Thursday, June 03, 2010

The House in Patton Hollow

Late nights, while I have been refurbishing the Shack at Northcroft, I have been working on the following video for my sweet mother. It's main home will be on her blog but I wanted to feature it here too so I would have the historical record on Family Chatterbox. It has been a special journey for me to work with Mom in putting this video together.
My childhood memories of the Patton Farm are so vivid and important. This film helped me to understand why. The house, walking the hills, the fields of grain, the kitchen garden, processing vegetables under the shade trees in the front yard, Easter Egg hunts, Sunday dinners, the honey bees and apple trees, sitting in the window in the back bedroom, pumping the well handle, the milk barn, the working dogs, neighbors helping to fill the silos and breaking for a home cooked meal on the back porch, Christmas, Grandmother and Grandad, candy canes, family gatherings, hay rides and cooks outs we had when the Oakley's owned the farm...all treasures of my youth. Thanks be to God for the gift.
Enjoy the journey.

Corrections: 1.) Herman Neal Patton owned the farm until his death in 1977.
2.) Geraldine (daughter of Herman and Lela) and Johnny Oakley owned the for 27 years until it was sold in 2004.
3.)  Robert William Patton, oldest of my father's siblings, ( frame 22, middle child, front row) died, September 2010 at the age of 93.  The girls, Geraldine and Phyllis, (from the children that lived upstairs) are still in life.
 
*I am so grateful to John Paule for letting us make and photograpy this oh so personal journey.  We have all enjoyed going back, remembering and seeing how the house we remember so well, is now being loved and cared for.  The house in Patton Hollow grows more lovely everyday and I pray it will continue it's rich history of gracious living.

4 comments:

Family said...

so awesome, mom. what a precious gift to your mom. and some fond memories to relive while doing it.

Family said...

Great job, Merry. Love, Terr.

Kate Croft said...

So good. I'd love to hear more stories from you about what you remember from growing up on the farm, sometime.

Queenie said...

Amen and Amen !
This is where I found to love of
my life. Our Sunday afternoon dates
were always interrupted around 5:00
by going to this Patton farm so he
could help his father milk the cows.
He then would run through the shower
and dress, as we always went to
church on Sunday evenings. Some days
he would come to get me and we would
spend the afternoon at the farm.
We would pick up hickory nuts on
the hill across the road from the
house. He sometime would saddle
horses and we road horses over
the farm. I loved his family and
I believe they loved me the whole
2 1/2 years we dated. His lovely
little sisters were charmed by
my jewery and purses etc as all
younger girls are, just as I admired Leopal and Ruthine's clothes.This is all history and
to me seems like another world as
that world is gone, it is a memory.
WE ARE PATTON