Our Home in the Hills , livre ebook

Inspiring Voices - Michel Whetstone Marilyn

Découvre YouScribe en t'inscrivant gratuitement

Je m'inscris

Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne
En savoir plus

124 pages

English

Vous pourrez modifier la taille du texte de cet ouvrage

Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne
En savoir plus

A propos
Informations
Extrait

Description

One of more than twenty-five first cousins who grew up together in the Ozark Mountains, Marilyn Michel Whetstone reveals in Our Home in the Hills how she experienced first-hand the joy and comfort of being part of a large, close-knit family.In a collection of true stories and family recipes, Whetstone shares anecdotes that provide insight into her life growing up in the popular resort mecca of the Midwest, Rockaway Beach, during the 1950's and 1960's and the lives of guests who visited the family resort during that time. While transporting others on a nostalgic trip back to a simpler time, Whetstone details how unselfish acts of sacrifice and kindness promoted healthy and lasting bonds among relatives and friends. She shares the ups and downs in her teenage relationships and offers a glimpse into her close walk with Jesus Christ. Included are recipes that have been passed down in her family for more than a hundred years, providing a backdrop to her delightful stories."These inspired stories of faith, family, friends, and community will touch your heart. They evoke memories of the joy and blessing of my own growing up years in Ozark Mountain Country."-Edd Akers, Mayor, City of Branson

Sujets

Philosophie et théologie

Memoir

Informations

Publié par	Inspiring Voices
Date de parution	16 décembre 2020
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781462413171
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	1 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0200€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

Our Home In the Hills
True Stories About an Idyllic Ozark Childhood and Treasured Family Recipes from the Last One Hundred Years

Marilyn Michel Whetstone

Copyright © 2020 Marilyn Michel Whetstone.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Inspiring Voices
1663 Liberty Drive
Bloomington, IN 47403
www.inspiringvoices.com
844-686-9605

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.®

ISBN: 978-1-4624-1316-4 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-4624-1317-1 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2020920895

Inspiring Voices rev. date: 02/08/2022

“The author takes the reader back to a harder but better time. This book is a reminder of what is at risk today: abiding faith, marriages that are founded on ‘until death do us part,’ and the rewards that come from a strong work ethic.
Thank you to the author for a look back seventy years as well as for a heightened awareness of our need to be vigilant going forward.”
—Jack Herschend, Silver Dollar City Founder
“Our Home in the Hills captures the history and culture of the Ozark hills. As a pastor and resident of Rockaway Beach, I am thankful for this resource to share with our community as we work in the same places that are detailed in this history.”
—Jonathan McGuire, Pastor, Bridge of Faith Community Church
“Life then and now seems worlds apart, but the lessons are the same. People need to know what life was like only a few generations ago.”
—Jeff Justus, Former Missouri Representative

To David, my biggest cheerleader
Contents
Introduction
Daddy
Mother
New Flint Hill School
1953–1954
Choose Your Friends Carefully
I Am My Brother’s Keeper
Romans 8:28
Easter Sunday
Senior Trips
A White Rose
Bull Creek
The Skillman Family
My First Work Experiences
Dr. and Mrs. Frost
The Paradigm Shift
Thanksgiving Day
Oh, Christmas Tree
Christmas Eve
Christmas Day
Snow Days
1962–1965 and Beyond
Postlude
Cookbook of Family Recipes
Breads and Rolls
Comfort Foods: Meat and Casseroles
Cakes
Pies and Cobblers
Vintage Salads, Vegetables, and Desserts
Christmas Goodies
Introduction
“Mary, Mary! Ella fell in the well! Mary! Ella fell in the well!”
Mary, the oldest sister, in charge of the little ones while their parents made a trip into Branson for supplies, heard Lilly’s scream for help from inside the small log cabin on a warm mid-April day in 1917. She came running toward the place where not-quite-three-year-old Ella and her siblings had been playing. Lilly, consumed with fear and anguish, shrieked in jerky sentences between sobs as she tried to explain that little Ella had tripped while close to the small well opening that was the source of the family’s spring-fed drinking water. The well had been left uncovered accidentally, and Ella had lost her balance and fallen into a space that one would not believe was large enough for a child to slip through.
The fall was instantly fatal for little Ella—not due to drowning but because of a broken neck. Upon their return from town, Edwin and Ethel Rebecca Michel, parents of eight children, including three sets of twins at the time, learned of Ella’s accident. They were devastated. Heartache and despair beyond what the human spirit seemed able to endure enveloped the grieving family, but as people have faced tragedy since the beginning of time, the Michels, through their deep faith in God, were somehow able to pick up the pieces of their brokenness and forge ahead.
The already large family eventually became even larger with a total of twelve children in the early years of the twentieth century. They survived by perseverance, ingenuity, hard work, and God-given skills in the rugged hills of Taney County, Missouri.
Like the roots of a massive oak tree in this rocky soil bring moisture and nutrients to the tree itself, my roots are firmly established in the hills and hollers that have created rich traditions and culture in Ozark Mountain Country. I am a descendant of courageous pioneers who settled here and found harmony with this rugged land and its swift untamed waters. Hardship was an ever-present companion to the early settlers of our area, but family stories passed down illustrate that alongside hardship was the twin companion of the joy and comfort of a close-knit family. Like the strong, towering oak tree, family provides soothing water and rich nutrients to its own through all circumstances.
This is the story of my family. It is not a history book. It is a love story for my children, their children, and all who will come from them as their lives intertwine with past generations to deepen and enrich our family’s story.

Daddy
In 1911, twins Vernie and Ernie were born to Edwin and Ethel (Pickett) Michel in McKinney Bend near Branson, Missouri—the family’s second set of twins. Vernie, my father, was one of eleven children who grew to adulthood on ninety-six acres of rocky and hilly farmland near Branson. Mary, the oldest, was followed by the first set of twins, Willie and Lilly, then Charlie. After Charlie, Vernie and Ernie increased the size of the family to six children; they were followed three years later by twins Della and Ella. After Della and Ella, Ruth came along, then Exie and little sister Pearl. At the end of twenty years of childbearing, my grandmother gave birth to her last child, Edwin Lee. He rounded out the family of six girls and six boys, including three sets of twins: one set of boys, one set of girls, and a girl and boy.
Grandpa Edwin Benjamin Michel came from St. Louis with his parents when they acquired what became known as the Michel Homestead in McKinney Bend, just off what was originally known as Long Beach Road and later T Highway, about eight miles east of Branson. No money was exchanged for the ninety-six acres, but my great-grandparents—Berthold Jacob and Susan Michel, immigrants from Switzerland who originally settled in St. Louis and eventually in Branson nine years after immigrating to America—were able to take ownership by homesteading the land at the county seat in Forsyth. The story goes that they traded a blind mare and got two calves to boot for the beautiful rolling hills, streams, bottomland, and springs where the farm was established in 1885.
My father has told me that the boys and their dad would go into the fields after a heavy rain and dip water with a wash pan as a means of draining the field. Daddy (as my siblings and I called him) told us of the one cash product they produced: sorghum. They planted the cane in April and cultivated it precisely on September 1. On that day, they stripped the cane by taking off the blades and ran it through a sorghum mill. After that, they took the cane juice and cooked it with wood in an evaporator pan ten feet long and four feet wide. They would peddle this to neighbors to get cash to pay for necessities such as taxes, which usually amounted to about twenty dollars per year on their home and property. Everything else they grew or produced was used to sustain the large family.
Daddy was a great storyteller, and I learned much about his upbringing and his work ethic through his many, many tales about his parents and grandparents. I learned about their philosophy of life, and his, from his sayings and stories with a moral. From as long as I can remember, I was taught that “early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.” Another adage that has stayed with me throughout my life is, “You can catch more flies with honey than you can with vinegar.” From his mother, Daddy passed down the saying, “You may not especially like your place in life, and I may not like mine, but I can think of thousands who would think our place was fine.”
Daddy was not a parent who lectured his children, but he got his point across through his short sayings on how to live. One that he drilled into us (though, by his own admission, it was not original with him) was “Life is 10 percent what you make it and 90 percent how you take it.” Books have been written on the power of a positive attitude, but Daddy summed it up in one sentence, and it has stayed with me always. Thanksgiving and gratitude for what one had were preached in his family’s home, and Daddy reminded us daily of the importance of a grateful heart.
A child and young adult of the Great Depression era, Daddy related that his family had little money; they were able to support themselves and had what they needed but little extra. For example, he told how they would never consid