"Harvest Of Yesterdays" ~~ If you are familiar with Gladys Taber, that title 'rang a bell.' :-)
And since my muse seems to have deserted me for a bit, I'll give some of her memories...
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"...... in summer Father went off locating artesian wells ...... and Mama and I went back to Grandfather's in Massachusetts. There were countless cousins and the farm itself was full of delights. I had my second friend, my cousin Christine, and about the only thing we did separately was brush our teeth.
Life at Grandfather's house was easy. Grandma spent most of her time playing the Steinway grand piano in the drawing room. Bridget cooked and served meals that were epic. Breakfast was bacon and eggs, pancakes with home made maple syrup, fried sugar-cured ham, hot biscuits, usually topped off with apple pie.
Christine and I walked freely anywhere on the land. In the tall rows of sweet-scented corn we ran up and down hunting for Indian arrowheads. We went swimming in the Connecticut River at the edge of Uncle Ed's land. We sneaked into the ice house, which was strictly forbidden. On a hot summer day we buried our toes in the damp, cool sawdust and broke off slivers of ice to suck. We were only caught once and were punished by being sent to our rooms for half a day.
We slipped into the medicine closet off the dining room at Grandfather's. It was a narrow, long room with green and gold stained-glass windows. The ranks of patent medicines rose to the ceiling. We never touched the bottles but loved to read the labels. They cured everything from female complaints to inflammation of the bowels. Doctors were only called if some child fell out of an apple tree and broke a bone.
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In a household in which spirits were never allowed, the alcoholic content of many of the medicines ran as high as 18 percent and certainly eased some ailments. Every family in that area also made herb infusions which worked remarkably well on a number of complaints. Either because of or in spite of that mysterious room's array of bottles, the Bagg family was incredibly healthy."
