Chaddock-Bio-Uncle Harry#2 (Velma)

  Lila and I weren't aware of the depression and how poor we were, but we did know that a trip to see     Uncle Harry and Aunt Louise was to enter a different world where everything was perfect and plentiful.   11 Dolbeer Street!
  We could go out the back door and pick mint leaves right by the steps for iced tea. The stairs up to the bedrooms had grey thick carpeting-luxurious! And in the 2nd living room (parlor) there was a player piano which was magical to us!  Lila and I could make music almost as good as Mother did! We loved to sit in the glass-enclosed front porch. I think Uncle Harry was allowed to smoke there. I used to go to the ash tray and sniff.  There began my life-long love of nicotine!
  I only remember staying there once for a week. Aunt Louise told us to get whatever cereal we wanted from the cupboard one morning and I found some Grape Nuts-that smelled so good! Not the flakes but the little pebble-like Grape Nuts that we never had at home. So I ate a huge bowlful and paid for it with awful cramps and diarrhea.
  The dining room had a built-in cupboard, in one drawer of which she kept candy. Aunt Louise would give us permission and we would pick out some luscious candy, which was a rare treat. Even chocolates-we never had those at home. To this day I have a candy drawer for my grandchildren.
  The hardware store.  Wow! And it was all Uncle Harry's!  Don't know why, but I always loved the nail bins that I'd stick my hands in and let the nails run through my fingers. But the best was Uncle Harry's taking us to the ice cream parlor across the street, not for a cone, but for a sundae! Nowadays kids can't imagine what a treat that was!  A cone at 5 cents and a sundae at 15 cents.
  I remember Uncle Harry's giving us a sled one Christmas, -and another skates!
  We were a family who loved to eat and all the women were great cooks. We not only had Thanksgiving dinner, but Thanksgiving supper.  It was always (supper) scalloped oysters except one year at Aunt Louise's. Cousin Lawrence (Uncle Arthur's son) wanted something different, so he made spaghetti and meat balls. It didn't go over too well, and the next year it was back to scalloped oysters. Of course cranberry sauce was a must, -and I still make it every year no matter at whose house we spend the day.
  The cottage at Silver Lake.  Big and wonderful with an upstairs porch where we could sleep outdoors!  And I always think of watermelons in connection with the cottage.  I'm sure Ivan and Cousin Bobby(Uncle Floyd's son) started a watermelon seed fight.  What fun-- --and what a mess! Aunt Louise didn't stop it, but she left no doubt as to whose job the clean  up was !