?Dog-trot? offers cool place to rest

I came from, what most people would say today, a very large family. My mother and father had eight children. Mother?s parents had ten children and my father?s parents had eight children. One of the things I remember most about growing up in an environment is the family get-togethers. Man, we have had some big ones.

There?s one thing that has really stuck in my mind, and that is when we all would go over to Grandpa Golden?s on a special occasion such as Christmas or Grandpa?s birthday. When I say the Golden family liked togetherness that is putting it on the mild side. One day I got to thinking about my aunts and uncles in reference to where my grandpa lived. And I thought it was strangely interesting seven of the ten lived within five miles of the home place. Six of these lived less than three miles from where they were raised in the Wayside Community of Warren County.

As for the other three of my grandpa?s children; one raised her family on the Warren-Cannon County line in the Pleasant View Community. Another one of my aunts raised her family on the Warren-Dekalb County line. She moved to grandpa?s home place after the death of grandpa.

And lastly one uncle worked for the railroad and lived in Elora in Lincoln County. After his retirement he moved to Warren County. I recall when I was growing up we had a number of get-togethers at grandpa?s place. The occasion for these get-togethers was Christmas and grandpa?s birthday. One thing I remember most about going to these get-togethers was when you went into the house, the smell of coffee brewing going through the whole house. Probably there were other pleasing aromas from that kitchen, but the aroma of coffee seemed to take preeminence.

I never knew my Grandma Golden or Grandpa Cook because both died before I came into the world. But I have heard stories about them. I have pleasant memories of Grandpa Golden and Grandma Cook. Grandpa Golden made his living farming and running a steam engine. I think he ran a saw mill with the steam engine. I thought I had never seen Grandpa?s steam engine until recently when one of my cousins jarred my memory a bit. He reminded me that Grandpa?s steam engine set for a long time on a curve of the road between Grandpa?s house and his oldest sons. The road is now known as Golden Lane. I thought, oh yeah, now I remember. Can you imagine raising ten children farming? Grandpa did it, but of course, he didn?t have anything to give his approximately 44 grandchildren but maybe a cluster of grapes from his vines at the end of the ?dog-trot.?

Did someone ask, ?What is a dog-trot?? A dog-trot is a porch that runs through the house. . . like an outside hallway with rooms on either side. A cool breeze usually flowed through it. It was a very enjoyable place to be before the age of the air conditioner. As I understand it, the reason for its name, is dogs seem to have a passion for trotting through those types of structures. I?ve only been to two houses that had ?dog-trots,? Grandpa?s and his brother Frank?s.

Grandpa?s house had a great fascination for me, the ?dog-trot? and the smell of coffee brewing during those special occasions. What great memories!