last week-end, & here's what she told me:

"When Patsy (now in her sixties) was a baby, Nick & I lived in a nice rented house with a good well.

Papa did some work for a man, & the man ran out of money & gave Papa this lot for part of the work. Papa sold it to Nick for $50.00.

Papa had a one-room building on his place, & he sold it to Nick, too, for another $50.00, & we paid $12.00 to get it moved onto the lot.

Then we moved into that one-room, & we had to haul water from the neighbors, & the only heat we had was the kerosene stove we cooked on. If it got cold, we had to go stay with Mama & Papa.

The dirt road stopped about 1/2 a mile from the place, so we had to go across the fields to get to Mama & Papa's.

We had to get an outdoor bathroom (note from Sylvia: my Aunt Lillie will *not* say 'outhouse'!), & that cost $25, and the lot was small, so we had to have it cleaned out every month. That was 25 cents.

I was so mad at Nick, but he was happy. He had his own place before his parents or his older brother."

She & Nick raised 3 daughters there, & his parents moved into the house (now 2 bedrooms & a sleeping porch) when they were in their nineties.

One daughter brought her 3 children back home when her husband left for the pleasures & perils of another woman.

Aunt Lillie still lives in the house, &, since her vision is very weak, the baby who was in a stroller comes in every day to cook & take care of her.

The grandchildren bring their children on week-ends.

and her niece Sylvia, who grew up eating peanut butter sandwiches at her kitchen table, still feels like she should eat every time she sits down at that table!