When we arrived at the Staggert Place, we loved the lush green yard surrounding the house. Like the Bower Place, the house had no inside bathroom - only an out house - but Daddy did install a toilet during our first few years there. The only drawback was that it was in Billy's bedroom. We never had a bathtub but that inside toilet was a big step up for our family.
The first few summers at the Staggert Place, I remember Sharon and I sleeping out on the cool upstairs balcony on old blankets while the lightning bugs lit up the night. Most days, Wayne was at Grandma and Grandpa Rhones' farm helping with the fields while Bill spent hours playing in the dirt with his toy trucks. The Staggert Place was next to a busy two lane road but close to Holmes' General Store. A short walk meant easy access to Hershey's Ice Cream and RC Cola.
I doubt Nana has the same fond memories of those early summers. The Staggert Place came with water problems. When the spring dried up, we had to take heavy milk cans, load them in the car and drive to a local spring to fill them with fresh, clean water. To complicate matters, the drains often became plugged from tree roots from the towering maples that bordered the front porch. This meant Nana not only had to bring in the water, she also had to carry the water outside to discard it.
Soon after we moved to the Staggert Place, Nana went to work at Montgomery Mills. She left the house early in the morning to catch a ride with other factory workers. About 4 PM, she arrived home to four kids clamoring to know when supper would be ready. Poor Nana. She couldn't seem to fill us up. Even though she made a big supper by 4:30PM - a feat in itself - we were always hungry again by 8 o'clock. That usually meant a trip to Holmes' Store to buy a Chef Boyardee make-it-yourself box pizza or dragging out the cast aluminum frying pan to fry hamburgers from the freezer - hamburgers made from the beef we bought from the local farmers. That old fry pan looked beat up - scratched and the only remnants of a handle being a metal stick - but boy did it cook the best hamburgers!
As Sharon and I got older, our summer job was to make supper and have it ready by the time Nana got home from work. One day Nana left pork for sauerkraut. We were to cook the pork in the large oval roaster on the stove until the pork was done and add the sauerkraut. We put the pork on the stove with lots of water and went off to do something - I don't remember what. When we got back to the kitchen, the pork was ruined, burnt to the bottom of the roaster. Putting our heads together, we decided we'd pool our money and buy more pork and cook it fast so Nana would never know by the time she got home from work. We buried the blackened pork in the bottom of the garbage can, scrubbed the roaster and took off for Holmes' Store for another piece of pork. We thought we were so cleaver. Nana never said anything about supper that night. But somehow, I think she knew....
I found this picture of Nana at the Staggert Place. The picture was taken one December, probably as she was working on the big meals she used to make every Sunday.
Nana at the Staggert Place working in the kitchen
The only childhood picture I have of all us four kids together was taken during summer at the Staggert Place. It's a treasure for all of us and for Nana,too.
Wayne and Sharon and Diane and Bill
Sixty years ago, we were four kids breezing our way through summer at the Staggert Place. Nana was cooking, cleaning, hauling water, and trying to make ends meet to take care of her four kids. Times were tough, but she always did what it took to take care of us. Now it's time for us kids to do whatever it takes to care for Nana.
