Written in 1983
Being the youngest of the family, my memories don't go way back and I often felt left out of what the big kids were doing. I remember a little of when Jo was still at home (how could I forget the big doll she gave me for Christmas. "Evelyn is still in one of my closets) but mostly it was the four of us girls.
Annie was my idol since she was going off to school to be a school teacher. I'm sure I used to pester her to death when she was home, begging to sleep with her or for attention one way or another. And she would humor me, being the fairy who answered messages under lilac leaves and things like that.
Ruthie was always the clever one who fixed up her room like a magazine model, made beautiful clothes (except the one that smelled like cod liver oil. Pa spilled some on the material). That one looked pretty, it just smelled funny! She always worked hard helping out here and there.
Gertrude was my pal, usually ready to play paper dolls with me. Especially the kind you cut out of the Sears catalogs. They could wander very nicely amid the hills and valleys of the scrolls on the legs of the old square grand piano that was part of our childhood. We used to sing duets after we went to bed at night - the biggest favorite being "There is a Green Hill Far Away".
Sunday afternoons were the time when everybody came home, meaning lots of nieces and nephews to play with. Since these were close to my age they were more like cousins to me, but being older, I could easily boss them around, which I liked quite a lot.
I started taking piano lessons when I was twelve, having been pointed in the right direction ("this note means this key") by Annie. Ruthie paid for my lessons for a long time. When Lammert got a Solovox to use for church I used to go with him on Sunday afternoon to practice (or on Saturday evenings). Those were good times. He was very charitable and seemed to enjoy having me "help" him. Of course his quiet sense of humor made it fun, even when I'd been a pest and threw his shoe on the roof of the shed before we left for church. And playing duets with him was some of the most fun I have ever had.
My favorite memory of Mom is when she would be sitting out in the yard peeling peaches or something when I came home from school. That would seem so peaceful and "all's right with the world". I remember those as beautiful days.
Once I made Pa quite angry, to my surprise: I was filling out my application for Hope College and I had to ask him how far he went in school. Well, it didn't sound so good at all to say he only went through the 4th or 5th grade (I don't remember which) but that meant nothing about how much a person was educated. I gathered that school was tough because of the language problem and then he had to go to work. But he was a faithful patron of the Hackley Public Library throughout his life - and always read books on a wide variety of subjects. Not fiction, that was a waste of time.