An Old Barn Saved Their Lives

Marlee and her friends were disappointed that Grandma Lu hadn't come to Marleewood to tell them a story. They were in the Community Room having cupcakes and some drinks when Grandma Lu walked in limping a little bit.  Grandma B jumped up and said, "Oh my goodness, what has happened to you? Were you in an accident?"  Grandma Lu kind of had her head down and didn't look her friend in the eye, but had a little smirk on her face. She said, "Well, "B", I had this great idea today. I told my husband that we were getting out of shape and that we should join the gym uptown. Apparently, I was right because after just a few minutes of walking on a machine called a treadmill I was a little shaky in these old legs. Well, I sat down and rested for awhile and walked around and looked at all of their big exercise machines. I tried one of those for only about two (2) minutes and here I am late to tell the children a story that I promised them. Besides that I hurt my back and have sore legs. My goodness, wintertime is a time when I sit and watch television and don't get any exercise. I need to be more active so that I can lose a little weight. With that she sat down in her easy chair. In one hand she had one of Marlee's yummy cupcakes and a cup of coffee in the other.  She had to laugh at herself. "I sure do love your cupcakes, that's for sure. I had better keep going to that gym, hadn't I?" She didn't wait for an answer, but got herself all comfy and had an old book in her hand that she had brought along. "Would you like to hear a winter time story that happened when I was a child?" This time the children were not tired from playing outside in the snow. They all said, "Yes, yes yes!"

100 year old photo book

"Well, when I was just a little girl probably about five (5) years old I lived in the country. Our house was a long long ways from the highway. In fact you couldn't see our house from the highway because it was down in what we used to call a holler. It was winter time. We were having a terrible terrible storm. It was way worse than the one when we got snowed in out at Mrs. Liz's house. Our house only had one stove in the dining room to heat the whole house. My mama had two (2) cook stoves in the kitchen, but that's all the heat we had.  The living room was shut in the winter so it didn't have to be heated.
We lived in Iowa which is a very very cold state in the winter.

Banister Barn
Rosie and Grandmother
Grandma Lu @
10 months

It was about seven (7) o'clock at night so it was really dark outside.  My mama and daddy and my little brother and sister and I were all sitting in the dining room by the stove. Well the wind was howling and the storm was just terrible when all of a sudden there was a banging on the door. My father jumped up to answer it. There was a man and his wife half froze to death on the porch. Of course, in those days there was nothing to it but to invite them in and to sit by the stove. My mother quickly got hot coffee made and something for them to eat.

My home

Those poor people were traveling a long long ways home when their car stalled right there on the highway. My great grandfather had built a huge barn when he farmed that land. Do you know what? Those people could see the outline of that barn and walked all that ways for shelter. As they followed the path down the hill they could just barely see the light on in our dining room. We only had one light bulb that hung down from the ceiling.
 Following the shape of that barn was how they kept from freezing. That great big old huge barn that was almost a hundred years old actually served as a guide to our house. I've got a picture of it here in my book I'll show you. Well anyway, these people had to stay at our house for several days until the roads got plowed out.
 You know now that I'm telling you this story, I just happened to think that the only place for them to sleep was upstairs. There was no heat upstairs, but my mama had lots of heavy quilts for them to keep warm.
 They traveled clear across the country for many many miles to get back home.
A few weeks later, my parents got a box in the mail. It had a gift for all of us in that box. They were such nice people and told us stories about where they lived.
As many years ago as that was I can remember my father's gift was a light blue dress shirt. He had never had a colored shirt before except his work shirts. He only wore white shirts to church. I can even remember my  mom and dad laughing about him wearing a blue shirt to church. Isn't that funny?
The children couldn't wait to look at the old pictures in Grandma Lu's photo book. They had a hard time believing that that little baby girl was really Grandma Lu.
Of course, while the children were looking at those old pictures she helped herself to another cupcake....