Chester Chatter: Rewarding friendship spans age

By Ruthie Douglas
©2021 Telegraph Publishing LLC

A house in our neighborhood in Springfield stood vacant for some time. Then one summer day, a moving truck backed up. We kids crept near behind some bushes to see: Would there be any kids to play with?

No, it turns out. Just two old people, Henry and Frances Douglass, who were cousins from Wisconsin who had inherited the home. A few days later, we ventured closer. We told them our names and from there on in it became a forever friendship.

Henry filled the chicken houses and he plowed up a lot of land for one big garden. He invited us kids to stop by when he got home from work at J&L. Soon I learned how to water and feed chickens. The garden was large but between Henry and the neighborhood kids there was not a weed to be found.

Frances had gotten a part-time job at the Springfield Library and brought home books to read to us. She made delicious cookies and always had Kool-Aid handy. How we kids loved to have her read to us.

It no longer mattered that the Douglasses did not have children for us to play with. The relationship that children and older people can have can be so rewarding.

Scene and heard

Marlene Ingalls has returned home after spending time with her daughter Carmen in Ohio.

Pat Hardy is home after spending several weeks with her son Bruce in Naples, Fla.

Earl Bonneau has died. He and his wife Edris were staying with her son Paul Gendron in Sarasota, Fla.

Maude Gabert has died. We are all thinking of her sons John and Joel. She was a wonderful part of our family for many years.

I got my first Covid-19 vaccine at Mt. Ascutney Hospital. The women working there was some nice, and I didn’t even feel the shot.