The Farm on Messersmith Road

This post must be started with a special thank you to Randy and Donna Sterner of Glen Rock, Pennsylvania, who now own the farm on Messersmith Road where John and Jennie Forbes Penley once lived. My niece Sarah and I stopped at the farm in June when we were both visiting Jennie and her family. The folks who were renting the house very graciously allowed us to take a peek inside and told us that owners Randy and Donna had done extensive renovations to the old place. It was certainly nothing like I remembered, but it was incredibly beautiful. I called Randy this past weekend to ask about pictures, and tonight Donna sent some via email. I am so grateful to them, and I'm sure my Penley and Forbes cousins will be too, not only for sharing these photos, but for the loving restoration of the place which to me will always be Grandma's house. John and Jennie followed several of her Forbes brothers to York County, PA, in the 1940's and bought this farm, located in between Glen Rock and Seven Valleys. Eventually all of their married children followed them to settle nearby. Pictured at the farm are John and Jennie with all their living children: Marge, foster child Ginny Sweitzer, Edna, Fred, Bonnie, Roy, Jennie, John, Jimmy, Cotton and Lovely.

In this photo you can see some of the old brickwork of the farmhouse. Pictured above are Jimmie, Lovely, Marge, Jennie and John, in the back; Delores, Cotton, Gary, Mike Templeton, and Larry and Steve Edwards are in front.

You can just see the roofline of the old house through the trees in this photo of Grandma and Grandpa Penley, my family, and me: John, Roy, Zella, Jennie, and in front, Connie is on the right, and I'm on the left. Look how big Poppy's hands are!

This photo must have been taken shortly after I was born, possibly at Christmas 1954. Grandma is holding me, Connie is in the middle, and Grandpa is holding Richard and an unhappy Mike. My memories of inside the house are pretty vague, but maybe a cousin can tell me where this photo was likely taken. Was this the room with the fireplace?

Here is a picture of Uncle Jimmy in the house. Take a good look at the baby in the photo in the window... who is it? And remember this wallpaper and floor covering....

Here are Uncle Fred and Aunt Betty with Richard, I think. Randy gave me this photo and I'm pretty sure that he said it was Rich. He looks pretty tiny, so I'm guessing that the baby in the window would have to be one of our older cousins. Possibly Edwina?

This is the best picture I have of the exterior of the farmhouse as it was when our family lived there. I'm hoping someone has some better photos. Please check everybody - Mike, Vikki, Donna, Jane, Randy, Cathy, Brenda - do any of you have photos of the old place?

And would you recognize it now? I took this photo the day Sarah and I visited. Doesn't it look little without the kitchen? Randy said that the kitchen extension had deteriorated so much that it couldn't be saved. The summer house and all the outbuildings except for the barn also had to be taken down. I can't remember the summer house. Does anyone have a picture of it?

The barn and the house both needed major renovations and I'm so glad that Randy chose to restore them rather than tear them down.

This picture, and all the ones that follow, were sent to me by Donna Sterner. We're so grateful, Donna!

Would you have believed that these beautiful hardwood floors were under that floor covering? Of course, they weren't this beautiful till Randy had them re-done.

I love the blue and white color scheme. It really fits the age and the simplicity of the house. In this picture you can just see the edge of the brick fireplace on the right hand side...it is so beautiful.

I really don't remember the upstairs at all, and I'm hoping that some of my cousins will. You can post your memories if you want, or send them to me via email, and I'll post them for you.

The renovations extend even to the attic.

Look at the pretty stencilling over the tiny windows! Children would love this space.

What a beautiful place it was - and is! To all my cousins - please check your photos and share any you might have of the Penley farm. If you have them on your computer, just attach to an email. Or if you need my address to send copies, send a message. I would love to see your pictures and I'm sure all our cousins would, too. And thanks again, Randy and Donna.

Breaks and Haysi

Cousin Barbara and I had the wanderlust last week. For some reason, we just had to get in the car and go. Barbara wanted to go to Haysi, VA, to find a roadside marker about some of her ancestors, and I wanted to go to Breaks Interstate Park. Luckily for us, they are only a few miles apart. Breaks straddles the border between Virginia and Kentucky, and is another one of those places where Daniel Boone found his way through to the west. It is named, naturally, for the breaks in the mountains. In the picture above, we were in Virginia looking toward Kentucky. You can see the railroad, the river, and the road all running side-by-side through the break.

Here we are, and if my arm was just a little bit longer you could see the beautiful view behind us.

It looked something like this......this rocky outcropping is called The Towers. We took this photo from the deck of the Rhododendren Restaurant where we had a nice lunch enjoying the view from enormous windows. The park also has lodging, camping, picnic shelters, a swimming pool, horseback riding, river rafting, lots of hiking trails, and a gift shop.

We didn't hike, but there were several overlooks pretty close to the road, and we took advantage of those. It was worth the return climb up the steps.

This is called the Horseshoe, and I'm sure you can see why. You can really hear the river from this point.

We took a quick side trip to the town of Haysi and found this marker which tells of the death of David Musick and the capture of his wife and children by the Indians in 1792. These folks are direct ancestors of Barbara on her mother's side.

This nifty mural was painted on a store next to the municipal parking lot. It is Haysi some time, we think, in the 1950's. There's a Roy Rogers picture playing at the movie theater and an old VW beetle. When did they start making those?

There was also a nice picnic area overlooking the river....the same river we were looking at high up in Breaks park. Another fun day, out and about, in my mother's country!

On the Road Again

Barb and I both needed a day this week to CHILL OUT! Everybody has those days, right? When you just have to go somewhere quiet, and beautiful, and make yourself think happy thoughts. Right? Don't you have those days? Well, the next time you need a peaceful day, head to Watauga Lake near Elizabethton, Tennessee. The sky is blue, the water is deep, and the mountains rise up right out of the lake. And it's so big, it feels like you have the place to yourself.

Luckily for us, there was a couple there enjoying the view, and they snapped a photo for us. Now don't we look relaxed already?

I zoomed in to take this photo, and the jet ski was so far away it sounded like a buzzing bee.

We watched this tiny sailboat drift by for quite awhile. Very peaceful it was, sitting on our picnic bench, watching little boats go by.

We drove a little way up the mountain to this scenic overlook. Isn't it pretty? I don't know anything about Watauga Lake.....how big it is, when it was made, how much use it gets, what anything costs......asking those questions would be too much like work. And we weren't there to work. If you really want to know those things, you can look it up online.

As for me, I'm going to take a nap.

Fourth of July

We had a quiet July 4th this year.....but, then, that's the way we like it. We can see the mountain called High Knob from our house and have been meaning to go there. And finally on the 4th, we did. The lake area was largely deserted except for a father and daughter who were building this sand fort. Isn't it neat? We talked to them a bit, but didn't really look at what they were building until after they'd left. I wish so much I had taken a picture of the little girl with her fort so I could email it to her.

Tom and I first took a walk around the lake. It was a pretty rocky path, so we were watching our steps.....that's why these next few pictures are all of things on the ground.

I've really got to dig out my wildflower book as there are so many flowers down here that I don't recognize.

There were just a couple of these little orange mushrooms and the color really popped in the shadowy woods.

The lake is only four acres, so the walk around it took us just about an hour. Of course, we stopped to look at all kinds of things.

Look at these ferns - aren't they beautiful? By this time, we were getting pretty warm, so our next stop was the lake itself.

Yes, this is Tom, swimming in the High Knob lake, all by himself, on the Fourth of July. Where is everybody?! This was the question we asked ourselves before we got wet. After we got wet, we knew the answer.....the water was ice cold! We might try going back in August. Still, it was pretty neat to swim in a mountain lake all by ourselves.

Well, not entirely by ourselves really. There were dozens (probably hundreds) of these salamanders swimming right along with us. They liked the shallows, where it was warmer, maybe, and skittered out of our way as we walked through the water.

Tom has found a website to identify all of these aquatic critters. I don't think he's looked up this one yet.

I posted this picture really for my cousin, Kay Peters Stallard. It's a marker honoring the CCC unit that built the bathhouse below, and in memory of one man who died. This is something like what I'd like to see at the Peters cemetery in Peters Hollow where Fransisco Peters and his wife, Margaret Lane, and others are buried. It would have to be on a smaller scale as this is probably about four feet high. What do you think, Kay? Something along these lines?

This is part of the CCC project, built sometime during 1938-1942, according to the marker. It has changing rooms, toilets, and hot showers. And hardly anyone was there on July 4th. It was kind of sad really.

I know there are lots of old CCC buildings like this around, but I'm always glad to see them. It's not often that you can walk inside a piece of American history and look around.

Pretty in Pink

I spent a few days in Dallastown last month, visiting Jennie, Matt, Chloe and Ella. I just wanted to make that clear, since you're only going to see pictures of Chloe and Ella. Who takes pictures of mom and dad when the babies are around? Not this granny. Chloe turned two on June 4, and really, it's not been so terrible......yet.

Oops, I lied. The lady in the baseball cap is Mommy, helping Chloe clean out her sand spinning toy. Isn't she having fun? Chloe, I mean. I'm not sure about Mommy.

Chloe's favorite, and I mean favorite, toy is Bearcat. And naturally, Bearcat has to do everything that Chloe does, so here he (or she?) plays in the sand.

At nine months, Ella might not be quite ready to play in the sand. See those fingers in the mouth? Yep, she's at that stage where every single thing goes in that little rosebud mouth, and the only thing worse than sand in your mouth is sand in your diaper.

Shortly after I took these pictures, Ella learned how to really crawl. It's lucky I went up when I did, or I'd only have pictures of a little round bottom disappearing off the edge of the picture. Whew! Made it just in time!

Yes, it is a dog bed. Jennie got it for Chloe when Ella took over the playpen. Doubles as a reading chair and a napping cot. But, it looks like Chloe has lost out already, as Ella has taken it over. Isn't this a great idea? Keeps the child off the dirty floor, and she has a special little spot, all her own. I like it. I want a dog bed! And a pool.

Pool Party!

While I was visiting Jennie and Matt and the girls in PA, my niece Sarah came up with her two boys, Aidan and Kieran. Since it was blazing hot, we got out the pool and the Elmo sprinkler. Lots of fun was had by everybody under eight. Lots of envy was felt by the rest of us! I want a pool! Chloe cools off.

Chloe explains to Ella that she'll soon get used to the very cold water.

Aidan and Kieran go round and round, getting wetter and wetter.

Aidan was a sweetie and climbed in the pool with Ella to help her sit up and splash. For our family, this was the first time that the four great-grandchildren of Roy and Zella Peters Penley have gotten together.

You're a trooper Aidan!

Just so you can see what these cute boys look like, Aidan and Kieran posed with their Mom, Sarah, in the backyard. And yes, they both have mohawks! When they come visiting in Virginia, I'm getting a picture with that hair slicked up!

While the little girls napped, Sarah and the boys and I went to the playground, and then took a drive down memory lane. More on that later. Here Monkey Boy Aidan gets brave!

Kieran was pretty brave, too, and slid down this big (and hot!) sliding board.