Granddaughter shares memories

Leslie Ver Straeten Moore of LaPorte, a fourth-generation Michaud descendent, grew up in California and Oklahoma but spent summers at the Ver Straeten dairy farm from age 5 to 17. She has many memories of her grandmother, Emma Michaud Ver Straeten, and the farm.

By Leslie Ver Straeten Moore

The farm was a big draw for us city kids. Horses, cows, tractors and Claymore Lake at the end of the lane for swimming with my cousins, the Delehoys, and other neighbor kids. My aunts and Uncle Lyle made it all seem like fun. What extra work we must have made for them!

I remember Grandma Emma as a very strict taskmaster. She managed the farm and the purse strings and could make anyone toe the line with just a look. Sunday mornings, she allowed us to play the square grand piano or with the antique dolls in the parlor while the family dressed for Mass. I always thought Grandma would have been a good nun.

The house finally got an indoor toilet and a television in the early 1950s. Grandma got tired of the late-night treks to the outhouse, and we discovered she liked to watch wrestling matches on TV! She was also a Pat Boone fan.

I remember the morning sounds on the farm: waking up to Eddy Arnold and Uncle Lyle singing to the cows; Grandma banging around in the kitchen, firing up the wood range for breakfast; the chatter of my aunts hauling 10-gallon buckets of milk from barn to milk house to be strained into larger cans.

In March of this year, after Lyle died, many cousins were involved in cleaning out old memories in the Ver Straeten house. There was much reminiscing, for most of us had stories of happy times spent there during childhood.