I tagged Ken for the memory game and here's his memory:
"My first trip to AuSable Forks. It was summer and I was 5 years old [so this would have been 1919]. Dad and I left in the early morning, headed there with a pair of work horses. There was a dirt road to town and you had to drive the horses to steer them around the rocks in the road. We had a lunch packed by Ma--lamb sandwiches.
There were soda crackers and cheese out at the supply store for the customers to eat and we helped ourselves. If you didn't have a lunch that would be your lunch. There was a loading dock all around the outside of the store. When we got there we gave our order to the clerk and he put our things in a certain spot. Our order included things for my grandfather's store [his grandfather's store was where his house now stands] like coffee, tea, lard, sugar, and things for the campers. There were only about a half-dozen campers then, nothing like there are now.
We left home at 5 in the morning, got to town at 9. On the way home the horses were slowly plogging along under the heavy load. There was a wood block about 10 inches long and 6 inches in diameter, with a hole in the middle. It was my job to put a stick in the hole and put the block behind the rear wheel when my Dad would holler "Whoa!" and the horses would stop to rest. This kept the wagon still. Going up the Black Brook hill took about an hour with a full load and the horses had to rest every hundred feet or so.
When we got home it was 8 or 9 at night and the sun was just going down. You were living on top of the world when you went to the Forks."
that's a great story. thanks.
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