Summers At The Webb Farm on Grand Island

This is an excerpt from Pieces of a Life.  The source for this story is my father's autobiography, witten in 1974. Other parts of my book are built on my mother's diaries.  John Webb Kellogg, born in 1899, is writing about the first 12 years of the last century.

"Mother" is Esther Clara Webb Kellogg, young second wife of Charles Henry Kellogg.  Esther and many of her Webb relatives grew up in farming families on Grand Island. Esther's grandparents were Potato Famine Irish.  

"Usually Mother & I (also Dorothy after she arrived) spent a few weeks on Grand Island in the summer.  Dorothy was my sister, 4 years younger than I, who died of cancer in the early 1940's.  Grand Island was a typical farm area with a one-room school house teaching all grades through 8th. In Spring, school closed early as the children were needed to help get the crops planted.  In Fall, school opened after the harvest had been gathered.  Some chores I liked better than others."  

John then analyzed what he disliked about strawberry picking and current picking.  The chore he "did not mind" was waging war on the potato bugs. "Each week I would get a small stick and knock all visible bugs from the leaves into a small pan.  Then at the end a few drops of kerosene plus a match and that batch would never harm our potatoes.  Next week there was another batch.  How simple now with our sprays!"

Like most people, in 1974 John didn't understand the danger of DDT and other chemicals they were using on their plants.