When your grandfather, Alfred, was a little boy, he had to learn a poem for recitation day. His Mother came to hear him “speak his piece,” as we used to say. Imagine her discomfiture when Alfred rose from his seat, walked to the front where he was supposed to stand, and began:

“So boss, so boss night is drawing night, Shadows of the evening steal across the sky...” and was weeping so hard he had to take his seat.

 

 

 

Alfred was six or seven, living up at Badger Mills where Papa moved his family during the summer months. He can explain this to you, but he was forbidden going to the Mill, where the logs went into a big flume which carried them to the river. One day, he stepped off the floor, which was covered with water, right into this flume. He owes his life to the workman who quickly grabbed him by the hair on top of his head as he was going down.

 

 

 

Ettie - your grandmother – used to love to swing. When Bessie was tow or three, it was Ettie’s task to put her to sleep in the afternoons. So they two would rock in the hammock. One day Bess asked, “Mother, are there hammocks in Heaven?” “Why, I don’t know. Why do you ask?” said Mother VanSpanckeren. “Well, if they don’t have hammocks, I don’t think Ettie will want to go there,” said little Bess.

 

 

 

Bess and Warner VanSpanckeren were playing together. Bess was four or five, Warner, seven or eight. Bess loved Sunday School and used to quote verses she had learned.There was only one apple that day, so Mother told Warner to divide it. “Divide it the Christian way,” said Bess.

 

 

 

Warner had a mosquito bite, Bess a stomach ache. “Oh, my stomach aches!” said Bess. “Whew, my mosquito bite itches!” said Warner. So it went on. Finally Warner said, “I’ll bet you that my mosquito itches MORE than your stomach aches!”

 

 

 

When I was at Aunt Sarah’s the summer before my senior year in high school, Percy walked home from the town house prayer meeting one night. “I’m protecting you, ain’t I, Ethel? he asked. “Indeed you are,” I answered. “But if I was six feet tall, I could protect you better, couldn’t I?” he asked. “Ethel, when you get graduated, what are you going to do?” “Oh, I guess I’m going to rest a year, and study music and elocution.” “Rest a year! How far is that from here, Ethel? Are you going away off and leave me?

 

 

 

Once when we were little and lived in EauClaire, Alfred said to me, "When I’m a man, I’m going to take care of you, Ethel, all of my life!” I idolized him from my earliest recollections, and used to help him carry in the wood for the kitchen stove. I’d run any errand he asked of me, most joyously. Sometimes on Saturdays and Sundays, he’s get up and make hash browned potatoes for breakfast while Mama and Lottie slept in. I never remember our having a quarrel, or his teasing me, although he and Lottie used to tease each other. I had a crush on a neighbor boy two years older than I for a short time, and one day at dinner, Alfred announced, “If Paul Holmes tells me another lie, I’m going to whip him!” I didn’t like Paul after that, being completely disillusioned by the fact that Alfred said he was a liar.