ALLEGAN - 1943
At farm of Grace and Bert Graham's, just south of hospital

Here we are together. The Graham's place was a central location for Mom to visit us kids. She was still working at the Hayes factory in Grand Rapids making parts for the war. Carolyn (8) was staying with aunt Edie and Uncle Frank, just a few miles away. Arleen (4) and I (9) were staying with Grandma Ethel and Grandpa Sheckler at Hutchins Lake. Grace, Edie, and Ethel had a common Grandpa, "William Barnett".

Bert and Grace Grahams, lived on a dairy farm.  There were a lot of maple trees on Bert's property and in the spring Bert would tap the trees for sap, make maple syrup and he sold quite a bit of it.  At the end of the season they always had a pedro card party where Grace would always bake a bunch of  biscuits and serve them with warm maple syrup. 
Bert also had quite a few head of cattle. He bottled and capped the milk and sold his milk house to house.  Linn Sheckler Jr. tells of the times he went with Bert to deliver the milk and in the winter, sometimes the milk would freeze, pushing the caps up with the frozen cream on top of the milk.  They would cut off and eat the frozen cream and put the cap back on the bottle.

Grahams also had the best record player, (victrola) around. We would listen to the music and look at stereo slides on their Stereopticon. The stereoscope slides allowed us to tour the world.  These were the same type of slides our Great Grandpa George Sheckler used in his lectures.

 1919 Victrola

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