When We Lived in Northern New York State.

Sunday, March 30, 2014.

Forty-six years ago, when we were living in northern New York State, we moved from a rented rural home to our own piece of land. It was a small plot in a very rural area. It was a little over two acres, and we were quite proud of it, even if it was rocky.  These acres were on a small rise in the land, and we discovered that in the late summer, when we moved there, it was quite breezy. Autumn came, and the wind was usually there, giving us breezes, even in the coolness of fall. When winter came, it wasn't just breezy, the gusts of wind were quite strong.

When snow fell, it sometimes came in a horizontal manner. Cold? You can bet it was cold! One evening when I came home from adult painting class at our local school, the temperature was an honest-to-goodness forty-three degrees below zero! I lifted the hood of the car, put the lightbulb in the engine of the vehicle to keep it warm enough to start in the morning, and hurried inside the house.

Spring came, flowers began to bloom, especially those lovely yellow daffodils! There were many trees on this old farm, and it was absolutely heaven. Then, we found out that even in the summer, there was a constant breeze! We knew that this place deserved a name, so we named it "Shiver Hill". I still think of that wonderful piece of land, with our big gardens of vegetables, the beautiful lilac bush, the old weather-beaten barn, the awful drifts of snow in the long-lasting winter, the huge, very large, enormous, humongous ROCK in the field across the dirt road, that we loved to climb! We would be up on top of that rock surveying the small mountains in the distance, and looking at the whole area of our Shiver Hill. That was one of our happy pastimes.

Both sets of our parents lived in northeastern Pennsylvania, quite a distance in those days. I wrote letters on carbon paper, to send to each set of parents, my sister and brother, and a few relatives, to keep them informed about our lives and those of our six children. They enjoyed hearing the news, and I really liked writing those letters.

After a time, I typed the letters on an old typewriter, using carbon paper, also. It was a blessing that I enjoyed writing and sending letters ~ it made the grandparents so happy.

After that, I had an idea that a Newsletter might be an interesting project.  The teachers at school would be using the mimeograph to make tests for their students. Why couldn't I do the same sort of thing?  

I kept writing the letters to our parents, and also began to produce the Newsletter. I shall send the first copy of it in my next blog. Have patience... 

I'll see you at the Corner Post ...