Lucy May Ives Memorial

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======GROWING UP ON THE COMFORTDALE FARM======

{{ :growing_up.odt |}}

June 17, 2013

My life started on the Comfortdale Farm at 1523 E. Valley Rd. Adrian, MI, when I was born January 28, 1936 at 9:00 in the morning in the dining room of the family farmhouse to Leroy Hall and Winifred Crawford Comfort.  They named me Lucy May after my Aunt Lucy  Downs, my dad's sister and the May after my grandmother Lila May Crawford.  My mother's comment in writing to Aunt Lucy to tell her the news was “I wish you could see her.  She is so sweet”.  I was the baby sister to 2 brothers, Charles who was 6 and George who was 5.   

My earliest memory was going to Grandma Crawford's house in Hillsdale, Michigan.  The stairway to the upstairs was at the end of the living room,  the dining room and the kitchen.  When we ate everyone else sat at the dining room table, but a bib was put around my neck and I sat at the counter in the kitchen .  Must be I was just too messy to sit in the dining room with everyone else. 

I remember when I was 3 that my Grandmother Crawford moved next door to us  from Hillsdale.

I had a doll that fell off the tractor seat and it's head broke off. I used to play with that doll even with no head.  Later I got a little rubber doll, which I named Betty that I played with.  It is seen in some of the pictures of me when I was young. 

We always had dogs, barn cats and house cats.  Several pictures show me holding a pet, either a cat, puppy or a dog.  Our mother cats would hide their kittens in the barn.  We would hear them and hunt until we found them.  Sometimes the mother cat would move them after we found them.  The cats would come around when it was time for milking the cows. They would sit and wait for a drink of the fresh warm milk.  I had a big cat that let me put a dress and hat on her and I would take her for a ride in the baby buggy that was used for me.  I loved playing with the cats and dogs. 

I started school in September 1941 when I was five.  My dad died of a heart attack at 8:00 Thursday morning, September 11, 1941 at our home.  He was born July 8, 1901 in the house that we lived in.  I can remember sitting on my mother's lap in the dining room and crying.  The funeral was in our living room. The casket was open and I reached up and touched my dad's face.   

Mr. Earl Fruth came to live with us and be our hired hand.  He did the farming.  His daughter, Norma lived with us during our 5th and 6th grades.  My bedroom was on the main floor next to the living room on one side and my mother's bedroom on the other side. Norma and I slept together.  Of course, we had my side and her side of the bed  with an imaginary line down the middle. Charles and his friends used to scare us by climbing up to the window or in the window.  One day someone reached out and grabbed Norma's leg when she was sitting on the side of the bed.   It was my brother, Charles who had gotten in through the window and hid under the bed.  Another time we were walking around on the bed with blankets over our heads.  Norma ran into the foot of the bed and fell over to the floor.  We laughed and laughed.  One day  we put on snowpants, coats,  boots, scarves and mittens to go outside to play in the snow.  We were told  not to get snow in our boots.  Sometime later we came in and when we tried to get our boots off, we couldn't get them off.  We had to have help, since the snow was packed in so tight. We had waded through deep drifts back in the lane.  It was fun until then.   

We got our water from a pump on the back porch.  We would go out with a pail to get the water. We took it in the house and set it on the table.  We had a dipper hanging on the edge to use for drinking. 
We were told to not stick our tongue on the pump handle in the winter.