never left her side until she was out of danger.
His comment was, "I missed a party, but I'll


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probably feel better in the morning."

The most traumatic event in our first six years
was the death of Dad Searles. We knew he had
leukemia, but for several years blood transfusions
kept him able to function well. In August 1952 he
became very ill and was in the hospital but wanted
to come home so badly. The doctor warned us that
his death could be devastating to watch, but
Bernard took the chance and brought him to our
home. The entire family, kids and all, were here
for the three weeks that he lived, except the last
week Dwight, Mildred and family went on a vacation
which had been previously planned. We couldn't get
in touch with them in time for them to get here
before his death. Contrary to the doctor's
prediction, Dad just slept away. This house was
like Grand Central Station, people coming and going
at all times, sleeping anywhere, eating constantly
(so it seemed). Bernard and I were exhausted!

After Nan started to school, I substituted
regularly, sometimes six weeks at a time. Mother
was not well, so I helped down home as much as I
could. Bernard says that my constant message to
him was a note saying "Hamburg's on the counter.
I'll be down home."

Bob Searles was living in Newark and somehow
contracted meningitis. Arlo and Alice had to stay
with him in isolation, so Bernard did Arlo's
feeding of his rabbits and calves. Minetta,
Phyllis and Joan stayed with us for six weeks.
Joan and Phyllis constantly quarreled until I laid
the law down saying that we did not fight at our
house. After that was settled we had a good time.
Bob recuperated fast and was able to start Barber
School in 1957. Later when he took his State Board


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tests, Bernard was his subject. Bob passed with
flying colors. He started a barber shop in Sunbury
and attended Ohio State majoring and graduating
with a degree in accounting. Today he still has
his barber shop and an accounting office side by
side on the west side of the square in Sunbury.

The summer before Nan's fifth grade we took our
first real vacation. Ray, Helen, and their three
kids, (Karen, John and Steve), Bernard, Nan an I
spent two weeks in Canada at Moredolphen Lodge on
an island in McGregor Bay. Helen had told me that
we were being picked up in a yacht and taken to the
island. Her yacht turned out to be 2 rowboats
paddled by Indians whose only comments were "Ugh."
It was eleven o'clock at night, pitch dark no
moon, scary. Eight of us plus the Indian were in
one boat, and all our gear was in the other one.
When I asked the Indian if he where he was
going, his only answer was "Ugh." I put my hand on
the rim of the boat, and my fingers touched the
water! I told Helen. Her answer was, "Lolly, our
life jackets are in the other boat." What an
experience!

We did have a great vacation, and when we
returned home and were opening our mail, I saw a
letter from the Big Walnut Board of Education. Just
then the phone rang, and Supt. Marvin Miller
said, "Searles, we hired you while you were gone."
I didn't want to teach full time, but he talked me
into starting the year, as he had no sophomore
English Teacher. His famous line was that as soon
as he found a teacher, I could quit. Twenty years
later the board had not found a teacher and didn't
want to accept my resignation, but I forced them!

When I started teaching full time , our home was


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hectic at times, but we all cooperated and life
wasn't too complicated. That first year, the
spring of 1958, Dad and Bernard were in an
accident. B.J. hit the road so hard on his butt
that he bruised his brain. Evidently a blood clot
was formed in his hip and moved to his lung. Ray
sent him to the hospital as an emergency case and
33 days later he came home. I never missed a day
being there with him.

I made Nan ride the school bus as I didn't want
her to think she was above the other kids, but
after she started high school we rode together.
In the mornings we never said a word to each other
until we reached school. As she got out of the
car, she'd say, "See You," and I'd answer, "O.K."
but after school ---Oh me! We both talked a mile a
minute, and sometimes one of us would know
something the other hadn't heard. Bernard says
that he never knew what was going on as we
completed our discussion before we got home.
Weekends at our house were full of kids. I made
chicken sandwiches by the dozen.

On Nan's 16th birthday, Bernard put up a big
tent, and we had 16 girls for a camp-out-birthday
supper, and the works! About 2:00 A.M. we heard a
blood curdling scream. Bernard grabbed his pants
and dashed out to the tent. There were two high
school boys on motorcycles trying to crash the
party. Bernard walked up to them and asked, "Were
you boys invited?" They didn't look up, but shook
their heads, "No." Bernard just said, "Then, boys,
there's the road." We had no more interruptions
that night.

Mother's condition was worsening, so Dad found
someone to stay with them during the week. On


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weekends, I cleaned their house and fixed meals.
Lib did the washing. Finally Mother was
bedfast, and the last several weeks Lib and I
stayed every other night so Dad could get some
rest. We'd lie on the floor on either side of her
bed so we'd be sure to hear her. The last week Dad
and I actually sat and waited for her to stop
breathing. In February 1963 she finally got to

rest. Wayne Reppart stayed with Bernard the day of
the funeral as BJ was very sick with the flu --
actually fell of his chair that morning.

November 1963 was a traumatic time for all
Americans. Pres. John F. Kennedy was shot
and killed. The news came over the P. A. systems at
school and a hush fell on every classroom. School
was dismissed for the next few day until after his
funeral. Dick Starkey was here cutting wood with
Bernard and they wouldn't believe Nan and me when
we came home and told them. It was a new
experience for all of us.

In 1964 Bernard was sent as a commissioner to
General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church at
Oklahoma City. When he came home, his comment was,
"I can't believe the politics in the Presbyterian
Church."

Nan was very active during her high school years
in several school organizations plus 4-H and Youth
Fellowship in Church. She played the clarinet and
was a majorette in the band. The summer of '63 she
was chosen as the first Hartford Fair Queen. What
a time! She had her hair done at Brigitta's Beauty
shop -- came home upset ---wet it --did it over very
agitated. Finally we arrived at the Fairgrounds
late, but it didn't matter. There had been
a terrible wind storm which had blown down tents


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with rain and mud. It was awful. The only good
thing about the entire night was Nan's being chosen
queen. Bernard said, "If the good Lord forgives
me, I'll never go to the Hartford Fair again!"

Nan and Keith became good friends when they took
Algebra II together. Keith came out and I'd help
both of them. If he was here after 9:30, his
mother would call and say, "Is Keith there? Send
him home right now. His curfew is 10:00 P. M."
During her senior year she and Keith began dating.
Nan and Jerry Brenner graduated together in June
1965. We had an open house here for both of them.

During Nan's high school years Bernard began
working scales at Mt. Vernon Stock Yards. By 1965
he was offered a job as Livestock Inspector for the
state of Ohio which he accepted. My dad thought he
had done the wrong thing, but it was the best thing
that ever happened to us. Bernard felt that he had
to take the job to be able to send Nan to college.

The fall of '65 Nan entered Otterbein College.
She was not permitted to come home the first six
weeks, but we could visit, so one Sunday we went
down to take some goodies. Bernard stayed in the
car while I went up to her room in Cochran Hall.
As I opened her door, she burst into tears,
sobbing, "I hate this place!" Her roommate was
very homesick and was going home, giving up on
college. Immediately I suggested that if Nan hated
it, maybe she should also quit before we had to pay
more money. I can hear her now sobbing and saying,
"I never quit anything in my life. I'm staying."
After her roommate went home , her friend , Joan
Shultz Fuller, became her new roommate and life
became beautiful. They had a great time for the
year-- even bats flying in their room.


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The freshman year was exciting for Nan, but also
rather traumatic. I had gall bladder surgery in
the fall; then in February I had a complete
hysterectomy. When Dr. Livingston first
examined me, he said, "Lois Dell, you're pregnant."
B. J.'s comment was that can't be at age 51. Mayme
took me to a specialist, and as we went through
Westerville, we saw Nan and Joanie, I told them
the news and Joanie was ecstatic, "isn't that
wonderful, Nan?'

Nan's comment, "Yeah, I guess." No need to fear
-- no need to fear -- a tumor the size of a
football ---no malignancy. surgery went well, and
I was back teaching soon.

Joanie quit school so Nan's sophomore year she
moved to Clements Hall with another roommate.
Linda Brenner graduated from high school the spring
of '67, so we took her with us on a vacation to
Virginia Beach as her graduation present.
Everywhere we went people thought she was older
than Nan, the college sophomore, which upset Nan.
They had a great time at Virginia Beach, but Linda
got a painful sunburn. During 65-67 Keith was in
the armed services and spent time in Viet Nam.

Nan's junior year she was made counselor to
freshman girls in King Hall. Her junior year was
both traumatic and exciting. The first traumatic
event was the sudden and unexpected death of my dad
in November, 1967. Dad and Dick Spearman were
picking corn with Dad driving the tractor and Dick
on the wagon. Dad called back to Dick saying, "I'm
making one more round; then I'm quitting." At the
end of the round, Dick went around the wagon;
there lay Dad on the ground - dead. Evidently he
fell from the tractor. As he lay on the ground


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with his 5-buckle arctics on, all we could say was,
"He always wanted to die with his boots on."

In March of 1968 on a serene Sunday evening Nan
and Keith were traveling down Rt. #605 minding
their own business when a Holobaugh boy backed out
of the drive right in front of them. Keith took to
the ditch to miss him and would have been fine if a
culvert hadn't stopped him very suddenly. There
were no seat belts in those days, and Nan lunged
into the dashboard ruining her two front teeth. We
contacted Dr. Terry Day who came to his office and
started a long and painful process which after
several weeks left her with those two front teeth
capped.

Another exciting event of '69 was the engagement
of Nan and Keith. They came to tell us of their
plan which was not to be married for at least a
year. The other exciting and important events were
the completion of her college work at the end of
the first semester of the 68-69 year and
Worthington Public Schools hiring her as a full
time teacher at Worthington High School beginning
the second semester of the 68-69 year. This year
(1995) she just completed 26 1/2 years at
Worthington, teaching in the new Worthington
Kilbourne High School. She must be doing something
right! Oh, yes, she received her B. A. degree from
Otterbein June 1969.

Best laid plans are sometimes changed. On July
20,1969, (the day Armstrong walked on the moon) Nan
and Keith were married in the Condit Presbyterian
Church with the Rev. Jim Dowd officiating, assisted
by the Rev. Doug Orbaker (at Lola's insistence-- a
mistake). When Nan and Keith met with Orbaker in a
pre-marital conference (another of Lola's


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mistakes), Nan asked him a question, and his answer
was, "Ask your dad; he knows more about
Presbyterian rule than I do."

Lib made --no, styled--- Nan's beautiful wedding
dress. I can see them yet in our living room with
Nan holding the end of a bolt of material gathered
in her hands at her waist. Lib asked, "How long
do you want your train?" Nan turned turned and pointed in
an arc around the floor, and Lib started cutting.
I couldn't believe it, but all turned out perfect!
Nan and Lib visited several stores and picked out
the good points of several wedding dresses and from
pictures, word descriptions, etc. (no pattern) Lib
styled a beautiful gown. She also made all the
attendants gowns with 'floppy" hats to match.

Many showers were given for Nan by friends in
Condit, Westerville, and Worthington. She had so
many lovely gifts that we cleared an upstairs
bedroom and used it just to display her gifts.
Keith's mom, Virginia Wampler Ward, assisted by her
sisters, had the rehearsal dinner at her home. Not
only was it a beautiful affair, but also the food
was delicious!

Mom Shaffer, the mother of my deceased best
friend from college days was here for the wedding
and of all things made applesauce for the freezer
the morning of the wedding. Those apples just
couldn't spoil! The good thing about the moonwalk
on the kid's wedding day was that people didn't
linger at the reception. Everyone including the
family wanted to see the moon spectacular
televised. Keith says he never forgets their
anniversary as there is always a newspaper article
about the event. (moon walk --not anniversary).

After the honeymoon, Nan and Keith lived in an


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apartment in Worthington, but soon with our help
bought Grace Condit's little house in South Condit.
Keith enrolled in the Newark Branch of O.S.U. and
was on their golf team. The kids decided to
surprise BJ and me for our 25th anniversary, May
26, 1971, with an open house at our place. Nan
said they were celebrating 25 as we'd never make
50. We may fool her as we have just one more year.
There was such a big crowd at our party, people
everywhere, and we received many lovely gifts. As
usual Dwight had his beer in his camper. Even the
children noticed his many trips to check the
camper. I would never let him keep his booze in my
house, so all through the years he brought his
supply in his camper. In spite of his faults, we
liked Dwight and had lots of fun with him, Mildred,
and the kids. He was so good-hearted and would do
anything for anybody.

As usual, when things are going great, something
happens.

Keith was in the hospital for testing on his
back when a young intern found a lump in Keith's
throat. Result-- May 1972 surgery--which proved to
be removal of his thyroid--with that terrible word
"cancer." Dr. Joe Bonta, an excellent surgeon,
performed his operation. He was good, but his
bedside manner with anyone but Keith was awful!
Definitely he didn't care for mothers-in-law!
Keith came through the ordeal, and because of his
problem, his brothers and sisters (even cousins)
were saved through surgery, too. Later in 1975
both he and his brother--Jim, had to have their
adrenal glands removed-- another traumatic time for
the family.

July 8, 1973, BJ and I had just returned from a


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week's vacation at Paradise Lake in Michigan, dead
tired. At 1:30 A.M. we were awakened by a call
from Lillian. By the time we got to her house she
had had a stroke. Her husband, Luther Carnes, was
shaving before he could call the squad. For days
she lay in Grady Hospital in a coma. When she
regained consciousness, she was paralyzed and taken
to the Condit Nursing Home. After a few days
Luther had her moved to the Salyer Nursing home in
Centerburg, her home until her death in 1980.

In December of '73 Keith had to have another
surgery to remove abnormal tissue from under his
chin. In spite of all his health problems, Keith
graduated from Ohio State and was hired the fall
of 1974 by the Granville School System as a phys-ed
teacher in the Middle School. He had coaching
responsibilities too, so they sold their Condit
home and bought a house on Sunset Drive in
Granville.

We had several fishing vacations with Nan and
Keith their first eight years of marriage. There
was Otsego, Michigan; Big Sandy, Tennessee;
Kentucky Lake; and the Deluxe at Gaston Lake. Each
has a memory! At Otsego we seined minnows with a
big net held by several people who waded out in the
water, and we really caught the minnows which the
group used as bait. Big Sandy had willow flies
that helped BJ and Keith catch Big blue gills by
the dozen. Nan caught the big bass at Kentucky
Lake. Jim and Jane Shriner went with us to Gaston
Lake. The whole trip was unbelievable! To begin
with, I was afraid we'd have primitive conditions -
- what a mistake! We had a beautiful cottage,
screened in porches, two bathrooms, and three
bedrooms. The water skiing was great, and the


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fishing was unbelievable. Did I get razzed about
primitive housing?!?

In August of 1975 Don Hood and Linda Brenner
were married in the Condit Presbyterian Church.
There was a small conflict about the American flag.
Someone carried the flag out, and B.J. carried it
back in, but it was out during the ceremony. I had
the rehearsal dinner to help Lib, as Don's parents
did not offer help in that area. Our new room
made from our porch had no rug yet, but it had
windows and screens so we used it. We had thirty
people here, and we had a feast. Keith and Nan
washed all the dishes.

In early fall of 1975 we had a call from Paul
and JoEllen Elfrink, neighbors of Luther Carnes
(Lillian's husband). They were very upset and
nervous, as Paul had found Luther hanging in the
barn. He had committed suicide. They had called
his daughter, Wilma and she said, "Call Bernard and
Lolly. They know what to do." of course, we went
up to the place immediately. By the time we
arrived, the sheriff and Funeral Director were
there. What a mess! We all were in a dither, but
I called Wendell (Luther's son) and he promised to
start immediately from his home in Cordova,
Tennessee. The next morning someone had to go to
the nursing home to tell Lillian. Guess who?
You're right, Lola Dell had to do it. Poor Lillian
was devastated! The day of the funeral another
travesty happened. Someone broke into Luther and
Lillian's home. Wendall had sent Lillian Hummels
through the years which were placed alongside
cheaper figurines. Only the Hummels were taken.
Antique picture frames were taken, but picture


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had been ripped out and left. Silverware and china
plates that had belonged to Wilma and Wendell's
dead mother were taken, but no ordinary dishes or
pots and pans. To top it off beautiful quilts that
Lillian and her mother had made were taken. No
modern things like TV's or radios were bothered!
None of these items were ever recovered.

In November of 1975, Bernard had to have a lump
removed from his throat, but no malignancy. Dr.
Bonta was his surgeon and actually treated me like
a human being.

The year 1976 was a busy one! In February Keith
had back surgery which was very painful. March15,
1976 a beautiful tax exemption came to Carl and
Betty Cocklin's, our god-daughter, Kelly. When the
phone rang early that morning, I thought it was a
teacher calling to say he was sick, I answered the
phone with "What now?' Betty very gently and
softly told me she had just called to tell me she
had a baby girl.

June of 1976 I retired from teaching---finally!
When I handed in my resignation, the board would
not accept it, but Sam Reppart said, "You might as
well, she's made up her mind."

That spring there were many parties and
dedications to me. The senior class dedicated the
year book to me. At the choir concert, the group
dedicated a song "Lolly Come a Runnin'" and gave me
yellow mums. The FHA had a surprise "This Is Your
Life" and everyone from A to Z was there. It was
great. They gave me a charm bracelet filled with
charms to remind me of teaching years. After the
dinner, Nan and Keith with the help of Mayme had an
open house at the Repparts. The faculty retirement
party was at LaScala's. Mr Burt was also an


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honored retiree. Later in the summer Beulah
Fritsche with the help of Rusty Slack and Bill
Fraley, had a surprise chicken barbecue. That was
a lovely party! To top everything America was
celebrating its Bicentennial, and BJ and I were co-
chairmen of Sunbury's celebration. Busy-- Busy!

After such a busy summer we decided we needed a
vacation. January 5, 1977, we left with Sam and
Mayme Reppart for our first trip to Florida. For
two weeks we toured every mile and saw every
attraction from Jacksonville to Key West, down the
west coast and up the east coast, and around the
middle. More exciting events happened than I can
put on paper. One that just can't be omitted it
the saga of Mayme's underwear. She had her packing
finished---- even had to sit on the suit case to get
it closed -- was dressed, girdle and all when she
saw a pile of underpants she had forgotten. She
couldn't open the suitcase, so she just put them
on--one at a time over the girdle etc. At our
first stop, she was telling me the story, not
knowing that the men could hear every word! When
we came out, BJ began to razz her about her
escapade. To this day he reminds her to be careful
how she packs.

We spent a couple of days in Leesburg, and the
men fished with Leon Campbell while Mayme and I
shopped with Lucille. At night they taught us to
play 6 handed bid euchre--what a game! Leon was
slightly deaf, but he told the men to listen for
Big Jim, an alligator that stayed near an island in
the lake and he roared unbelievably loud. They
were fishing in a fiber glass boat which
reverberated sound greatly. Bernard has always had
gas problems, and we had had baked beans for lunch.


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As they floated quietly by the island, Bernard had
a problem. Need I say more? Leon shouted, "Thats
Big Jim! Listen, there he is!" Not only once did
the sound reverberate but quite often as they sat
and fished, Leon would say, "There he is again:
there's Big Jim, but I can't see him!" Sam and
Bernard just laughed; they knew! The guys couldn't
wait to get to the motel to tell Mayme and me about
that experience. You know, we heard Big Jim quite
often as we traveled around Florida. All the time
we were there it was cold and windy. Sam and BJ
both wore their pajamas under their trousers. When
we stopped at Sarasota to see Wendall and Doris
Day, we had to scrape ice off the windshield. That
trip was one we will never forget!

In June of 1977, Lawrence Stockwell hurt his
leg. I had to change bandages quite often, take
food to him, and try to clean his house. It was
awful! Nan couldn't take it. Also Arlo was very
sick at Riverside Hospital with cancer of the back.
Poor Leona (his second wife) didn't get much
cooperation from his family, so we helped all we
could. On June 11, at 1:00 P.M. he died. Only
Leona, BJ and I were there. We took Leona home,
tried to call his kids, went to tell Lillian; then
when we finally arrived home, Wendell Carnes had
come in so I fixed him a meal. What a day! On
June 13 between calling hours for Arlo we had
twenty-five for supper. After calling hours
thirteen came back. All that time, we were picking
peas when we could, and Zada Longshore was hulling
them for me. What a lady!

The winter of 77-78 was snow, snow and more
snow! Jan. 26 to Jan. 29 was the "killer Blizzard
of '78" We were without electricity, heat --


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water. All roads were closed. Zada Longshore was
in a panic but we couldn't get to her. Finally Dud
Townley and Wayne Reppart got through the drifts
and took her to Wayne's where they had a wood-
burning stove. BJ and I made it to his shop where
he had a wood burning stove. We were like
marshmallows; we'd toast on one side a while, turn
and warm the other side. We could heat water and
soup. All my house plants froze. Thank goodness,
Lawrence was in Florida or he would have been in
trouble.

By March the weather was better, but we were
still having snow. I was cleaning our walls,
stepped crooked, and broke my right ankle. Dr.
Stout put me in a cast to my knee. What a time I
had! Crutches were impossible for me to use. I
fell with one leg up on the dryer and the other in
the air--- what a mess. Bernard had an interesting
experience while I was incapacitated. Now BJ is a
good cook, but I guess communication was our
problem. He was making dried beef gravy and asked
how much flour to use. I have a 1/4 cup measure in
my flour bin and told him to use not quite a
cupful--- meaning the 1/4 measure. Before long I
heard him banging pans and muttering, so I asked
what was wrong. He said he was just getting a
bigger skillet; then he said the stuff was too
thick -- like paste. I told him to add milk. Next
I heard, "Jen, Ive got to go to town for more
milk!" Again he was getting a bigger skillet. I
hobbled out to the kitchen. Instead of my flour
measuring cup, he had used a cup! Even the cats
wouldn't eat it. Later I had a walking cast and a
walker, and I was raring to go!

The big day in 1978 that surpassed everything


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was August 9 when Nan and Keith brought Jay Ryan
home --- 3 days. He had been born August 6,
1978 in Parkersburg, West Virginia. Both Nan and
Keith were in summer school working on their
Master's Degree, so I went over every morning at
6:30 AM for two weeks and kept Jay. He was such a
doll and so good. I say that the reason he's so
smart is that he and I talked all the time his
first two weeks. Well, I talked and he smiled.
Keith finished his Master's at Ashland, but Nan
waited until Jay was older. At Keith's graduation
as he walked across the stage to get his degree,
Jay, about two then, stood up on my lap and yelled,
"That's my daddy!"

1980 was quite a year. In March we went with Sam
and Mayme to Florida to try to find some warm
weather as it had been so cold when we had gone
earlier. Nan called us to come home as Lillian was
very sick with Leukemia. We raced home, arrived
March 18, and went to Mt. Vernon Hospital to see
Lillian; she was not good, but was so glad to see
us. The next morning March 19, 1980, the hospital
called us, but by the time we arrived she was gone.
We felt she just waited for us to get home. In
August of 1980, Mildred Satterfield had a cerebral
hemorrhage and lived just a short time. Bernard
lost two sisters within six months. He is now the
only one left of the Jay Searles family.

Bernard retired from the Ohio Department of
Agriculture in December of 1980. They had a big
party for him at Berwick Party House, even had Nan
and Keith as special guests. He received a
beautiful engraved watch, a citation from Governor
Rhodes, cash to buy his choice of fishing rods,
plus the prize gift ---a cow pie that had been


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dried and varnished with a fountain pen in it.
They called it the "Bull-Shit Pen."

Sometime during June of '81 Bob Searles and
Joyce were married. She's a good gal and will be
good for Bob.

The summer of '81 Nan and Keith sold their house
so fast they couldn't get in the one they were
buying, so they stored their stuff and moved in
with us from June 19 - July 29. At times it was a
little crowded, but we made it. Jay was so much
fun. When they moved to Spring Valley Drive, their
present home, he kept wanting to go home. Now he
doesn't remember that home on Sunset at all.

December 22, 1981, BJ got up acting very strange
-- no coordination --- slurred speech, etc. Dr.
Rupp sent him to Riverside where they diagnosed--
stroke. I had planned to have Christmas dinner, so
I sent the turkey and all the trimmings to Lib, and
she had the dinner. BJ and I spent Christmas and
New Year's Eve in the hospital, but he came home
Jan. 1, 1982. When the kids came over, Jay
asked, "Grandpa, where'd you get this stroke? You
sure messed up Christmas!" He recuperated very
well, and by March we were ready to go to Florida,
but we stayed at one place, Clermont, and did a lot
of resting and walking.

During the spring of '82 Keith took another turn
in the hospital. He, BJ and Keith's brother, Jim,
had what they called hospital wear (several pairs
pajamas and a robe). Whoever used them last kept
them until the next fellow needed them. Keith had
to have his thyroid roots removed. Truthfully, he
used the hospital wear more than the other two.
Again Dr. Bonta performed miracles, He was good--
even if I didn't like him personally.


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Things moved along rather smoothly. Jay was
growing cuter every day. He had a great baby-
sitter, Di-Di, whom he dearly loved. After a year
or so she had a little boy who was a good playmate
for Jay. Nan took Jay to nursery school in
Worthington and continued his kindergarten years
there. We went to his graduation from kindergarten
with cap and gown and the works.

The summer of 1984 was quite an experience.
Nan, Keith, Jay, Bernard and I took a month's
vacation touring the West. Bernard bought a new
van, Nan planned the trip, Keith did most of the
driving, and Jay and I played. We saw beautiful
scenery, took many pictures, and even visited
friends ---Bill and Helen Bingman and Ron and
Miriam Moore. Too we spent the 4th of July week-
end with Jerry, Cheryl Brenner and family. Points
of interest were: The Corn Palace, Yellowstone,
Old Faithful, Black Hills, Tombstone, Tucson
Outdoor Museum, Jackson Hole, Tetons, Grand Canyon,
Zion National Park, and Wall Drug Store to name a few.

After we were home a few days, BJ and I went to
Princeton, N.J. for Tom and Ann Warner's wedding.
Also we hit the Outlet Stores in Lancaster, Pa. On
the way home we stopped to visit BJ's army buddy,
Rocky Petrozzi and wife, Minda, in Mingo Junction,
Ohio. What happened I don't know but my hip began
hurting. I could scarcely walk. Dr. Rupp said it
was a swollen hip joint pressing on the sciatic
nerve -- bed rest for five weeks. I ended up
getting a back brace which I wore for several
months. We had to give up going to BJ's army
reunion in Indiana. December 20, 1984, Jay had
tubes put in his ears and adenoids removed and ate


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chicken at night for supper. Some kid!

September of '85 Bernard had to have surgery on
his carotid artery -- 95% clogged. Since the one
had been 100%, it was a must! He came through
surgery fine, recuperated fast, and we were ready
to have some good days, and we did!

For several years we had great times playing 6-
handed euchre with Sam, Mayme, Leon and Lucille
Campbell, also with Dean and Jane Cockrell and
Howard and Thelma Link. Of course, we had card
club in there quite often too. Sam's, Leon's and we
spent some good times at Scioto Downs at the races.

One of our greatest thrills in 1985 was because
of Keith and his basketball team. Tech Granville
Blue Aces were the Sectional champs and went to the
District at the Coliseum. Sam, Mayme, BJ and I
never missed a game. After they won the District,
the players held Jay up to the basket to help cut
off the net. The next step was Regional at the
University of Dayton's gym. Again we followed the
team. the last game of the Regional they lost the
game, but they finished the season tied for 5th in
the state. They went the farthest any Granville
team had ever advanced. I tell you, the games were
thrillers -- nail biters -- whatever. Three of
them were won in overtime. One night during the
tournament game, the Newark radio announced, "All
of Granville is going to the tournament. Will the
last one out of Town turn off the lights?"

The summer of '86 both Nan and Jay became
Thespians. We went to every play, but our
favorites were Jay in Tom Sawyer and Nan in the
female version of The Odd Couple. Both did
outstanding jobs; we were so proud! Bob and Joyce
went with us and were really impressed!


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The last day in May in 1987, our neighbor, Kathy
Klamfoth, bought us a puppy, a pure white German
shepherd, and so cute. he looked like a puffy
snowball. Bernard named him immediately --
"Frosty." Through many days of patient (?)
training and discipline by Bernard, Frosty became a
well trained and intelligent dog. From that little
fur ball he developed into a 140 lb. mass of
muscle. When he stood on his hind legs behind me,
his front paws were over my shoulders.

In 1989 Keith had to have more back surgery.
How that boy came through all his surgeries and how
Nan handled the trauma, I'll never know. In 1990
Keith began having what the doctors call atrial
flutter. The top of his heart beat much faster
than the lower part. He had to have his heart
stopped and put back in sync at least four-five
times the next five years; it worried me, and I'm
sure it upset Nan and Keith.

We enjoyed Frosty so much, but all good things
come to an end --December 16, 1992, he had cluster
seizures one after another until finally, he
couldn't take it any more. He had been on
medication for a couple of years, but this time
neither the vet nor medication could help him.
Gene and BJ buried him down in the field where
Dusty and Jay's dog Patch were buried. We surely
did and still do miss him. We had many dogs during
the years, Judy, Tippy, Ginger, and Dusty. We
loved them all, but Frosty was different.

The next summer Sara fuller brought Bernard two
kittens supposedly to take Frosty's place. Those
kittens were cute, but they soon became cats who
had kittens who became cats who had kittens and so
on! We gave one cat and kitten away, but in 1995


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we still had 2 cats and 8 kittens plus 3 male cats.
We took all but the three males to the Humane
Society. Maybe now we're safe.

Just before Christmas (three days before) in
1993, as I was backing out the back door with my
hands full, I fell kerplop on my back because of
cats at my feet. PAIN! I couldn't let BJ touch
me, but some how he did get me up. Nan and Keith
took me to the emergency while Jay stayed with
Bernard. I floated through Christmas and New Years
on pain pills. Nan, Keith, and Jay kept everything
on an even keel as they were on break. I finally
was able to walk, but the damage has never been
cleared, but I'm walking! By March of '94 I was
able to have a cataract removed and a lens implant
in my left eye.

June 17-27, 1994, Nan and Keith celebrated their
25th anniversary by taking a two week trip to Hawaii
with a cruise of all the islands. Jay stayed with
us, but attended a Sports Training Camp at OSU for
almost one week. He is such a great kid! August
6, 1944, Jay celebrated his 16th birthday and got
his driver's license. He had already taken driver
training and passed that with flying colors, so
August 6, was the Big Day!

The fall of '94 I began falling quite often --
seemingly for no reason. However, in October I
blacked out; Joyce took me to the Emergency at St.
Ann's and they kept me. After a week of testing, I
was sent to Mt. Carmel for the insertion of a pace
maker. The bionic woman is on the go again! Again
Keith was having heart flutter problems and
insisted he have a stress test. Result -- in three
days, Feb. 13, 1995, Dr. Dan Watson was doing a
a triple by-pass. Two arteries were 100% clogged and


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one 85%. May 1st, though, he was able to be back
teaching and said felt better than he had for
five years. Talk about trauma ---Poor Nan!. Keith
was just starting therapy and on his way home from
the first treatment, saw their car out in a field.
When he stopped, there was Jay on a stretcher with
blood running down his face. Nan came home from
school to see a note on the garage door saying "Go
to Licking Memorial --Jay in accident." That was
quite a day! Jay was not seriously hurt
physically, but he was hurt. We hope he has had
his first and last accident. I wasn't there, but
although Jay was cited, Grandma says it wasn't his
fault --just an accident.

Here we are June 1995, but the story doesn't end
here, Nan and Keith are thinking about retirement,
Jay is just thinking; we're pausing for the time
being in the story; the rest is up to you. The
future is approaching, and you readers are the ones
to continue the story. BJ and I hope you have as
full a life as we have had. Remember, the sad
events make you appreciate the happy ones.


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THIS and THAT

Bernard and I have experienced so many
happenings that really don't correlate with other
events, so as we reminisced we jotted them down
here and there. In this chapter we're sharing them
with you with no particular rhyme nor reason.
They may be "one-liners," paragraphs or a page or
two--- just as they happened. Believe me, they go
from the ridiculous to the sublime! Isn't that
life?

* * *

In 1948 when we moved to our present home at
4588 N SR 3, Herb Brenner (Tom's brother) helped us
move. As he walked down the upstairs hall, we
heard him yell, "Wow! Lolly's got an electric
privey!"

* * *

I'm sure you have heard the statement "Enough
food for threshers." This statement originated
years ago. Farmers had no combines back in BJ's
and my youth. Instead was a machine called a
binder used to cut wheat and oats. It cut and
bundled and tied the grain. The farmers took the
bundles (sheaves) and placed them in a shock-- four
sheaves in the middle, one on each side, and one on
top. If these were made correctly, the grain
stayed dry even during a rain. Both Bernard and my
dad were good "shockers." After the grain was
thoroughly dried, it was threshed by a machine
which separated the grain and blew the straw and
chaff into a big pile to be used for bedding in the
winter. Frank Gallogly was the separator operator
and owner in our community. Dad thought he was the
best! He could manipulate the blower to make an
almost perfect cone-shaped straw pile. In


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Bernard's area Lou Girberd and Lester Hoy had the
threshing outfit. For years it sat at the Girberd
place at the corner of Rt. #3 and Lewis Center Rd.

The threshing was done by a group of neighbors
who went from farm to farm, taking their wagons to
the field, hauling in the sheaves, then pitching
them into the separator. The Threshing crew (about
12-14 men) were big eaters, and the women cooked
great meals for them. Remember no refrigerators
and hot weather, so everything had to be done in
one day. They women were up early, killing and
frying chickens, making pies, cooking vegetables
with good old mashed potatoes and gravy --"meat on
the bones food!" Grandma and Aunt Mae always
helped us. If it rained, we were in trouble!
Understand now what "Food enough for Threshers"
means?

* * *

One day Dad Searles was cutting wheat with the
binder when a bad storm was brewing. Dad sent BJ
and Arlo on to the house and was opening a wire
gate at the line fence when a bolt of lightning
struck a tree, jumped to the metal fence posts,
traveled down the fence, knocked Dad Searles down
so hard he rolled, and burned an imprint of a file
he was carrying in his pants pocket on his leg.
That imprint was on his leg for weeks. He also had
nerve reactions from the strike.

* * *

Dogs have played an important part in our family
life. I have told you about our last dog, Frosty,
but several others were very meaningful to us too.
Tippy was a German Shepherd that was very


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protective of Nan and me and our property. When
Craig Hicks tried to help us by doing the milking,
Tippy wouldn't let him pick up the pails and
milkers. One time he jumped through a glass window
and chased Wendell Day back into his car. We never
felt afraid, but one evening Bernard was gone, and
a hobo started walking into the yard. Nan called,
"Here, Tippy! Here Tippy!'

The next thing I knew the hobo was saying,
"Here, Tippy," and there they came up the yard with
Tippy licking the man's hand. I fed the guy fast
and sent him on his way before dark.

Our Irish sett -- Ginger -- came to us I guess
because she loved us. She jumped in Bernard's
trailer and came home with him from the mill. We
found that she belonged to the Allen Fisher family,
so we contacted them and Allen came and took her
home on a Saturday morning. On Sunday when we
returned from church, she was lying in our front
yard and greeted us with much tail wagging and
barking. Again we contacted the fishers, but when
Allen came after her, she sat behind Bernard and
would not move. Allen finally said, "She likes you
better than us, so I'll send you her papers." She
never left our yard! Ginger would lie on the
floor; then Nan would lay her head on Ginger, and
they'd take a nap together. It was ironic how she
was critically hurt. A strange old white cat came
here, and Ginger was chasing it out of the yard
just at dusk. Ginger could go only to the driveway
edge, but the cat darted into the road. An
oncoming car saw the cat, swerved into our drive to
miss it and hit Ginger. We were all heartbroken.

We had a German shepherd dog, Dusty, who was
very intelligent. BJ had trained him to shake


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hands among other things. When we ate our meals,
Dusty sat on a chair near the table. One day as we
were eating lunch, our neighbor came in. Bernard
said "Dusty, this is Lee Ball, shake hands with
him. Dusty flipped that paw out to shake. Lee
said, "By Gawd, that's the smartest dog I ever
seen!"

Another day I had baked a butterscotch pie for
dinner. Bernard was teasing Nan that it was his,
and she'd pull the pie near her. They pulled the
pie back and forth until kerplop-- it fell to the
floor. Dusty was off the chair, gave three gulps -
- no more pie! Both Nan and BJ were a little
ashamed.

* * *

All the kids have "barefoot" stories. I couldn't
wait to go barefoot, but I'd stub my toe the first
day -- enough for me! My dad always said that my
feet were so narrow because I never went barefoot.
BJ loved to go barefoot, and his feet were so tough
he could chase rabbits across wheat stubble.

* * *

Through the years, Bernard had many people
working for him during hay making. Some were
students of mine; such as, Keith Wampler who became
our son-in-law (no connection), and Glen Evans who
went to school and said, "You know Mrs. Searles
can cook!" Some were older men. There was Clyde
Nichols who chewed big wads o f gum although he
didn't have a tooth in his head. When he'd come in
for dinner, he'd plop his gum on a fence post, then
pick it up as he went back to work --- chewing or


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"gumming it with a grin. One time it rained and
for three days the men couldn't work. The first
day back to work when Clyde came out after dinner,
he spied his wad of gum on the post and said, "By
Golly, there's my wad! and stuffed it in his mouth
and began to gum it!

* * *

One of the ironies of World War II was the
rationing program. Those of us at home never had
enough gasoline, our rationing stamps were always
too few and many trips had to be cancelled. On the
other side, BJ said they wasted gas using it for
everything from cleaning their uniforms to piping
it to their tents for cooking and heating. We
willingly went without meat, sugar, and butter so
the soldiers could eat well. Bernard never saw
sugar, butter nor meat (except Spam, dried beef and
their special donkey) until he was on his way home.
The black market took care of that!

* * *

Our grandson, Jay, about to be seventeen, has
been our pride and joy since day one. if some day
his children read this book, believe, he was a
good kid! As a child, he had some choice sayings
which I'm calling

"Jay-isms"

Jay had spent several days with us and had been
a very good boy. I asked him if he was always that
good. He said, "Yes, I am, Grandma, but sometimes
my parents get confused and think I am not."

* * *


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A dear friend of mine died, and Jay, as a little
boy, was concerned about the burial. "Grandma, you
mean they put her in the ground?" When I tried to
explain, he said, "Well, when I die, I'm going to
take a flashlight so I can see where I'm going."

On that same topic, he was curious when we
bought a cemetery lot and put up a monument. "Why
did you buy such a big lot?" he asked Bernard.
Bernard told him there would be room for BJ and me,
his dad and mother, and for him and his wife, if
they wanted to be buried there. He said, "Well, I
don't know about Mom and Dad, but I want me and my
wife there." I asked him what about his kids. He
said, "They can look after themselves."

* * *
One day Nan and Jay were shopping, and everyone
they met seemed to know Jay and talk with him. Nan
couldn't understand and said, "Jay, how does
everyone know you and like you?"

"Oh, Mom," he said, "I'm just a lovable guy!"
He was -- and is!

* * *

At age six, Jay had to have a large mole removed
from his stomach. The doctor used a local
anesthetic, and the procedure was slightly bloody
which he mentioned to the attending nurse. Jay
retorted in a second, "Doc, you made the mess, you
clean it up."

* * *

On the wall in an upstairs bedroom, I have my
dad and mother's wedding certificate framed with
their picture. Jay asked me years ago who they


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were. I told him it was my dad and birth mother.
His eyes just shone as he asked, "Grandma, were you
adopted?" When I told him that my mother had died
and that I had a step-mother, he said, "Boy am I
lucky! Step-mothers are mean!" Of course, I
explained that my step-mother had been wonderful to
me.

* * *

When Jay was in the seventh grade, he was very
small, but he wanted to go out for junior-high
football. This coach made this little guy the
center. I couldn't understand why the smallest kid
on the team was center. Jay said, "Grandma, I'm
the only one that can remember the plays." Later
in the season he was telling me about his game
saying, "Grandma, when you're center, and everyone
falls on top of you, Boy, it's dark down there!"
This year he'll be an eleventh grader and is going
out for "Receiver" on the team. I wonder what
he'll say to be put in the next book?

Not long ago Nan asked Jay to do a task he
didn't particularly enjoy. He reacted by saying,
"Why do I have to do that?" Nan gave him that look
which means you're on the edge, Bud, and said
"Because I am your Mother!"

Jay understood that look and the message and
smiling so sweetly said, "Okay, I can handle
that!"

* * *

When Bernard had his stroke, we postponed our
Christmas party until he was able to enjoy it.
When we finally had our dinner ad gift exchange
Jay asked, "Grandpa, where'd you get that stroke?


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Bernard said, "I sort of messed up Christmas,
didn't I?"

Jay said, "Yes but that's O.K. Just don't get
any more strokes."

* * *

Just before Jay started school I had him at
Lazarus letting him pick out some clothes for his
Birthday. He chose the loudest and brightest
"Jams" that anyone could imagine. As I went to pay
for them, the following conversation took place ---
Grandma -- " Jay, they won't let you in school
in these!"
Jay -- "Oh, they'll let ME in!"
Clerk -- "What makes you so special that
you'll get preferential treatment?"
I thought, Oh dear, here it comes. My Dad's the
coach.
Jay -- "Ma'am. I am special! I'm adopted."
(I could have kissed him)
Complete silence -- Jay walked away, and the
clerk was very apologetic,. I was very proud!

* * *

My dad could sell Eskimos ice, I do believe. We
sold eggs along the road, and Dad was proud of his
salesmanship. One day a bashful young man stopped,
and after talking with him for half an hour, Dad
sold him two dozen eggs. The next day when we
walked into church, there was the young man in the
pulpit. He was our new minister who had come to
make a pastoral call on our family. Dad never let
him get past the pump in the backyard, but sold him
two dozen eggs the poor man didn't want.

* * *


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While Bernard served in the army, he had some
interesting experiences that had nothing to do with
the war. He and several buddies had a chance to go
to Rome where they saw the ruins of the Coliseum
and to the Vatican where the Pope had a special
audience for the American GI's. Many of Bernard's
friends were Catholic, So Bernard felt a little
strange as he didn't understand everything.
However, it was a special feeling when each one
held up a coin that the Pope blessed by touching
the coin gently, saying a few words in Latin.

Another time he had the privilege of visiting
the Dead Sea, Jerusalem, the Garden of Gethsemene,
and Bethlehem. At Jerusalem there were orange
groves with oranges as large as IGA's ($1.00)
muskmelons. When he went to the Wailing Wall in
Jerusalem, He scratched his name with a pocket
knife on the wall.

As they visited Bethlehem, the guide would
always say, "As the story goes, "this is where such
and such happened. Christ's birthplace was
impressive because of the simplicity but the guide
would not be specific.

* * *

When Bernard's sister, Lillian, married Luther
Carnes in the early 50's, we not only gained a new
brother-in-law, but also a niece and nephew,
Luther's daughter, Wilma, and son, Wendell.
Wendell had always been close to us. He graduated
from Ohio State, was a pilot in the Air Force, and
after leaving the service, worked for Federal
Express, first as a pilot, and now as a flight
engineer. He has a pace maker exactly like mine.
Many of the spoons in my spoon collection were


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given to me by Wendell from all his travels to
different countries through Federal Express.
Wendell Carnes is very special to us because of his
kindness to Lillian, his generosity to our church,
and his thoughtfulness to Bernard and me.

* * *

We were honored to be chosen by Carl and Betty
Cocklin to be god-parents to their baby girl,
Kelly. She calls us Grandpa Bernard and Grandma
Lolly, but writes G-Ma and G-Pa which, that plus
our address brings us mail from her where'er she
may be. Kelly spent a year in Norway her junior
year in high school and has just finished her first
year at Toledo University in Ohio. Many popcorn
balls and pounds off fudge went her way during those
two years. Kelly's grownup now, but when she was
a wee little girl, she ad Betty were driving home
from Sunday School when Betty heard her mumbling
and asked, "What are you saying, Kelly?"

"Oh," said Kelly, "We're learning a big prayer.
It starts, "Our Father who are in heaven. How'd you
get your name?." Good question, Huh?

* * *

When I bought my car before I was married, Tom
Brenner's trunk key to his Chevy fit the ignition
of my Chevy. Now this caused some interesting
situations. Tom and Kenny Feasel were the best of
friends, and what one didn't think of, the other
did. I never knew where I'd find my car. One
incident I'll never forget. I took Lib and her
girl friend to a movie at the Palace Theater in


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Columbus. After the show about midnight when we
went to the parking lot to pick up the car, there
was no car! We looked and looked and were just
ready to call the police when Tom and Kenny came
driving up, laughing their heads off. I didn't
laugh! The strange thing was that they didn't know
we were in Columbus, but just happened to drive by,
saw my car, and had a bright (?) idea.

* * *

Bernard and Dad worked together for many years.
Bernard always took water to the field, but Dad
couldn't be bothered. However, he'd drink Bernard's
water all the time. Bernard bought at least 20
thermos jugs, as he'd set them under the wagon out
of the sun, and Dad would forget, back up the
wagon, and crash bang another thermos was broken.
The worst part was no water until Bernard bought
another thermos. Dad would say, "Boy you're going
to have to get another jug; something happened to this one."

* * *

Speaking of water - - - we had ice water with all
our meals. One day Nan was dressed in her
majorette uniform to go to a football game as soon
as she finished her dinner. She sassed her dad not
once, but twice, but after the second time, BJ
flipped his glass of ice water in her face. After
she gasped for breath, not saying a word, she went
upstairs to dry her clothes. When she came down,
she said, "Mom, will you take me?"

I quietly answered, "No your dad will take
you." Bernard said they had a very quiet ride.


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The incident was never mentioned again. In fact, I
had forgotten about it until two years ago Nan
said, "I told one of my kids today that he should
have my dad. He'd learn to control his mouth."
She even told her class what had happened to her
and the lesson she had learned. The kids enjoyed
that little "gem."

* * *

On summer when Jerry and Nan were six and Linda
was four, they were here playing and wanted to go
to the creek, and as usual, I warned Nan and Jerry
to watch Linda carefully. They had been down by
the creek about 15 minutes so I called them to
check. Jerry and Nan answered, but no Linda. They
hadn't seen her leave. I was petrified! We went
up and down the creek bank, calling constantly. I
looked in the barn, around the yard, and came in
the house to go to the bathroom. We had only one
upstairs in those days. There was Linda on the
stool smiling sweetly. She had been watching out
the window, but never answered our calls. I could
have choked her! Believe me, Jerry and Nan didn't
accuse me of having her as my pet that day!

* * *

We had another bathroom experience. One summer
night about 11:30 a car drove in our drive,
stopped, and a woman got out, so Bernard went to
the door. The woman opened the storm door, barged
by BJ and headed for our downstairs bath -- no
lights anywhere except in the bathroom. We were so
dumbfounded that neither of us could say a word.
Then she came out, sat in B. J.' chair, and


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started to make a phone call. Bernard did say,
"Where are you calling?" It was a call to her boy
friend in Fredericktown, and she needed him to help
her as she was having car trouble. Bernard said,
"That's a toll call." She assured us she would pay
and gave us a reference. She was a bar tender at a
bar on East Main Street, Columbus. The boy friend
came; they stayed in the car until 2:00 AM. We
stayed up too, but we never found out whether he
helped her or not, and we never saw any money for
the call.


* * *

When I went to Otterbein the depression was just
ending, but money was tight. Money was scarce at
the Jennings house, so Dad made an agreement with
the treasurer that he'd make payments whenever he
sold hogs or cattle. Can you imagine colleges
making agreements like that today?


* * *


I have mentioned the housekeepers we had after
Mother's death. The last people who stayed with
Dad and me Clyde and Helen Carpenter, newly
married couple. I loved both of them! Since it
was summertime, we ate in the summer kitchen on a
table that had leaves held up with a bar, but that
table was very unsteady. One day Clyde leaned
against the leaf, upset the table, and broke every
dish on it! I was so scared, but I guess Dad was
so in love, as he was soon to be married to mother,
that he never said a word. Helen cried, but I do
remember Clyde saying, 'Accidents do happen." Dad
still never said a word!
* * *


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Today kids have cars soon as they reach 16.
Bernard had to wait until 21 and then he had to buy
his own. On his twenty-first birthday, he bought a
used Model A Ford Roadster from Mack Blayney at the
Junk Ford Agency in Sunbury. He paid $90, but not
in one payment, but in payments of $5.00 a week.
You see he was making only $14.00 a week at Sears
in Columbus. He kept that car until 1939 when he
traded it to Brake's Garage in Sunbury for a '38
Plymouth. During the war, Dad Searles couldn't buy
a car, so BJ wrote a letter to the courts to
transfer his car to his dad which the judge did.

* * *

Nan was baptized December 28, 1947, at the
Condit Presbyterian Church by the Rev. Joseph
Lindsay. That kid screamed through the whole
ceremony. As we were leaving the church, Rev.
Lindsay said to Bernard, "You know the child gets
her disposition form the father." BJ never cared
for that minister after that day. Later, March 30,
1958, she joined church on her own and never
screamed once.

Bernard was a member of the Berkshire Methodist
Church when we were married, but joined the Condit
Presbyterian Church soon after our marriage. I had
been a member since December 1923. Bernard served
as both trustee and elder. I never held an office,
but I taught Sunday School, led Youth Fellowship,
and taught Bible School for many years. As of
December 1995, I'll have been a member at Condit
for 72 years. Miss Grace Condit was a 75 year
member. That's my goal!

* * *


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When I was a teenager, our minister, The Rev.
Thomas, helped the youth make an outdoor basket-
ball court which is now a parking lot. We had
league games every week with other church teams and
a tournament at the end of the season. Those games
plus our Christian Endeavor (youth fellowship) made
up my social calendar for the summer.

* * *

When Nan and Bonnie Reppart Caudill were
small, they played together a great deal. One day
they were playing in a wading pool, stepping out on
cement, making foot prints. All of a sudden Nan
came crying into the house. Sobbing her heart out,
she cried, "Mom, Bonnie says I have flat feet, do I,
Mom?"

* * *

There were three Grace Condits in our community,
so they were identified by their husband, or a
lack of one.

Dane's Grace was leader of our church choir and
tried her best to teach me to play the piano, but I
wasn't a very receptive pupil. Ed's Grace was our
next door neighbor, and after her husband's death
rented her farmland to Dad and Bernard. To this
day Bernard can picture her peeking around the
window curtain to watch him go to the field. For
some reason, don't ask why, the fuses for
electricity to the barn were in the house. One day
a storm was coming; BJ was unloading baled hay into
the barn when a fuse blew and the loader quit. He
went to the house, knocked and knocked on the door,
but Grace wouldn't answer. He had to walk home,



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call her on the phone, and ask her to please let
him in to change a fuse. She did, but BJ was
upset!

Then there was Miss Grace Condit, a pillar of
faith, who lived with her brother and sister, Edgar
and Clara Condit. After their deaths she lived
alone in a big old barn of a house, all made from
black walnut. One evening, we had a terrible storm
-- hail, wind and rain. As soon as we could we
went up to check on Grace. There was a big tree
blown across her driveway, the whole top lying on
the roof of her house,; the chimney had been broken
off and bricks were lying everywhere. We ran to
the back door and called for her. She answered
cheerfully, "Come on in." There she was sitting in
a rocker reading a book by the light of a kerosene
lamp. We told her about the tree, chimney, etc.
Her answer was, "I know, but the roof didn't fall
in, so I couldn't see that I should get upset."


Bernard also farmed her farm. By this time
farmers were using combines. It seemed one year
that during the week we'd have rain, but on Sunday
the wheat was ready to combine. For several weeks
this happened. Finally, Bernard said, "Grace, if
the wheat's dry next Sunday, would you mind if I
combined it?" You see her family never worked on
Sunday. They milked their cows, but wouldn't ship
the milk. The ate Sunday meals but did all the
cooking on Saturday. Can you imagine her answer?
She said, "Bernard, I think there will be another
day; if there isn't we won't need the wheat." The
next week the combining was completed. After she
sold her farm she bought a little house in South
Condit. A neighbor found her sitting in her
rocking chair where she had peacefully died with


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the Bible in her lap. Ironically, that house was
Nan and Keith's first house.

During our growing up years there were Blue Laws
which prohibited dancing, shows, sports, business,
etc. on Sundays. No one worked on Sunday except to
do the very necessities. No stores or gas stations
were ever open on Sunday. It was the Blue Law that
Miss Grace Condit's family adhered to more strictly
than many of us, as they were of the Puritanical
Presbyterian Church. The first year my dad planted
corn on Sunday because of a wet spring, the
community was sure that none would grow. All the
people planned their shopping so their shelves were
full over Sunday. Probably that's why we went to
town every Saturday night. How times have changed!
Now, Sunday is the biggest shopping day of the
week. By the way, I have never heard of the
repealing of the Blue Laws. People just began
ignoring them.


* * *

When I was about 4 years old, I was traipsing
after my dad who was cutting hay with horses in a
field by my grandma's. The horses stepped in a
bumble bee's nest which caused havoc. The horses
went wild as they were getting stung. So was I!
Dad yelled, "Go to grandma's. The darned bees
were in my curly hair. I was crazy! Grandma took
care of me, but I was badly stung on my head. I
couldn't stand to have my hair brushed for days.
To this day just seeing a bee makes me shiver.
It's ironic, but when Nan was 4 years old, she was
in the barn with Bernard when a bumble bee stung
her on the tummy. She immediately began swelling


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from her stomach to her knees. The doctor had to
give her a shot. So --- both of us stay away from
bees.

* * *


July 4, 1959, Bernard won his first and last
prize. The firemen had a raffle for an aluminum
boat, 5 horse motor, and boat trailer at $1.00
per chance. Eldon Frakes had one ticket left just
before the drawing. BJ had 90 cents: I gave him a
dime. The M.C. drew the winning name ---Bernard
Searles. I went flying up to steps to the stage,
but Chuck Nettelhorst wouldn't give me the prize --
my name wasn't Bernard. June 21, 1995, Bernard
gave the outfit to Carl Cocklin who loves to fish.

* * *


In September 1985, Bernard had surgery to his
right carotid artery. Since the left side was 100%
clogged and had already caused his stroke earlier,
he had to keep the right artery clear. He didn't
know it, but the surgeon had to stop in the middle
of the surgery as his blood pressure went so low.
He came through the surgery, though, and is still
going strong. His big problem is in the back
and legs -- probably poor circulation.

* * *


In 1994 Bernard bought new choir robes for the
entire adult choir at our church plus an organist
robe for Bonnie Caudill. They are beautiful.

Presbyterian blue!

* * *


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Bob Searles has been very close to Bernard
through the years. When he was a kid Bernard was
teaching him to fish. One day they were at Lime
Rock just east of Sunbury which was deep -- deep
then. Bob caught a nice fish and was pulling it in
when he lost it -- just at the top of the water.
Before Bernard could do anything , Bob had waded in
after that fish and was blubbering in water over
his head. Bernard retrieved him , but that ended
the fishing that day.

Bob's fist marriage to Deana Ball ended in
divorce after fifteen years, but they had three
lovely children, Teri, Tami, and Bobby. During
these years they were at our house at least once a
week, and the kids were like our grandchildren. We
had a tradition on Christmas Eve that they all met
us at our church for candle light service, then
came to our house for chicken sandwiches and
goodies plus a gift exchange. After the divorce
Bob tried to keep the tradition, but we soon lost
the girls which hurt us very much. We weren't even
invited to their weddings, nor have ever seen their
children. These things broke our hearts. However,
Bobby has always stayed in touch. He had a
beautiful wedding (which we attended) marrying his
wife, Linda. They with their darling Elizabeth Ann
join us with Bob and his present wife, Joyce, some
time during the Christmas holidays.

Joyce has been an integral part of our family.
The first time Bernard met her at the State Fair,
he came home and said, "Well, Bob's finally found a
gal with some sense." She very seldom misses a
week that she's not out here to check on us, and
we've really had some fun-time shopping trips.

* * *


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Jay asked that this event be included in the
book, as he feels the punch line is important. One
day Bernard and Jay were putting a toy boat
together. They zoomed through the project but had
two pieces left over that were needed to make the
boat run. So --- they ad to take it apart and
start again. Bernard said, "Jay, let this be a
lesson to you. Always read the directions before
you start a project." "Always read the Directions"
has become a slogan for the Searles-Wampler family.

* * *

Nan is very appreciative of the fact that Marian
Whitney gave her a thorough background in music.
For several years, Marian taught Nan not only to
play the piano and read music, but also to
understand music theory and to appreciate all types
of music.

* * *

The absolute worst thing that has ever happened
to me happened at Seaside Hospital. I was working
the cardiac ward when a small child, probably 6-7
years old, became very nauseated. A nurse had me
pick her up and hold her in my arms while she
changed the bed. all at once the child's eyes
rolled back in her head; there was a tremor all
through her body. I'll never forget it! My arms
shook , and I could scarcely call the nurse. She
took one look and went for a doctor. I was still
holding the child while her muscles jerked
involuntarily. The doctor came and pronounced her
dead. BUT he had me carry her down to the morgue.
She was so tiny and thin, and now her body was
limp. I couldn't talk about it for day days, and now


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as I write I have goosebumps thinking of the
tremors.

* * *

Our Canadian vacation with Ray, Helen, and kids
was full of exciting events, but Karen had an
experience that she remembers yet after almost 40
years. Each day the camp gave a prize for the
largest bass caught. also the lodge prepared a
lunch -- without any meat -- for the guests who
went fishing. Everyone was supposed to catch fish
and fry them for lunch. Ray, Helen, John, and
Steve went in one boat, but we met at noon for lunch.
Fishing this day had not been good, but Karen
hooked a nice one. she listened so carefully to
Bernard as he'd say, "Give it a little line. Reel
in slowly. Ease out a little. Hold it! (etc-etc-
finally) Yank! Reel in!" Karen landed a 14 inch
bass. She was so proud! Alas, when we met Ray's
boat, no one had a fish but Karen. she was not
going to let that fish be eaten, but smooth Ray
convinced her that her fish couldn't win the prize
as it wasn't big enough. Karen cried; Ray and
Bernard consoled her by taking her picture with the
fish in several positions: we ate the fish! After
fishing for a while, we went back to the lodge for
the awards. The fire flew! No one had caught a
bass all day. There were pike-- nice ones -- but
no bass. Karen would have won the prize -- oh,
what an unhappy girl. Ray was a sad father, and to
this day he hasn't been able to get Karen to say,
"It was O. K. Dad." no Sir! We ate her prize!

* * *

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When Bernard and I were first married, he was
Master of the 400 F&AM Masonic Lodge of Sunbury,
then went on to be a 32 degree Mason in Scottish
Rite and a Shriner. He is a 50 year member of the
Sunbury Lodge, but is not able to be active any
more. He is proud of nephew Bob though who is a 33
degree Mason and still going strong. Both of us
are members of Sunbury Columbia Chapter #33 Order
of the Eastern Star, and I am a 50 year member--
not active either. It think it's old age.

* * *

Lib was about 4 years old; I was a teenager and
easily embarrassed. We had a minister whom I
admired very much, but I made the mistake of saying
in front of Lib that he wore a hair piece. One day
when he visited us, Lib said to him, "Mr. Rice,
Lolly says you wear a wig, do you? I could have
died right there!

Without any embarrassment, Rev. Rice took off his
toupee and said, "Yes Lolly's right, do you want
to touch it?" We were having troubles in our
church, he was sent to Condit to heal the
church's wounds. Do you understand how he could do
it? He was a special person.

* * *

Karen requested that this story be included in
"the book'. Before Aunt Eve (Dad's oldest sister)
died, she gave me a small Indian pouch which
according to the family story was given to her by
her Indian grandmother. I have given it to Nan to
keep for posterity. We don't know whether the
story is true, but we do know that the pouch is
very old, badly worn, had made from a strange
material, has little beads making Indian designs,
and was Aunt Eva's prize memento. That's good


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enough for us!

Some of my ex-students want me to tell you some
school stories -- just two.

One Hallowe'en someone (no one could find out
who) drove around the Big Walnut High School and
shot holes in the windows. My room was one that
was hit. That winter we were having a snow storm,
and Bill Sherbourne was sitting in the back of the
room in front of a window. All of a sudden, he
raised his hand and asked to move as the snow was
coming in the holes. Before I could say a word,
Ralph Smith said, "Sit there! If you hadn't shot
holes in the windows, the snow wouldn't be blowing
in."

I said, "I guess that's it, Bill.' Principal
Estel Miller was glad to hear the story.


* * *

My speech class was in charge of all the
assemblies and chapel programs at Big Walnut. We
gave plays at Christmas, Easter, and Thanksgiving
assemblies, some serious and some "funny". We did
everything from Red Baron to Christmas Carol. In
one Thanksgiving play Jim Holobaugh as John Alden
was showing how sharp his knife was for carving the
turkey. He took a hair from his head to split with
the knife, hit his finger, then left the stage. As
he came back stage, blood was spurting from his
finger. He took one look and passed out. I turned
to my student teacher only to see her sliding down
the wall. I gave every one I could an ammonia
capsule and started working on Jim. The play was
progressing on stage, and the kids had to ad-lib as
Jim was supposed to return. Jerry Brenner came to
the door, looked back stage and saw me working with


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Jim. Jerry said, "John Alden is real busy -- he
won't be back for a while." I got Jim awake, gave
him an ammonia capsule, and sent him back on stage.
Jerry said, "It's about time you got back here."
We got through the play! The audience never knew
our problem.

* * *

After Bernard had been overseas for a couple of
years, he sent me a letter saying that when he got
home, he was going to buy an airplane, set it
outside his bedroom window, and throw rocks at it
every morning. That's one goal he never
accomplished!

* * *

1995 Teen Age Humor

Jay asked me what the height of conceit is. I
couldn't answer. He said, "A fly lying on his
back, in the water under a bridge yelling, 'Raise
the bridge!'

July 15, 1995, HOT! Nan, Keith and Jay had a
yard sale in our front yard. The humidity was so
high that the heat index was 114 degrees. Jay
said, "you know it's hot when Grandma fans with a
fly swatter."

* * *

Jerry Brenner stayed with us the first four weeks
and the last six weeks of his first grade in
school. Danny was born September 5, 1953, so we
kept Jerry. Tom and Lib moved to their present
home on Hartford Road in the spring of "54, and as
a result were in the Croton school district. They
didn't want to move Jerry, so he stayed with us.

The fist day of school Jerry got a paddling for
running the hall. When he came home and told


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us, Bernard told him not to worry, he had just made
a mistake. That evening we went down to see my dad
and Jerry told him about the paddling. Dad
said, "Young man, come here!" He turned him over
his knee and really paddled him, saying "When you
get a paddling at school, you get one at home!"
Poor Jerry , he was so upset.

The last day of school I was getting Jerry's
clothes ready for him to wear. All at once, Jerry
began to cry and said, "Please, Aunt Lolly, don't
make me wear that shirt. That's my paddling
shirt!' He wore a shirt of his own choosing.

Don't tell me that paddling doesn't make an
impression!

* * *

As I have mentioned several times throughout my
writing, the Condit Presbyterian Church has been a
vital part of our lives. How I could have
forgotten the wind storm that almost destroyed our
church building I do not know. The Rev. Larry
Warner was our minister and Bernard was chairman of
the trustees when the catastrophe happened. The
wind blew out part of our beautiful stained glass
window of Christ praying in the Garden of
Gethsemane and twisted the frame of the building.
The whole eastern section of pews was ruined by
rain and debris. The congregation was devastated,
but immediately joined with the trustees to try to
repair the building. A contractor, Mr. Lowendeck
from Newark, was hired for the job. In the
meantime we had church in the gym of what is now
the Harrison Street Elementary School.

The contractor straightened the building and
pulled it together with cables which still hold it.
When you look up to the ceiling and notice "beams"


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--no- no-they are boxes holding and concealing the
cables. The broken parts of the window were
replaced and are not noticeable. The congregation
donated money for pews spirited by Bill Whitney who
donated the first pew for his family. When we
"oldies' say we have a church pew, we really do.
The old pews that were usable were sent to a
Methodist Church in West Virginia, thanks to Larry
Warner's idea. Is it any wonder that we are proud
of our church-- the people-- and the building?

* * *

We have proof that Indians inhabited our farm
many moons ago. Bernard and Jay have found flint,
arrowheads and small tools, but Bernard plowed out
the great one right in front of our barn. It is a
stone ax weighing eight pounds and in perfect
condition. An archeologist dated it as being about
5000 years old. Bernard was offered $500 for it,
but he said, "I'll keep for grandson Jay."


* * *

Here we are in 1995. BJ and I have tried to
give you a glimpse of life from the horse and buggy
days to the space program and the walk on the moon.
The future is open to you. Keep busy both mentally
and physically; keep a sense of humor, and above
all, keep the faith! Bernard warns, "Don't be so
heavenly perfect that you are no earthly good." Our love
pours out to you and yours.


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The Sunbury News

Thursday, September 21, 1993

Preserving local history with memoirs

by Brian Miller

"The most precious commodities of all- peoples' own recollections
of their worlds - seldom get preserved at least in a proper and permanent way."

So writes Bob Greene, columnist for the Chicago Tribune, in the
introduction to his book, "To Our Children's Children: Preserving
Family Histories for Generations to Come."

His book inspired Polly Horn, director of the Sunbury Community
Library, to get local residents going on writing their own memories..

"The people that are doing it are just having a wonderful time, bringing
back things that they haven't talked about for years and reliving a
life they had forgotten about," said Horn.

Two of those doing it are Lolly and Bernard Searles, Ohio 3 in Trenton
Township. Lolly, 79, is a retired school teacher, and her husband, 80,
is a retired livestock inspector and mail carrier. They worked on it
throughout the summer. Now in its very final stages, it is 125 typed pages.

They worked together on it in the evenings. She did the writing since
she is more comfortable with that skill. But Lolly said; "Bernard has a
memory like an elephant. He remembers things I don't.

Sunbury resident Marian Whitney, retired former editor of The Sunbury
News, is the first person to finish hers. She said as you become
more aware of your past you remember things you hadn't thought
about in years.

Whitney, 85, recalled a packaged flower garden, a sheet that had seeds
implanted in it that you spread out on the ground. "It was on of the
highlights of my childhood," she said.

Greene's book is designed to trigger the memories by asking questions
on various topics and times in ones life. It contains sections such as
"the house you grew up in", "childhood neighborhood", "romance and
relationships" and holidays".

Lolly says straight out "if it hadn't been for the book, she never would
have done the project."

The book of memories are individual works and they bear the
personality of the authors. Whitney included pictures with hers: Lolly and
Bernard had no pictures. They designed their own covers. Lolly and
Bernard's has a horse and buggy on the top and a moon rover on the
bottom to signify the two centuries the book represents: the 1800s to the
1900s. It was made by their grandson. Whitney included several
family recipes in back such as "Marian's bread and butter pickles."

"Everybody can do their own thing," said Horn.

Both the Searleses and Whitney said they did the project to preserve
memories for their families. The Searles' daughter, Nan, has read it,
said Lolly.

Whitney said her favorite things is seeing the reaction of her children
and grandchildren to it. All of her five children and all but one of her
15 grandchildren have read it.

"It's the little things, the insignificant things, that seem to mean a lot
to the grandchildren," said Whitney "Not the facts of life."

Lolly remembered butchering hogs and the aftermath, hanging up
and scalding the carcasses, and rendering the lard.

She also remembered from her days as a student at the Condit grade
school bringing buckets of water from the house they now live in to
the school, which did not have its own supply of water. The pupils all
drank out of one dipper.

Bernard had many memories

Please see MEMORIES, Page 2

Photo : Lolly and Bernard Searles look over a notebook into which Lolly wrote down their memories. The notebook later became a book of memories and will be preserved in the Community Library.

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MEMORIES
(continued from Page 1)


about his four years in the armed services during World War II and about
time spent with his grandfather, a Civil War veteran.

Several people are in various stages of writing their books of
memories, according to Horn.

Horn said most of them are comfortable writing longhand, rather
than on a computer. She had supplied them with shorthand notebooks,
which have two columns. They write in the left column, and when they
reach a stopping place submit it to the library, and a typist puts it on a
computer. It is sent back for additions, corrections, and changes, and
then resubmitted for more typing into the computer, and so forth. The
left column gives them a place to put things they remember later and
want to insert in the book, Horn said.

The end result is a laser-printed hard bound book of memories that is
kept in the library's collection.

The library sponsors a group that meets once a week to help people get
going in what can be a difficult process.

"The hardest thing for people to do is to think back," said Horn. "You
get so caught up in today you forget what you did as a child and yet your
memory is really in good shape, if you can get back there."

The meetings play an important role, Horn said, in helping people
overcome their fear of writing.

"It may take them four or five meetings before they write a word,"
said Horn, who said the meetings give people a chance to talk about
their writing.

There are about 12 people who are regularly attending the meetings,
Horn said. The meetings take place on the second Wednesday of each
month at 2:30 p.m. at the library.

The library bought 25 copies of Greene's book, which Horn said people
can keep as long as they need to.

As far as the books or memories, Horn plans to put them on the library's
shelves , as long as the authors don't mind.

"I let them circulate to let people get ideas on on their own," she said. "I
want one of them to be put back because it's a part of our history that's
lost to the community.

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