You have just entered "Grammies House". This is where the "Bay Center Witch" first scared the neighborhood children. She wore a costume made by my great-grandmother Mary Rhoades Wilson, originally used for a community play. The mask was especially scary. When Grammie became too old to play the part, she past the tradition to her next door neighbor and cousin Margie Rhoades. She was "notorious" all through my growing up years. She even frightened teenage boys! Many years later I donned the costume and kept the tradition going... The floor still has the original Linoleum and the wood throughout the house looks beautiful.... We will continue our journey moving to the left.
We are in the Living Room. The windows behind the sofa are facing the front of the house (Main Street). The corner on the right is where Grammies large black upright piano used to set. She loved Ragtime and didn,t need shet music. When she was a young woman she began playing at the silent movie theaters in South Bend, Raymond and sometimes Ilwaco.... Continuing through the Living Room to the left we will enter the kitchen.
I have many happy memories of Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. We would gather around the small wooden table, Grammie and Gramps, Aunt Mike and Uncle Walt, Mom, Dad and I. Grammie always made pumpkin pie and often creamed new potatoes that Gramps and I dug from the yard. It was also here I learned to play Scrabble while watching the "word masters". .. When mom and I would visit on cold winter mornings I always wanted "Grammie Toast". It was specially cooked on top of the wood stove and flipped with a turner, and flattened....
Grammie always had a cookie can inside the pantry, left side, just within my reach. I would usually find Lorna Doones or sugar cookies, both Grammies favorites. She always kept them soft by placing a heel of bread inside.
