red barn

Papa’s World – Remember When?

/ Tom / Leave a comment

LOL- I do have some memories of when I was in grade school and before.

We were playing “JACKS” on the front porch of our house on North Main Street-

Eldred, Pa.

I only remember one child who was there, but vaguely – there were others.

The conversation came up about “LASSIE,” which we all watched weekly!

I googled “LASSIE” and it ran from 1953 to 1973.

George Cleveland, who played “GRAMPS” for four years –

Died of a Heart Attack July 15th, 1957!

We discussed that while playing “JACKS”!

I would have been eight years old then!

I also remember having a CORN COB pipe.

I do not know where I got it –

But we had a very big red barn-garage in the back yard –

That the railroad tracks ran directly behind it!

It seemed so close that the barn would shake when a train came by.

My father would park his car inside on the wooden planks on the first floor.

There was a door directly in front of the car that opened out, and I would stand there and watch the train as it whizzed by!

To the right as you first entered –

Was a stairway to the second floor where my older brother had installed a basketball hoop!

Under those stairs open to view –

Was a old horse-drawn sleigh.

Black and one seat for two people.

I never knew who had this or why it was there.

I often wonder what became of it.

It most likely was from the 1800s.

Upstairs – the huge room with a wooden floor and the basketball hoop-

Was an open window –

I could stand there and look down the tracks toward the town and see the Whitehawk beef company.

Also, the rear of the Slavins Furniture store and all the neighbors’ houses to that store.

I remember taking cornsilk – dried out –

And putting it in that corncob pipe!

Lighting it and puffing away and blowing the smoke out that window.

I did not inhale – just puffed on that pipe.

That didn’t happen all that often, but just the thought of doing it and getting away –

Well, it was part of my growing up!

I think it was right around the time that I spoke of “LASSIE”!

LOL – just some humor!

I also remember “BLUE BERRY HILL”!

That is what we called the hill with the large TV ANTENAE directly across the street from our front porch.

That ANTENAE was huge – sitting on top of that hill.

I believe it is for a reception for the town for TV.

We used to walk down to Slavins Furniture store and ask if they had any cardboard boxes we could have.

North Main Street of Eldred.PA –

Had a large group of young kids when I was growing up.

We all played together.

Back then, the cardboard had wax on it.

We would break the boxes down that the stoves – refrigerators came shipped in.

You would sit down, grab the front, and bend it back toward you!

Then someone would push you, and down the hill you would go.

The hay-like grass was about a foot high –

And that waxed cardboard made it slick –

And you would slide down that hill, going faster and faster.

Holding the front of the cardboard back toward you –

Gave you some protection in running over bushes that had thorns on them.

If it was going too fast – I just bailed out!

Watching “LASSIE” and sliding down the hill on cardboard-

Was part of my youth growing up!

The other thing before I got my bicycle –

Was going up tos sawmill!

It was just three houses up from my home.

Later in my early teens –

My father bought a membership at Smethport-

My younger brother and I would go with him-

We would start off first, and then he and his friends played behind us!

Back to the Sawmill.

They had a huge sawdust pile-

And we would go there and dig a hole or tunnel in it.
They would come out and chase us away, saying it could collapse.

Looking back now –

It was dangerous!

After a while, they told our parents, and we stopped doing it!

For our health, the past twenty years.

For information on how to purchase –

Just go to-

www.https://sfitzsimmons.juiceplus.com

APPLE TREES!

To the right of our driveway –

On the neighbor’s lawn –

A huge APPLE TREE!

At the beginning of the driveway on the left as you turn in –

A smaller APPLE TREE!

Directly in the backyard, to the left of the red barn – an APPLE TREE!

Four houses down the street –

Two more APPLE TREES!

These trees were not only good eating apples –

Some are so tart, and others are juicy yellow ones!

BUT THEY WERE NEIGHBORHOOD AMUNITION TREES FOR APPLE WAR FARE!

Also good for chucking at rail cars as they came by on the tracks!

My early years growing up in my neighborhood of North Mani Street in Eldred, Pa.

This is but a few memories of REMEMBER WHEN!

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PAPA’S WORLD –

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Papa’s World – Growing up in a little town.

/ Tom / Leave a comment

The sun came into the front bedroom window on North Main Street – Eldred, Pa.

It was my room now –

before that –

my older brother had that room –

and I shared the side bedroom with my younger brother.

My parents had a large rear bedroom.

It also had a single bed and a crib –

back in the right hand corner-

where my brother would sleep until he was three.

Right outside that front bedroom was the sidewalk –

then the curve and main street.

There were a few times I would be awakened –

The sound of a car crash right outside my window.

A drunk driver would run into the cars parked on that main street!

I could look out through the screen –

you know those single screens you place in a window-

And I could see the crashed car-

and then the police.

In the summer when it was hot –

I would raise the window and take out the screen –

Climb out onto the front porch roof and sit there –

Looking up at the stars-

and watching cars come past the house.

When that sunlight came through the window –

it would wake me up – early!

I almost remember-

that is why I wake up early each day – even now.

Also the sound of birds –

often times there would be fog with sunlight coming through.

We had a side yard and a backyard with a big old red farm barn.

At one time on the way back past –

it was a working farm barn.

Underneath were stalls for cows –

and I remember an old black sleigh-

this was the type to be drawn by horses over the snow.

I have no idea why it was there.

There was a set of stairs that went up overhead –

must at one time have been a hayloft.

My older brother and his friends put a basketball hoop up there.

I do not remember them playing up there-

as he was ten years older than me.

But – I do remember all of them being in our cellar –

they had a club down there –

in the back room.

My father and brother had drawn Disney caricatures on the wall –

I wonder if they still are there?

I also remember them having me put on boxing gloves-

so heavy –

I had a hard time keeping my arms up.

They would put their hands up –

and I would try to hit them.

I must have been around five or six at that time.

I was so skinny –

my mom made sure I did not take my shirt off.

You could count every rib and bone –

and blue veins on the chest and front.

She said people would say she wasn’t feeding me!!!

Eldred, Pa. with the main street –

I was raised in this picture on the upper left side where the houses are.

The main street ran in front of the house-

It is still there-

and my Great niece still lives there!

And the railroad tracks behind the house-

where the old red farm barn was.

The far hills are the Alleghany mountains –

and the Alleghany River ran to the left of the railroad tracks.

What you see in the far distance is NYS –

and Portville and Olean are maybe ten miles away.

The hill to the right –

I spent many a night sleeping out there –

and we would take cardboard boxes from Slavin’s furniture –

open them up and slide down the hill on them!

Until the fourth grade –

I had to walk that main street to South Main Street –

which you can not see in this picture –

To what was then the High School –

Grades One through Twelve.

I believe it to be almost a mile walk.

Also out of the picture frame was a bridge –

that passed over Barden Brook Creek.

I had just gotten Davey Crockett Coon Skin cap with a squirrel’s tail.

I was not tall enough to see over the railing –

so I took my cap off –

set it on top of the cement railing –

and poked my head through the opening to look down.

Well – that was a big mistake –

because when I stuck my head through –

My ears unfolded and I was stuck.

I embarrassed my brother –

and they had to call the fire department.

Here I was –

stuck with my head through the opening and my –

DAVEY CROCKETT COONSKIN CAP WITH A SQUIRREL TAIL SITTING ABOVE MY HEAD!

I have so many memories of growing up

in a small town in NWPA!

This is but a little that I have shared.

Thank you for reading PAPA’S WORLD –

my site: livinglifedoingitmyway.blog

PAPA’S WORLD – GROWING UP IN A LITTLE TOWN!

Papa’s World – Christmas in a Barn – family.

/ Tom / Leave a comment

While visiting family in Lake Holiday, Va. we all went to the Lutheran – Bethel Church –

CHRISTMAS IN A BARN SERVICE!

The first one since the Pandemic stopped them.

Held on a working farm in the countryside – I would estimate 250 plus people attended.

The service was full of music and children –

Practicing before the service started!

We had excellent seats.

Sarah – Ella – Maddy – Mike – Debby and Sherry.

The Christmas lights and hanging stringers from the chandeliers were pretty.

After the service, we emerged in the sunshine as it had gotten warmer during the service.

PAPA’S WORLD – CHRISTMAS IN THE BARN WITH THE MYERS FAMILY – PRICELESS!!!!

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Papas World -when I was young – growing up Eldred

/ Tom / 1 Comment

My childhood was spent in the early years

on the side yard – backyard

and some close neighborhood yards.

There were Four apple trees

spaced out in those yards.

Two were crab apples

And two the most tasty Yellow Apples!

GOOD MORNING!

The crab apples were good for throwing –

many a train box car I pitched them at.

But those Yellow apples –

Just to sit down and eat – and gather for my Mom

to make one of her apple pies!

There were honey bees all over the ones on the ground.

And both trees stood side by side in a neighbors yard.

Behind old Mr. Dennings house ( might have been Dennis)

And the other in the Winsor’s back yard.

We played kick the can in those backyards –

four plus yards in total.

This was on North main street in Eldred Pa.

The railroad track bordered the one side-

The other side had the houses then the sidewalk and the main street!

We played early morning to dusk –

we had a lot of kids from North Main Street.

Both sides of the street.

Anyone time there would be 7 to 15 kids.

Both boys and girls.

We had a two story farm barn in our back yard.

My brother and his friends made a basketball court upstairs.

Just one basket – or might have been two?

But it had wood planks for the floor.

My dad has fish heads nailed to the front

from all the Pike and Walleye he caught in Canada.

We ran about all the time

I really do not remember anyone watching us like we do today with kids.

We hit the house to eat and then we were outside.

Winter and Summer.

I can remembering gathering corn silk

and putting it into a pipe

There was a window on that second floor of that old barn

And I would try to light it – it was not dry! LOL

Once I got my bike
then I was at the park all day!

I never realy got into smoking until I was maybe 22!

And then – I did not inhale!

It was a staus thing I think –

The guys I worked second shift with smoked and chewed!

I only would smoke at work and a little bit at home.

And a pack would last me a couple days!

I quit when we got married – I think I was 32!

I would walk those tracks downtown and to the swinging bridge.

It was on the other side of the tracks just beyond

The Whitehawk Beef Company’

It spanned a small creek – Barden Brook – that flowed into the river.

It was held up by steel cables

and we would get on it and start jumping up and down

It would bounce and then you sort of caused it to sway

back and forth.

Hence we called it the Swinging Bridge.

This is but a short part of my childhood

one I think back to.

One that has a lot of great memories and people.

Sherry and Tom

Thank you for reading Papa’s World

Where friends meet the family!

livinglifedoingitmyway.blog