We Bought Squabetty!

Part 3 (of 3).  We bought Squabetty in 1931 with no intention of moving in then. The house was not habitable. We came quite often from Shannon's, for picnics around a fireplace we made where the millstone is now, on the (old) croquet lawn, using door and window frames for wood! I hope this was after we owned it, but… We moved in in mid-summer of ‘33 with two cases of whooping cough! Father - I think also Mother - had come east that spring to get the major work done, a decision following on Father having lost his job with the Continental Bank and the subsequent thought that we would need a place to live, should we not be able to afford staying in Winnetka, Illinois where we had moved to, in the fall of ‘32. 

From 1933 on, we spent most summers at Squabetty, although those during WW II were often very short, especially for Father who worked in a variety of war related positions in St. Louis, where Mother and Father moved, more or less permanently for winters in 1939. St. Louis was essentially Mother's home town’ although she was actually born in Jefferson City, Mo. They stayed in Vermont until late fall, having sent Betsy and me back to our respective schools in September and they returned in March.  Betsy and I came for spring vacation - great pioneering! Car left at the foot of the road; arrival on skis or by horse cart over the snow deep fields; wood fires; oil lamps; food, clothes, and school work back-packed in; sugaring nearby maples and skiing in the woods and the few fields that then still existed. By 1947 Mother and Father were again in residence from early spring until late fall. After Mother died in 1959, Father tended to leave earlier and come later. 

Over the years, electricity and phones were added and the main house winterized so it was entirely comfortable when all systems worked and sort of exciting when they have to be improvised! A wood stove in the upstairs living room of the “McLane” wing and electromode heaters make that area tolerable in cold weather, except that the water system does not work then. Gigi, Towner, Katie and Duncan all love the place. In various combinations, and often with friends,  they periodically come up for weekends or longer in all seasons.

And so we move on in the second half century of our life here! 9/1987