Family Gatherings At Grandparent's

During my younger years we still had one set of Grandparents on my father's side. It seems all the families gathered there a lot in the summer, on Sundays. It was fun playing with all my cousins. I had a lot of them. Two families had just as many kids as we did. My Grandparents lived in an old farm house up on Casey Road
outside of Mohawk. They had no running water or toilet. The water was brought in by buckets from the well out back. I liked pumping it and getting water. But now I cringe at the thought that we all drank out of the same long-handled ladle..Ha! Yikes! Talk about spreading germs!! Grandma was always baking something and her kitchen always smelled good. Grandpa, it seems, was always out in the barn. They didn't have cows but had lots of sheep. At least I can't recall any cows. Maybe they had a few just for milk. Us kids liked to watch Grandpa shear the sheep. I'd always worry he was going to cut them. Grandpa seemed drunk when he was inside and he had a cot behind the kitchen stove that he laid on. It's odd that I can't remember the living room at all. And I only remember going into my youngest Aunt's bedroom with her and brushing my hair at her vanity. My youngest Aunt, my father's sister, is only eight years older than I am. She was a late baby. There was at least ten years between her and my other Aunt. All the others were married so it was just Grandma and Grandpa and Beverly.
There was a huge tree in the front that had a tire on it. And another tree over to the other side of the house. I loved swinging. I felt free! We had to use the old stinky outhouses and old catalogs for paper. By 1957 we really didn't go there any more. The grandparents were getting old and my Grandfather was sick and he died in 1958. My Grandmother had Diabetes and was put into a nursing home for the next several years. The house was left abandoned and it finally fell in. One Aunt uses that property for a camp now and several cousins bought land up on that road and live there. So it's still called "The old homestead". Fond memories up there on the hill.