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FACTS, HEARSAY AND MEMORIES - Page 21 Beside
the hotel, summer boarders found meals and lodgings in private homes at
the Point. As I am writing now in May, May baskets come to mind. In our locality May baskets were not only hung the first day of May but continued all through the month if one's money held out and the baskets were made small. They might be group affairs which lessened the expenditure of the individual. Half the fun was hiding, being chased and caught, and the last part which was always going inside to help eat the contents of the baskets. Our pastures produced quantities of violets for decoration. As summer came on huckleberrying filled many, many days. Form it most of our spending money came. Blueberries came first, but they were not plentiful in our locality and if there were any I was not tall enough to pick them. We had an especially good market for our berries as Uncle James Gifford went to New Bedford twice a week with produce in the summer and was always glad to have our berries. Monday morning we all started out with two pails tied around our waists with a string of a discarded apron, a small pail to pick in and a larger one to empty it into when full. The first checkup was to call out "The bottom on my pail is covered." This of course produced comments as the size of the pails varied. Aunt Lib gave us early instruction and often looked in to see if it had been carried out. "NO use to put a stem or green berry in your pail," said she. "It must only be picked out later." With this training in picking and picking over again when we got home, by the time they were measured and put in wooden butter boxes and canner pails there was no stem to be seen. These containers were washed each time in suds, and put out to dry and sweeten in the sun. Sophia took charge of the marking which she did with a piece of chalk both on the outside and inside of each cover ex. S.E.M. 6 qts. Etc. I always felt it a little unfair that her initials implied the berries were all hers. Many times we made a second trip in the afternoon and by the time we had walked up to Uncle James' to carry the fruits of our labors we were really tired. Uncle James never had any trouble to dispose of our berries and we had many relatives who asked for our berries especially because there was no waste. 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 |
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