Great Uncle Jack Potter was a quiet man and Great Aunt Fannie (Lewis) Potter was a sweet, country girl!  My brothers, sister and I would stay with Uncle Alden Potter (Uncle Jack’s son) and Aunt Frances during the summertime. I remember Uncle Jack being “stern” but loving and Aunt Fannie was a “second” mom to us when we were there.  We slept in a room upstairs which was very large, and during the summer, that room was hotter than Vietnam!  No air conditioning and heat rises!  Uncle Alden and Aunt Frances lived about a mile from Uncle Jack’s.  We had to walk to their house in the evenings to take a bath, Uncle Al and Aunt Frances didn’t have a shower or tub!

I remember Uncle Jack’s house being made of wood, the “great room” was on the right side of the house, and it was huge!  Deer heads on the wall and a big fireplace.  All the floors were made of wood, but dull wood, not “shiny” like we are used to today.  Also, the hallway was kind of wavy, up, and down, up, and down!  At the end of the hallway was a big pump organ.  We would have to pump it up to play with it, what a job that was!  They had a lot of land, pigs, chickens, horses, bees, silos, etc.  We would ride the horses; however, I was scared to death of the horses, every time we went, our cousins and us had to catch those damn horses in the pasture so we could ride them……the horses would run in one direction, and I would run in the other.  One time, the bees got after me, my brother David and cousin Al.  I was screaming the loudest and didn’t get a single sting, however, brother David and Al were both stung…I guess my screaming was my salvation.  Uncle Jack was very special to my dad.  He said after his father died (my dad was 13 when his dad died) Uncle Jack kind of filled in his shoes and helped raise my dad.  So, we went to the “country” a lot.  Looking back, it was some wonderful times, and I could kick myself for not knowing more about both of them back then.