Memories

Of our Family - through 60 years

Our years on Oneida Lake, and in Lumberton, were one long holiday for Grampa and I, and for our family. Bill was already in the military when we bought our home on the lake, but our teenagers all had several years there before going off to start a new and different life with their own families. And the grandchildren, spending weeks or whole summers with us, first on the lake, where they had swimming and boating and lazy days, and then in Lumberton, with the pool, friendly neighbors, and our lively little dog, Charlie. And then the great-grandchildren, starting with Allison and Katie, Scotty and Ethan learning to swim in the cool waters of that graceful kidney shaped inground pool. And the teenage granddaughters were there early in the springtime to get a head start on a pre-season tan.

Our first family reunion was held in 2002 at a park on the shores of Oneida Lake. The older grandchildren felt that they were home. Several of the grand-girls wrote to me after that special day, and a message from Liz was the first. The subject of her message was "The Smell of the Lake", and she wrote about the memories that came back to her after spending the day there with family. And then I had a letter from Deanne in California, nostalgic on hearing about our day, and sad for missing the time with family.

Liz wrote "I remember telling my friends that my Grandmother had a phone in her bathroom, and my Grandfather had a toilet on his boat". And Dee remembers, on the lake, falling asleep on the floor, in between my side of the bed and the closet, watching a baseball game - the Yankees, for sure. And "the little orange boat, lemon chicken, grandma's spray, the pink store".

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On the following pages you will find the complete text of "MEMORIES", submitted by family, edited by Gram, prepared and published by Ellen, and distributed to all at our 2002 reunion.

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M E M O R I E S

A Message To Family

Dear Family,

When I was riding along in the car one day with Ellen I picked up her notebook and started writing. This is what came of that half-hour of letting my mind wander back in time:

David Wallace Fraser and Ruth Alberta Shannon were married and spent their first years together in Sterling, Ontario, Canada, where Margaret, Ruth, Harry, Earl and Leonard Roy (Mike) were born. Grampa Fraser was a carpenter with his friend Enos McCallister. On one of our trips to Canada to see Fraser relatives we visited with Enos, and saw the house that they had built.

Grampa Fraser moved his family across Lake Ontario to the Rochester area when his family was still young. He was one of George Eastman's first ten employees. The family lived in Lima before buying the farm on the road from Honeoye Falls to Ionia, where Virginia and Jack were born. Grandma Fraser died in 1942, and when Dad and I were married, we made our home with Grampa Fraser on the farm. Dad didn't like farming, and found work with his first farm equipment company, Leroy Ploy. By that time others were working the farm, and in 1952 we bought our first home, in East Bloomfield. We took Grampa Fraser to live with us when we moved, and Dad went to work for Don Howard, equipment dealer in Canandaigua, and after several years, Oliver Corporation and Hesston. About the time we moved to East Bloomfield Uncle Harry Fraser, a bachelor, was taken ill, and we found that he had cancer. He came to live with us in our overflowing home - 6 children by then, and a grandfather. That home was overflowing with love, I can vouch, as well as bodies. We lost both Uncle Harry and Grampa in the next few years.

We all loved the water and had been looking for lakefront property, so when Uncle Mike sold his little summer camp on Oneida Lake, we bought it, and made it into the home we lived in and loved for more than 20 years...living there was like being on holiday year-round, until Dad's respiratory problems took us to the milder climate of North Carolina in 1983.

Our first few years there were ideal. Dad had his little tractor and cart, and his chain saw. We cut firewood from our wooded lot, put in a kidney shaped pool off the living room deck, planted tomatos, cucumbers and morning glories along the pool yard fence, and settled into our year-round Carolina sunshine. In 1986 Dad's breathing worsened, and he needed oxygen for emphysema that had developed. He battled the dread disease until 1994, when we lost him.

Our years in Carolina were happy ones, and we had lots of visitors from the north. Our home was a great place for family to visit for a bit of sunshine and an early tan. (Liz, Dee, Shelly, Freckles, Pam, Heather, Trish, Little Jack, do you remember?)

Dick and Sharon did lots of planting and yard work at our home in Lumberton. We had azaleas and fruit trees, and a Maryland lilac bush. Emily's first visit was when she was only 3 weeks old. She and Ellen rode down with Jack's family. Ellen was camp photographer back then, as she is now. We have dogwood pictures, fruit tree planting pictures, and Charlie pictures.

Our little Charlie was something else. Ryan drew wagonloads of dirt from the pile in the side yard to fill in the holes that Charlie dug. He was probably looking for the pancakes he had burried. What fun that frisky little dog was for Dad. He knew he was home when he wandered into our yard when he was little more than a newborn pup.

Jeff spent a few days of his vacation one year helping dad. They patched the pool cover, I remember. Jack and David, Bill, and Dick, everyone helped out over the years. Perry had his turn, too. We had lots of other New York State visitors stopping over with us on the way to Florida for the winter. Sometimes we would meet friends at Myrtle Beach for a few days of R&R.

I came back to New York in January of 1998 to be near family, and it's a good place to be. We've had a good life. OUR FAMILY - 75 at last count. GOD BLESS YOU ALL.

Love, Mom

Lynda Remembers

I remember walking with Grandpa Fraser across the yard on Main street to visit Daisy Cramer. Inside her house I would sit on the braided rug in front of her wood cooking stove and play marbles. She would fix tea for her and Grandpa and I would eat Ritz crackers. I carried the teacups back to the kitchen and put them in the sink, being careful not to hit them on the hand pump that was the only water source in the house.

As Grandpa and I made our way back across the yard he would steady himself on his cane. The walk must have tired Grampa out because when I looked for a pink mint in his sweater pocket, I would find him fast asleep in the overstuffed chair in the family room, cane still in hand, unlit pipe in mouth. Grandpa Fraser always wore a dress shirt, tie, suspenders and hat. He called me Humbug.

Our house was so full of people, and the people so full of joy. I asked Dad once if uncle Harry's real name was Harold and what his middle name was. I think Dad was pulling my leg when he told me that the name was just Harry Fraser. He said when uncle Harry was born he had a lot of hair, and when the doctor asked Grandpa for the name of the new baby, Grampa just said "He's hairy".

The house on Main street was always a busy place. I remember Uncle Harry sitting at the kitchen table with friends who had stopped by to visit. I remember sitting on the front porch and watching the parade go by. I never knew Grandma Fraser, but I know that Dad always spoke of her with love, respect, and praise. I remember how happy Dad would be when his brothers came to visit. Uncle Earl, Uncle Mike and Dad would sit and talk and laugh like kids. Dad would give me a nickel when we visited Aunt Ruth so I could buy soda-pop in her store. She always gave me the pop, and had me keep the nickel. Going to Aunt Margaret's was a fun trip, too. She always looked so tiny standing next to Dad.

Moving to the lake was both fun and sad. It was a great place to live - especially during the summer vacation, but it took a long time to get used to not having Grampa Fraser there. I remember wondering why people around the lake didn't have Uncles, Aunts, or Grandparents in their families. In East Bloomfield you knew a friend's Mother, Father, Brothers, Sisters, Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles and Cousins. The lake was not like that. The house seemed empty at first without Grampa, and with Sharon finishing her senior year of high school at Bloomfield. I don't think I wanted to stay after summer was over. I missed the kitchen table and the corner wrap-around bench. I missed the hill to the post office, and the walk to school.....I had to take a bus?? I missed standing in the cemetery with Linda Eddinger, waiting to chase baseballs. The house seemed too quiet. Until grandchildren started arriving, and arriving. In just a few short years the lake house was filled with the next generation. Complete with Grampa, Grandma, Aunts, Uncles and Cousins. Next generation memories were created.... pancakes, little orange boat, the pink store, yankee baseball, and soon to follow, still another generation.

Thought for today - We tried so hard to make things better for our kids that we sometimes made them worse. For my grandchildren, I'd like things better yet. I'd really like for them to know about hand-me-down- clothes, homemade ice cream and leftover meat loaf sandwiches. I hope they learn humility by being humiliated, and honesty from being cheated. I hope you have to make your own bed, mow the lawn and wash the car. And I hope nobody gives you a brand new car when you are sixteen. When you want to see a movie and your little brother wants to tag along, I hope you let him. I hope you learn to dig in dirt and read books. I hope you learn to use computers, I also hope you learn to add and subtract in your head. I hope you get teased by your friends when you have your first crush. When you talk back to your mother that you learn what Ivory soap tastes like. And I sure hope that you make time to sit on the porch with your Grampa and go fishing with your Uncle. - Paul Harvey

Mom Remembers

On the day we moved from Bloomfield to Van Antwerp Drive on Oneida Lake, Jack and David took me for a stroll around the yard, and out on the dock. Prearranged, probably, the quick dip in the lake for Mom.....Jack and David tossed me in!

Sharon Wins . . . Mr. Brennan, Bloomfield Coach, knew how nimble and athletic Sharon was. She was in eighth grade the year the coach rounded up all senior boys who wanted to try to best Sharon at a rope-climbing contest in the school gym. It turned out to be a special event. You can guess who won. Sharon was up and down that rope in less time than most of those older boys could get their feet off the floor.

More athletic demos for Sharon . . . On a sunny summer day on Oneida Lake the Fraser siblings and neighborthood kids were fooling around in the yard. During one athletic demonstration Sharon was airborne, flipping over Jack's head to land on her feet, standing behind him. That was July 17th, l966. Mishele Marie, the first Fraser grandchild, was born on July 18th, l966.

Another little girl in this family couldn't have a pair of socks, or a hair ribbon, a waistband or belt, or anything else fit too closely, lest it be "TOO TIGHT".

Jack Remembers

One Christmas a beautiful greeting card came, addressed to Jack Fraser from Harold Manheim. Mom and Dad didn't know who this person was, but every Christmas for the next five or six years another card came from Harold. Finally Jack confessed - Harold Manheim was a lawyer who had helped him with a speeding ticket. Jack recalls Dad laughing because one of his equipment dealers from north of Syracuse had read in a local paper about a Jack Fraser who had been in a motorcycle accident in that area. Oh yes, Jack Jr. had to tell him. That was the reason he was moving slowly that day.

Jack remembers home-made ice cream on the lake, and baseball card trading with grandkids and Gram, cards spread out all across the living room carpet.

Jeff, Kenny and Rick were going to an SU basketcall game one weekend when they were all at the lake. The boys found just the right orange and blue colors they needed in Gram's makeup, and had their faces painted half blue, half orange before Gram discovered her Estee Lauder eye shadow and lip gloss had gone missing.

He recalls, too, Dad chasing Joey Fecht down across the yard because he had mouthed off to his father. And he caught him.

One weekend Dad and the boys decided to go on an all-night fishing trip. Dick Burd was along on that ride. They took a bottle of Schnapps. Early morning Dad made bacon and eggs for the hungry fishermen, and when he was washing up the dishes in the lake, he lost a plate. That was probably the same trip when a fishing pole fell out of the hands of someone who had fallen asleep while fishing.

Jack remembers being at the equipment dealer's place in Central Square, and stopping in town at a bar. Dad drove him home.

One weekend Grandma and Grampa Thomas were visiting. Late one night the doorbell rang and it was Officer Shimmerhorn, looking for a Fraser boy. You guessed it. Some of the neighborhood boys, and Jack, had moved construction cones (borrowed them). Officer Shimmerhorn came to be a good family friend.

And, there was the weekend that Mom didn't know where Jack was. It seemed that everybody knew something , but nobody was talking. Jack and Theresa finally showed up on Sunday afternoon. Mom remembers that Jack took her for a ride in the little row boat, to tell her that he and Theresa had been in Carolina where they were married. With Jack Jr. in the house, Mom and Dad could always expect the unexpected.

A Most Embarrassing moment - Many years ago, in the Bloomfield area of New York State - it might have been in Batavia - there was a Babe Ruth All Star baseball game. Lots of spectators- kids, parents, cousins, friends and MOTHERS in the crowd. It happened that an All Star catcher, taking his turn at bat, struck out at the plate. There was dead silence around the field, until from the stands a sympathetic voice called out "that's OK, honey". That All-Star Catcher had a new nickname for the rest of the season. Sorry, Jack.

Ruth Remembers

Saturday, 3-flavor ice cream. (CVS - some people think that stands for the drug store chain, but we know it means chocolate/vanila/strawberry). Fig Newtons and Oreos. I recall that Dad did the grocery shopping on Saturday morning, at Baldwin's IGA, and always brought home those treats.

I can remember the beautiful lilacs in the backyard, and a white squirrel. Playing kick-the-can and baseball with the Baldwins. The Memorial Day parade, down Main Street in East Bloomfield, right past our house. Dave and Bev had a pretty white car with red interior. I don't know one car from another, but I always thought that car was cool. And Earl and the Duchess. I recall a picnic at their home. Uncle Earl roasting corn on the cob on the grill. I have never been able to duplicate that, yet I can shut my eyes and see it so clearly.

I remember the Easter outfits Mom made for us - little black and white print skirts with white blouses. We are wearing them in a "six kids on a bench" photo. (BE-before Ellen).

Helping me with my designer gown sketches, Mom would draw big shoes on my drawings of beautiful ladies in prom dresses. Term papers given to Mom the night before they were due and she would stay up all night....in some cases, I'm sure she did most of the writing as well as the typing.

Mother Phillips - a memory book would not be complete without mention of this special person. Summer arts and crafts at the old town hall. Her house was packed with art projects from every child in East Bloomfield. Gifts of thanks for Mother Phillips who arranged for and rode with the children for swimming lessons at Canandaigua Lake. Her own children couldn't swim, and she lost her two teenagers to that same lake. A dear lady, and a good friend.

Bill Remembers

Ginny and Bub's North Bloomfield house, and playing with Bert by the creek. And of course, Harry and Grampa, in Bloomfield, especially at the kitchen table. Grampa with his Redman baseball cards. Dad, basketball games in Honeoye Falls. Dad played, Mom kept score. This was a town team, and all of the little Frasers, sitting quietly, all lined up in seats behind Mom, watchng the game.

At Bloomfield, or on the lake, if Dad and Mom were out for the evening, Dad would bring a gang back home to eat - and he usually made bacon and eggs to feed them. Bill remembers creamed chipped beef on toast. Sunday dinner, mid-afternoon, as the big meal of the week.

He remembers a birthday party on the farm when lightning struck the barn. In Bloomfield, raspberries on the fence by the cemetery. (Mom disturbed a swarm of bees there one morning, and ran all the way back home). Dad's barbecue pit - no fancy store bought unit - just stacked brick, an oven rack, and charcoal. Dominic Marianachi, and our specially designed Bloomfield kitchen and laundry room.

Bill remembers phone numbers - 514F13, 285, 699-7568, 799 - Visits to Aunt Margaret's house in Hemlock, and viewing her cards. The Hemlock Fair, and the Old Fiddler's Picnic, the oldest and youngest usually from the Fraser family. Sandy Bottom, for swimming, in Honeoye Lake. Dad took us to the baseball games in Rochester. Clam bakes on the lake. A Mary Hartline special Christmas for a little blonde girl. On the farm, first family with television. Neighbors came over to look at the test pattern, and watch the news in text only, from 5:00pm until 7:00 pm. Snowmobiles on Oneida Lake. Bill remembers that Dad and Dick helped with breakfast at Camp David after a New Year's Eve celebration there one year. Field's of gladiolias on the farm. The "pathway"-- Mom would remind us to "stay out of the middle of the floor, so Grampa has a pathway through the room with his cane".

Ellen Remembers

Pantomiming to the song "Last Kiss" in front of the fireplace while my brothers and sisters held the "spotlight" on me.....come to think of it.....the spotlight looked an awful lot like the livingroom lamp aimed at me!

I remember thinking that the best part of Christmas had nothing to do with what was under the tree, but more to do with my brothers and sisters who brought their children back to spend time with us on the Lake - everyone filled with so much love. One Christmas I was asked to keep Dad out of the house so his new pool table could be delivered...Dad thought he was keeping me away until the pretty white desk that matched my bedroom furniture could be brought in. We were both right.

It seemed that every weekend Dad went out to visit his friends, the "Grossmans". Finally he let me go along. On the ride I wondered if Mrs. Grossman had baked cookies that day. To my surprise we stopped in the parking lot of a lumberyard. Mr. and Mrs. Grossman, the people Dad seemed to spend so much time with, was the place my Dad bought building supplies from. I told that story on the day I was hired to work at that same store many years later.

I remember another family reunion, this one at the Lake, June 16th, l979. I had met Rolland two days before that, and told him we were having some people over for hots and hamburgers...would he like to stop by? Little did he know when he accepted that he would meet all of my brothers and sisters, nieces, nephews, cousins, aunts, uncles, and Grandma Thomas...who asked him first thing why he didn't get a haircut! I knew right then if that day didn't scare him off, nothing ever would. We were lucky enough that Gram and Gramp still lived at the Lake when we got married...Great party there after our Wysocki's reception.

We are luckier than most you know, so many happy memories. And we know, when it really matters, no one is farther away than a phone call. Any one of us would be there no matter the distance, if he was needed. That's family. That's This Family. I'm so proud to be a part of it. Being the youngest, I've had the good fortune to be able to see the kind of person I want to be.....I want to be just like you guys...Mom, Dad, Lynda, Dave, Jack, Ruth, Sharon, Bill.....

HAPPY MEMORIES

Baby Toes - Everybody in East Bloomfield loved tickling baby Ellen's toes - from Grampa Fraser to Johnny Baldwin. Grampa would keep a watchful eye on "Baby" in the backyard while she played in her playpen.

Roller Coaster - Cool ride. Ellen had her own roller coaster waiting for her when we moved to the lake.

Another Thought - Yesterday is a sacred room in your heart where you keep your memories. From your yesterdays you draw lessons and encouragement to pass along to others. Barbara Johnson