One summer, a relative died. I learned that summer that the Boners had their own cemetary The cemetary was off the road back in the woods. There were a lot of tombstones or grave markers. Most were made of wood. I haven’t been back there since but, I guess I’ll have to go back now to check the dates. I know grandpop, grandmom and my father are buried there.
My Grandmother Lizzie died when I was very young,so, Grandpop lived alone. Grandpop would often talk about Grandma Lizzie. He told me that she was a school teacher and had graduated from St. Paul’s Normal & Industrial School in Lawrenceville, Virginia. My Aunt Mary had also graduated from St.Paul’s. He let me play with grandma’s book trunk. She had a collection of Hawthorne and Poe’s works. That was my introduction to Edgar Allen Poe and Nathaniel Hawthorne. I would read the little red books, that was the beginning of my fascination with Hawthorne and Poe. Grandpop loved and was quite proud of grandma Lizzie.
The one thing that impressed me most about Grandpop’s home was, unlike other homes in the area, the kitchen was a separate building across from the main house. The main house had 4 very large rooms and two large hallways. There were two rooms on the first floor and two rooms on the second floor. I don’t remember much about the rooms upstairs but I can still see the rooms on the first floor. Grandpop’s room had two windows, one in the front and one in the back. His bed was huge, a couch, two chairs, two tables and a very large fireplace.All the furniture seemed large to me in comparison to the furniture in my home in Pa. The second room had a fireplace, bed and half the room was set up like a living room.with huge black leather furniture. Company sat in this room. In the hallway was a stand that had four pitcher and basin sets. We used them to wash up.. Water came from the well out back. Across the circle of grass out front was a one room building, this was the kitchen. In the room was a table, chairs, stove (woodstove I think) two cupboards. One held dishes and the other held food flour,sugar, salt etc.I remember the lard or fat was kept in a large tin container. One day the top wasn’t placed on tight and one of grandpop,s cats fell in-poor thing, grandpop’s hungry hunting dogs chased the cat for hours but, finally, he escaped under the house.
