Blodgett - Pierce Family --- Family Stories
Memoirs of life growing up on a farm in Chautauqua County
by Barbara (Blodgett) Vannier
Earliest Memories
Some of my earliest memories are of my mother singing around the house while she sewed
or did household tasks. I remember a song she taught me:
Margie, come out and play with me.
My dolly's got the flu.
Boo hoo hoo hoo hoo hoo.
Look down my rain barrel.
Slide down my cellar door.
And we'll be jolly friends
Forever more.
I must have been less than five years old when my next younger brother, Jim, and I
received the biggest books we ever saw. Our youngest brother must not have been born yet
because there were only two books. Jim's was " Nursery Rhymes" and mine was "Fairy Tales".
The books were so big that they were very difficult for small children to manage but they
had beautiful pictures. We were allowed to handle them and turn the pages, if we sat on
the floor. We must have used them a lot because I remember that years later they had a
well-worn look.
Another very early memory is of a doll buggy I received for Christmas when I was about four.
The part that held the doll was made of wood and the movable top was made of what seemed
to me the perfect kind of cloth. The top could be folded down like a convertible top.
The doll that came with this buggy was not a baby doll, but that didn't matter to me.
The beautiful little-girl doll pleased me and it had lovely clothes made by my mother.
I could tell the clothes were my mother's work, not Santa's, because I had a dress made
out of the same material as the doll's.
When I was about four or five years old one of my aunts had a big wedding and I was flower girl.
I don't remember the wedding at all, but I remember the beautiful dress I had for the occasion.
It was very fancy and had a lot of little ruffles. My mother made all my other dresses and they
were very plain compared to this one which was purchased by my aunt.
I also remember that there was a little boy in the wedding party, too. He was to be ring bearer
and he caused everyone a lot of trouble because he wanted to do everything his own way - not
the way whoever was in charge wanted. Now that I think of it, had it been my wedding, I'm sure
I wouldn't have trusted him to carry the ring. Everything must have gone all right, though,
because I don't remember any dire consequences.
A very unusual memory was when my father took me with him to the barn one night when
it was time to milk the cows. He showed me where to stand, then he sat in his usual place
and began squirting streams of milk into his pail. All of a sudden he squirted a stream into
the mouth of a cat I hadn't noticed, which, it turned out, was sitting on exactly the spot she
had been trained to sit on. I was very surprised and much impressed when Dad could do it
over and over again. It was a good show.