Compiled and only slightly edited by Letha’s granddaughter in 2020
July 1987
I
was born in Harlem Township, Delaware County, Ohio on December 15, 1922 to Paul
and Mae Garrabrant. I’m the first girl in a family of eleven children: 6 boys
and five girls. Five boys and five girls are still living; one boy died at the
age of 8 month old. My father and mother lived on a farm. My father was a farmer
and my mother was a school teacher until she had a classroom of her own
children. We were all borned at home. We lived in a large two-story home but we
had no modern conveniences such as central heat, electricity or running water.
Oh yes we did have running water. We would grab a bucket and run out to the
well, fill the bucket and run back. How about that! I’ll never forget one cold
day my sister went out to get some water and decided to put her tongue on the
pump handle. Well you can guess what happened. It froze fast and she lost a
layer of skin which she will never forget. But when you are kids a lot of funny
things happen all the time. We had a large turtle given to us and several of us
were watching my mother cut it’s head off to dress it. She said “now don’t pick
up this head as its teeth will come down and bite you.” Guess what –one curious
sister put her finger in its mouth and got bitten as the muscles react for quite
a while afterwards. Oh, but the meat was so good being fried and crisp.
Being on
a farm, we had two large work horses which did all the plowing and working the
soil as there weren’t any tractors then. We named them Snowball and Nigger (we
wouldn’t dare name them that now). I spend a lot of time out in the fields with
my dad. In the fall he would cut and shock the corn. I would get tired and sit
back against the fodder shock and take a nap. Later in the winter we would hitch
the horses up to a mud sled and haul the fodder in to feed the livestock. We had
our own milk, butter, buttermilk, and eggs. We had hogs, chickens, geese and
horses. I very well remember the gander as I got pinched on you-know-where. We
butchered our own meat. We had a big shed insulated with saw dust where we would
cut up our own meat. We would can meat, fry sausages, and put in a crock and
cover it with fat to preserve. We cured the hams, bacon, make our own sausage
and made our own lard. To make lard you diced up the back fat and cook it until
it’s brown and then put it through a lard press and the end result is lard and
cracklings. This by product is called “open kettled lard.” Oh those cracklings
were so good fresh and the rest we would make soap outdoors in a large iron
kettle. We would go out and pick blackberries and eat all we wanted first on the
bushes. Lord only knows how many bugs we ate but I guess it didn’t hurt anybody
as we’re all pretty healthy. Then we filled the kettles to take home to can and
make a large cobbler. It takes a lot of food for 10 children and 2 adults. About
the same time of year the field corn was tender and sweet and we ate and ate
boiled corn, fried corn and corn pancakes and fritters. Of course this was open
pollinated corn. We relished it as good ole sweet corn. So you see we lived off
he good ole earth a lot of the times.
We always had a lot of hay to cut and put
up in a barn. I used to ride the horse hitched to a rope on the opposite side of
the barn that would pull the full hay fork into the hay mow to store it. Of
course I like my horses even though I had to stand on the side of the manger to
put collar on these large horses when my dad wasn’t there. Of course you have a
collar on the horses neck before you put the harness on. It was hard for me
because I was small for my age. At that time you have to have the harness on
right you can’t hitch them to a singletree to pull your equipment.
Well it
finally came time for me to graduate from high school at the age of 17 on May
19th, 1940. In order to get a job at 17, you had to get a working permit. I got
a job at Kilgore’s making war materials here in Westerville. I made gasoline war
bombs and hand grenades in the first state and then they were shipped to New
Jersey and put the pineapple on (the highly explosive part). They were made at
Kilgore’s and later shipped overseas which was the ones they dropped on
Hiroshima to help end World War II. We were so proud to think we won the Army &
Navy Award for Excellence. The company gave each of us a $50 war bond. Well I
met my husband to be in 1940 not long before he got his “greetings” form Uncle
Sam to report to Camp Shelby. In 1942 he got discharged and we were married on
September 7, 1942. We both worked at Kilgore’s making war material. After 4
years I quit and had my three children. Number 1 son, Lisle Jr, is an
agricultural teacher at Jackson, Ohio and married with twin daughters now 17
years old. Our only daughter, Beverly, who has an assistant medical certificate
was born 1 ½ years later, then number 3 child, 2nd son, Tom, has an associate
degree in accounting. They all graduated from Westerville High School. Well
since I was home taking care of my children my niece needed a home so we took
her and sent her through school. She is a real estate salesman. Well a few years
went by and my oldest granddaughter needed a home so we kept and raise her. She
is now past 19 years old and a sophomore at Ohio State. They all graduated from
Westerville City Schools.
So you see, I have had kids around me all my life. We
always lived where we had a garden and plenty of space for the children to play
and work. We always have a freezer full of food and I still can fruits and
vegetables and meat. We have 6 grandchildren: 3 boys and 3 girls ages 19 down to
12 years. They grow up so fast. Well on June 10, 1982 everything came to a
standstill when my husband Lisle had cardiac arrest and passed away very
suddenly coming from across our drive to the house. We had been married nearly
40 years and had worked, planned, and had a lot of good happy times together. I
had planned to retire but those plans changed and I am still working. I have now
completed 26 years as a food service worker and trying to plan my retirement. I
hope I keep my health and find someone I can share the rest of my life with and
enjoy my senior years.
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