Magical Memoir Moments
Happy 90th, Mother: This Is Your Life!
It’s finally here. My mother has been talking about this day for the last six months. “Can you believe I’m going to be ninety?” she asks in genuine amazement every time I talk with her. Her five children, their spouses, children, their spouses, and their grandchildren now number 46. And all of us are celebrating…
A Modern Farm Girl Bookworm Evaluates Blush and the Value of a Tobacco Worm Today
Meet Clara, my grand niece. Like all my “grands,” she’s amazing. Clara loves to read. She estimates she read fifty books in 2013. She’s eleven years old and attends Ephrata (Pennsylvania) Intermediate School. She bubbles with enthusiasm when asked about what she likes in books. But I was also warned by her Grandma Sue (my…
The Day Before Launch: Going Home to Lititz During Harvest.
Who says you can’t go home again? Reporter Sarah Chain certainly disagrees. The official launch will be held tomorrow night at Lititz Mennonite Church, 165 Front Street, Lititz, Pennsylvania. 7 p.m. If you live close by, please join us! We’ll have a party, and we’ll relive a little Lancaster Conference Mennonite Church history in the…
Kittens, Puppies, and Capons: A Motley Crew of Farm Animals
My brother Henry became the family photographer after he traded in the S & H Green Stamps for a 35 mm camera. Here are a few he took in the years 1965-70. We moved from black and white to color! He even took pictures of our 4-H Capons on their way to their new homes….
Pets From My Childhood: A Memoir in Pictures
One of the best parts of growing up on a farm is that people and animals interact in ways different from those in cities or suburbs. They can share space while maintaining freedom. Animals don’t have to live like humans in order to be enjoyed by and to enjoy humans. Not that that’s a bad…
A Lancaster County Wedding: Celebration of Faith, Family, Friendship, and Farming
Our niece Valerie, the youngest of my mother’s grandchildren, married her sweetheart Nate yesterday. The whole family labored for months to restore an old mill to a usable space, mow the grass, pump out the overflow from the creek, pick the flowers for centerpieces, put up and take down chairs, tent, and then get dressed…
Train Up a Child: The Legacy of My Great-Grandma Snyder
My Great-Grandma Snyder was a widow from March 15, 1924, until her own death forty years later. She reared four children to adulthood and managed a farm and then a house in the town of Lititz until she was no longer able to do so. Then she rotated among her children, living in a…
The Girl Who Opened Up My World: A Birthday Tribute to Vicky
Before Vicky died at age 35, she changed my life. In 1954, when I was six years old, almost everyone I knew was either a farmer or a Mennonite or both. Then Vicky Martinez blew into my life — all the way from Manhattan! She stayed with us for two weeks. Vicky was like me….