TWO GYPSIES AND THEIR NEW OLD HOME PLACE

We grow up and marry and have children but always come home to grandpa and grandma’s house. Often referred to as The Old Home Place. If this is you and how your family is, you are so blessed. We didn’t have that option. But we’re blessed just the same.

My dad didn’t have much of an education but he knew how to work, and work he did. He’d hold down a job and some times two jobs at a time and put his whole heart into it. Dad and mom had bought a home on South High St in Columbus OH next door to a gas station Dad had bought and worked at. He finally was able to buy a small farm but we all know that small farms don’t bring in a lot. So dad continued to work other jobs and then come home and care for a farm. First one was in Orient. Mom was a beautician and they had moved her shop to the farm. Many of our family, friends and neighbor all came to it. Dad had this thing about always wanting to show he could do it. His parents lived with us until our grandpa died and our grandma went to live with her daughter in WV. But we went as often as we could to visit. Dad was big on family and staying in touch with them. Dad and mom both worked hard to pass that onto us kids.

Life was hard on the farm. I remember mom would place us girls in a red wagon and pulling us out to the barn where she milked the cows. That was really fun a time cause grandma would tell us to open our mouths and mom would squirt straight from the cows teat milk into our mouths. Then our grandma would get some milk for the barn cats. It was all they got to eat and they had to work hunting mice and rats for their dinners. But we got to play a lot with the cats when out to the barn. We also had two dogs. A shepherd and a small beagle. It was us girls jobs to see they got fed every evening although dad over seen us feeding and made sure we did it right.

Then one day dad put the farm up for sale and it sold. He bought a larger farm at that time. Land on it was divided by railroad tracks. Our woods set way in the back so we could only go when our parents went with us, usually in the old pick up truck. But it was fun. We had a large barn and mom continued to milk. We also had hogs and again mom was always cautioning us to be careful cause the momma hog could get really mean if anyone messed with her babies. Yet I loved them better then any other farm animal that we had. Lots of good memories here at the 3C Hwy. home near Pleasant Corners. Our grandpa was getting older and sick and mom would have us hold his hand and walk him around a fenced in lot. I think it was more to the fact, she knew we couldn’t get out to the highway and get hit. It served a twofold purpose. I loved this place but it was not to our Old Home Place.

Dad kept working at different places and he maintained his old friendship with the banker in Harrisburg Ohio near Orient. He was Dad’s old hunting buddy, Mr. Sheets. Dad got an offer on the farm and the banker told him it was a really good deal so again the farm was sold. Unlike before there wasn’t another farm in Dad’s sight. So he moved us back to Columbus Ohio where we had been born. He went back to work at the slaughter house and he put mom in a shop. Said it would mean more business for her also being in the city and next to a hospital. It was right off High Street (US 23) at 32 Southwood Ave. It wasn’t long till the banker called dad with an option on another farm in Ashville Ohio. He bought it and a couple years later we moved down to the farm. It was only about 3 miles from Lockbourn Air Base. Dad made apartments and rented to some GI’s. Then put in his first trailer site. He figured if he got $12.00 per month and if he but in two it would bring in $24.00. And it took off from there and rent went up as the park grew. Little by little the park grew and dad rented out his farm land after a few yrs. All was good. But again this was not to be Our Old Home Place.

After a few yrs my dad was growing older and his heart was going bad. So he and mom retired to Florida. After a couple more yrs he decided to sell the place. By this time my sister and I were married; We had a family and were living at the trailer park.

Now let me back up just a little. When Dick and I married, we lived in the small town of Ashville in a small house on Long St. It was our dream to move west to Montana and have a farm of our own. But it was hard making ends meet with Dick just working at the city IGA so dad told us we could move back to one of the apartments and we did. But my temperament was that of a young gal who didn’t want to be told what to do. Dad put Dick to work on his off time and it caused Dick and me to fight all the time. Dick got a new job at Western Electric and we moved up closer to his work but dad was always needing a job done by Dick so we moved back to the park. Finally I told Dick that he should just talk to dad and work for him. He did and soon he quit that job and went full time for dad. During this time, our own family was growing. Turned out to be a great sacrifice for us but you help family when needed.

A few years later after dad and mom had moved to Florida, they ask us to move down to a farm dad had bought. Said Dick could get a job at the prison and we could live there rent free and if we didn’t like it, we could move back to Ohio. What he didn’t tell us were that he was selling the farm/trailer park after we were gone. We lived there for 18 months and Dick mom’s health was failing so we moved back to Ohio close to her. Again you do what you have to for family or that is what we were always taught. My sister always referred to us as gypsies because we moved around so much.

No old home place for us. We had moved way to many times. Soon Dick and I bought a house. Our first and we thought we’d be there forever. Dick’s mom’s health declined a lot over those yrs and we were always there to get her to the doctor’s or go grocery shopping or whatever she needed. But soon we felt God pulling at our hearts to go to the mission field. Dick’s mom was really upset that we were leaving her. Also, her daughter had moved back in with her to care for her. Our oldest boys had left home, both moving to FL and Robert was torn between Ohio and FL. In addition Dad had passed away and mom was living alone after Rick moved out when he got married. Robert decided to stay with mom so off we went with Youth With a Mission to Guatemala. We were gone just three months and came home to FL. Soon after we settled in with mom, Dick’s mom passed away, so we stayed on in FL to care for mom for the next 22 yrs. But it didn’t seem like home.

Now a little about Dick and how he lived and grew up. They also had moved around but did stay near Ashville. He was born in a house out off 752. He has a lot of memories at this place. Specially about a cat he loved named Honey. It was an old farm house. His Dad, Amos, owned and ran a gas station in Ashville on Main St. Soon Amos moved them into Ashville to a rental house on Jefferson Ave and when he had the money they bought a house at 232 Scioto St and that is where they lived when Amos died in 1952. Dick was nine years old at the time. Seven years later we met in high school in 1959. Three years later in 1962 we were marred.

None of the places we lived helping our families ever filled the need to have our own Old Home Place. It was like an emptiness within us. So when mom passed away and Dick retired we bought Our Old Home Place here in TN. It is ours. It is our choice for us. Not our first dream of moving to Montana and having a ranch but our little five acres where we feel at home. It was our dream come true even if late in life. We get up every morning and look out at the fields around us and love it. Yes we’re getting old and things are harder to do, but it’s our dream. It is not the dream of our parents or our children but it is our dream and our home. Not a day goes by we don’t thank God for it. We didn’t move here to care for any family members but we loved the mountains and we love living up on top of the Cumberland Plateau. This is where two gypsies have finally settled down. It is truly our New Old Home Place.