Growing up at THE FARM; my favorite place …TOPSMEAD

​Growing up at Topsmead was a gift for which I will be forever grateful. We had a level of freedom which would never have been possible living in Waterbury. Three of us were companions: my older brother John (Jackie); Barbara, one of the Abrahamson daughters, whose family rented the Buell cottage from 1941 to 1951; and myself. Barbara later became my sister-in-law, after she married my brother in 1962.
 
We had the run of the farm as long as we behaved ourselves, which we mostly did. At the farm we played badminton and croquet on the lawn between our houses. We visited all the animals: the cows both in the fields and in the barn during milking times; the pigs, who when we went near them got excited and snorted because they thought they were going to be fed; and the turkeys, who would gobble if we just made a noise to get them started.
 
We climbed the apple and plum trees on the farm grounds. We rode our bikes around the farm proper and on all the farm roads and Jefferson Hill Road and Jefferson Hill Road South out to Terryplace and the barns there. In the fall we raked leaves in piles and jumped into and out of the piles.
 
In the fall we picked hazel nuts from the grove of trees located south of the farm going towards Jefferson Hill Road. We would throw branches up in to the trees to knock the nuts to the ground, then gather them up to remove the outer husk and save them for the winter. My brother Jackie enjoyed them as a treat, one of the few he could enjoy on his diabetic diet.
 
One summer, Jackie and I decided to carve out a trail in the woods which led to the pond.  This is in the same area where the Ecology Trail now begins. It was challenging, but fun, and kept us busy for a few weeks. It made getting to the pond from the farm easier.
 
We kids had some responsibilities also. One of mine was to weed the vegetable garden. All three families, the Schnierers, the Abrahamsons, and the Orintas families had vegetable gardens to the east of the farm manager’s house (that today still stands facing the parking lot.)  The gardens were about 25 feet wide and about 35 to 50 feet long. They were all in a row. I remember helping my dad plant various vegetable seeds and make corn hills. Later in the summer, I remember mother having a pot of boiling water on the stove and Dad going out to pick fresh sweetcorn right off the stalks for supper.
 
A few times when the Schnierers went away on vacation, I was given the job of collecting the chicken eggs, washing them, and checking them for defects. Then I boxed them and put the cartons in the dairy refrigerator.
 
We picked blueberries from the blueberry lots after the ladies (Miss Edith, Miss Mary and Miss Lucy) had picked all they wanted.  We also picked the “Windfall” apples from the lawn, and mother would make apple pies from scratch. Dad and I peeled the apples, and we had contests to see who could peel an apple with only one long peel, instead of many small ones. It was fun to try to do.
 
These are some of my fond memories of life as a young boy. To this day Topsmead remains my favorite place on this earth.