Golf's Cowfield

My sister Aloma remembers:

John Goff's cowfield ranged from the bottom of Blosser Hill to the top and had a home, a cow barn and lots of wonderful ups and downs for 20 Lewis grandchildren to roam winter and summer.
I have often though how it might have been if the cowfield had not been there as our playground in all seasons.
In spring the sap ran from the maple trees that bordered the fence all the length of the field. In summer we ranged over all of the fields that didn’t have a bull within one of the fenced fields. A creek ran through the middle of the fields and a frog pond was half way up the highest field. Once brother Harold was walking across a log on the pond and said "Play I am the Doctor." and then he fell into the water. We laughed and told that story for many years.

In the summer we walked and played in the high grass that grew over much of the hill. when we were in the porch swing on our front porch, we would sing in loud voices with the maple leaves blowing in the wind and giving background music. We did lots of calisthenics in the field near our home. Once Helen made little tickets for us to go to the neighbors and sell for a penny so they could watch us perform. We sold several but only Jr. Baker came to watch us do back bends and cartwheels.

In winter we really had fun! Paul and Hugh Lewis, our uncles, made a bobsled for us. We piled on it and had fun falling off into the snow. Once Bill Porter came out and played with us at night when the big boys had built a fire in a barrel and we roasted apples over it. A very good memory.
When we went for milk to Goff's springhouse in the winter time we had to climb over the fences and often look out for a bull if the cows were out. Then spring and the tapping of the maple trees for sap to make syrup.

Fall was a great time of gathering the Maple leaves into big piles and jumping on and through them.

Goff's cowfield was a magic place for children and Blosser Hill would not have been such a joyous place without that side of the road. A cherished memory indeed!

Aloma

Woolworth's Lunch Counter

I have a wonderful first cousin (Martha Lewis Karpal) who periodically makes my day with an e-mail. Here is one that you too will enjoy.


"My mom (Arizona Lewis) would sometimes take me to Uniontown, PA to shop for things we really needed. We weren't there to just look, - we were there to buy clothes that were needed ...........and soon before ones I had were too small. Often she would help me up on to one of those twirly stools and I loved to give it a spin around. "One time - no more," she said. Mom taught me how to behave in public on that stool. I was not to stare at the other people. I was not to talk about any of the other people. I was to wipe my mouth with the paper napkin. I was not to talk loud. If I told her that the other people were talking loud - she whispered, "Never mind - They don't know any better - they may not have been lucky to have a mother to teach them anything. I didn't know why mom told me to never mind and yet she didn't like when I never minded. Life was a bit confusing on that stool that moved so easily but I had to keep it still. The hotdog made up for it. They don't make hotdogs that good anymore. And potato chips! She said, I was to smile if any adult said anything to me. I was to say thank you. She told me smiling would give me a chance to think what to answer if they had asked me a question. I smiled a long time I remember even if they only asked me what I wanted to eat. Then I remembered to say, "I want a hot dog."Potato chips came with the hot dog as a big surprise. But mom said, "Don't look like you never saw potato chips before." I would break the chips with my index finger and try to see what shape it made. Soon I was told that was playing with my food. So I ate them - every one before I forgot and broke them. The catsup was always Heinz since we weren't far from Pittsburgh, its birthplace. To this day I always buy Heinz Catsup - my mom never had any other kind in her house. It was the way we supported our state and thanked Pennsylvania for the free school books and free pencils and tablets with the state of Pennsylvania on the front. I sure would like to have one of those tablets with that map today. I would love to go back to Woolworth's lunch counter again with my mom. This time I would behave better and make my mom proud. Mom always told Daddy that we had gone to the lunch counter at Woolworths. My dad (James Walter Lewis) would have been in Sears looking at tools and other things that men used. He ate his hotdogs at home. Maybe he couldn't follow mom's lunch counter rules. "