A Little piece of Paradise… College Hill, Ohio - SELFCRAFT

Food came from the one acre garden or Bolam’s Grocery at the bottom of the hill by the bushel;oranges and spinach by the crate, milk and cream and butter from Ruther’s Daily by the dozen, daily.When Mrs. Grogan, the seamstress, had to stay on for dinner, her son usually joined in order to drive herhome. With grand-parents visiting for six or eight weeks, there were eight in the dining room (the tableseated twelve spaciously) and eight more in the kitchen. Easter and other special events demanded cardtables set up at the end of the dining room or the adjacent breakfast room for ‘children’ up to 16. Thenthere’d be two big rib roasts or four legs of lamb or two hams, one ‘sweet’ and one Virginia.Biscuits or hot rolls came with every dinner, left-overs toasted for breakfast or the few for lunch.Canned goods from Bradens, in California, would arrive by dozens of crates every fall and spring to becarried to the pressing room on the third floor where ceiling-high cabinets housed perhaps forty differentproducts. Soft drinks were made; root beer ‘working’ in the cellar, iced tea or lemonade seasonallyand....always....a large granite-ware coffee pot on the back of the stove. When canned ground coffee cameon the market, it too was brought in by the case. Mrs. Thomson made a trip to Peebles’ fancy grocery at‘their’ corner about once a month for tea, candied fruit, special jellies and pickles. She seldom came homewith less than two large baskets full.And yet, it was not a lavish house-hold, in any respect. The four boys all had assigned chores whichthey performed fairly regularly. Their only sister was killed in 1925, not long after their mother had astill-birth. The entire household tried to distract and/or relieve her. There never had been a chauffeur, forexample, so when young Ottawa Indian Michael Kishingo (Indian name A-kish-I-go-yami, the ‘moonmaker’) arrived from Harbor Springs, Michigan (where he had serviced the family cars during summervacations) with the announcement that he was `taking’ that job, every one was pleased. He built a threeroomapartment in the second floor of the huge old brick and stone barn, outfitted it with home-madefurniture, wife and eventually seven children. His work-shop on the main floor took over all the odd jobsof the estate (Mike could do anything, from electric wiring to wine and brandy making) and themaintenance of four cars. He taught the boys wood-craft, auto maintenance, driving....and perseverance.A very quiet but determined man, he never in his life said that something could NOT be done. The writernot only swam an eight-mile lake in Canada, the summer he was fourteen, because Mike said that he‘could and should’ and helped him train for it, he also learned a variety of skills from the man who hadnever been to formal school: how to know direction within a few degrees, even hundreds of feetunderground in London’s subways, and how to put a hard-boiled egg into a glass milk-bottle (if you canfind one, now!). Secret: shell the egg, drop a fair-sized piece of burning paper into the bottle, put the eggon top and the vacuum created will suck it in! Mike was the last of the staff to be retired in 1940; hisfamily was considerably larger than Mrs. Thomson’s, with only two sons left at home.There was constant work to keep the big house viable and comfortable. Much of it, thank God andthe C. G. & E., never to be done by humans again. Until the late 20s, the tap water was often muddy andhad to be settled with ground alum in large tubs. The clay tennis court (now almost obliterated) had to beforked, swept and rolled almost daily - and sprinkled in hot, dry weather. Over a thousand feet of graveleddriveway was raked, edges clipped and dust settled with calcium chloride. Wallpaper and lamp shadeswere cleaned twice a year with ‘water less’ cleanser, something like an art gum eraser. Every inch ofevery stick of furniture was washed with Ivory suds at least twice a year. The large kennel of EnglishClumber Spaniels had to be cooked for (there was no prepared dog food until the ‘30s) and each dogcombed and patted and washed. The boys mixed with the staff on all of these, along with mowing andtrimming the three acres of lawn. They did not, however, work with the strong men who carried every rugto the heavy pipe frame in the back garden to beat the dust out of them, every spring....then roll and wrapin strong kraft paper to store while woven grass rugs replaced them for summer.Each season brought marked changes. Soon after the family returned from summer stays, WalterRobinson or his helper began to arrive at 5:00 AM to fire up the giant coal furnace. Then the ping-ping-PING, whim-whim-WHAM! Of ascending heat came to the third floor where the boys slept withwindows wide open. The two lower floors hot air heat from an exchanger. Some wise-apple kid wouldroll marbles, or perhaps pour some syrup to run down the long pipes but cod-liver oil was tried only once.214