Magoon Family Photo 1946 Front: David & Bernard Lavallee, Eleanor Magoon Lavallee; Lois, Janet and Gleyn Magoon. Standing: Roland & Claude, Rhada and Linda, Chauncey, Marjorie, Rita, Gail & Donald Magoon

On Nov 16, 1933 I was born on a farm in Ellenburg Center N. Y. My mother was Marjorie Angeline Peck Magoon and father was Chauncey Royal Magoon.  I had three brothers Claude, Donald and Gleyn and two sisters Eleanor Lavallee and Lois Johnson.

There was no kindergarten.  I went to school that had twelve grades in Ellenburg Corners.  My sister Eleanor was secretary.

My sister Lois was two years younger than I.  We played house - our homes at each end of the long porch.  We would pretend for hours playing with our dolls.  Washing heir clothes and taking walks.  We also played school and by the time Lois went to school she was pretty smart for a first grader.

We had a telephone - eight on the party line. You knew when all the neighbors were talking as everyone's phone rang in your house.

I remember the day Lois and I were baptized.  I was five years old.  We went to church every Sunday and Mrs. Coolidge was my Sunday School teacher and our class was in the last row of seats.  On my kitchen window sill is the plaque she gave me "Draw Nigh Unto God".  Went to youth fellowship Sunday night.  Attended a MYF (ed.  Methodist Youth Fellowship) Camp and don't remember where it was but remember sitting on a rock down by the water as each one had to find a place for quiet time and prayer.

My grandmother lived with us half the year and with Aunt Ruth in albany the other half. Lois and I went to Albany one summer for two weeks.  They took us to the Capitol and Wax Museum - what an experience!

All our water was carried in from the well house.  It all had to be heated on the wood stove.  Had a ringer washing machine. Year round all the clothes was hung out on the clothes line.  They would be so frozen and them had to be hung on wooden bars over the furnace to dry.  My how nice the house smelled.  With only a wood furnace it was so cold we would take wrapped up irons to bed with us at night.

We did not have a refrigerator. We had to keep our food down on the cellar floor where it was cooler.  We got milk from the barn each morning for our cereal.

There was no bathroom.  Outside john.  Burr.

I had to take the cows to pasture up a dirt road 3/4 of a mile. If it wasn't a good hay day would go farther on to a neighbors.  We would play a ball game called T I over around the well house.  When one caught the ball we would run around catch the others. Their children walked to our house to wait for the school bus and when cold they would wait in our kitchen.

I drove the horse to do the hay rakings.  Remember my grandmother laughing  she watched from the porch when the horse would want to go for the leaves on the bushes and I would get mad.

We had big gardens.  Mom Canned it all.  I was in a a4-H club and had a garden .  Went to many fairs judging vegetables. On occasion on Sunday we would go to my other grandmothers.  She would open two quart jars of canned chicken that she had canned for dinners.

We would all go strawberry picking. My grandmother would sit for hours hulling the berries our on the front porch.  My Dad would not have that many berries because he just picked leaves and all.  I remember we would pour his berries into another container and let the wind blow the leaves out. Mom would make two big shortcakes nd they would all be eaten. 

In the fall we all picked potatoes.  It was during World Series and my Dad would disappear. He would go to the house and listen to the game on the radio. After I had gone to Syracuse called my parents they had to get a television as Dad would enjoy the baseball games. They got their television in 1952/

We had pigs.  We would butcher then and cut them up on the kitchen table . Our neighbors were French and asked for the ingredients to make blood pudding.  Oooh.

Mom made all our clothes and mended our socks.  My how I remember my first coat (navy blue with blue trim) from Montgomery Ward catalogue. The nearest stores were 30 miles away. She made all our quilts. Our living and dining rooms were one large room so up would go the quilting frames.

At Christmas time we always had a fresh tree. Lois and I would sneak half way down the open stairway to see if Santa had been there.  We would each get one toy and a big box with socks, panties, slip etc. I got my first bicycle when I was twelve. When I was a junior and coming home on the bus they ere dragging out the trees. My grandmother had died. This really hit me for so long.

We had bad winters.  Snow up to the telephone wires. We would slide downhill from the barn to the road. Dad made something for us out of a barrel hoop a piece of wood and a board across the top for the seat to go down the snow bank.  Our roads had so much snow they had to use snow blowers. On those days the roads were plugged we would go by horse and sleigh to the center to catch the bus. 

Every room in our house and all the ceilings had wallpaper. Mom did it all.  Once a year she would paint the kitchen floor. An elevated plank would be put down to get to the kitchen stove until the paint dried. That was fun walking the plank.

 I was always very sickly with bronchitis due to allergies.   I would be out of school a week at a time and then the teacher would make me leave the room because of coughing. We had feather pillows, kapok on the sofa, plants, etc. Back in those days we didn't go to the doctor's very often  Mom would make poultices, heat them and put them on me front and back.   

I played clarinet. sang in the church choir and in sextet as an alto through high school.  Took piano lessons.  Walked a alf mile and the teacher did also to her Aunt's house. It was $.50 an hour for the lesson.

We hitched a young horse up to the hay wagon and he started kicking so hard.  Was I to drive that tea.  We gave up and trained him.

I was President of the Senior Class.  The boys all vote one way and the girls the opposite. What a class.  Graduated 1951, 21 graduates.

One day when I went to get the cows they were not up in the meadow so I crossed the river on stones, through the taghalters and when I got back in the pasture notice something.  Is that a bull?  Oh, if I go back without the cows will Dad be mad?  I went the 3/4 miles back home - it was a neighbor's bull in with our cows.

Mom made oatmeal with all bran cereal or bacon and eggs with fried potatoes Every morning,  Farmers eat a big breakfast. Mom baked bread twice a week and made a pie or caked every day. The flour was in  a big barrel under the kitchen cupboard.

It was five miles to Ellenburg Depot.  We would coax Mom and Dad to take us to the movies.  Our 1933 Ford had no heater, so we would wrap up in blankets.

Our bull got out one day. My three brothers and Dan trying to get the bull back in the barn was so frightening. My brother climbed right up the hay loader.  My grandmother and I stood watching from the front porch.

Two days after graduation in 1951 I left home to go to Syracuse to be near my sister Eleanor and to find work. Oh, how lonesome I was. My mother wrote  letter to me every week.  Worked at Carrier Corporation for six months as a mail carrier and then as a stenographer making $33 a week, taking home $27, paid $15 for room and board and saved money. Six years later I married a wonderful man from New York CIty and had four children.

Don was from Queens. We had a good marriage. On Saturday I would clean, give the kids each a job and Don would go grocery shopping. He was a great golfer. Went to Hawaii with a couple and the other man id not want to golf when he found out the price to pay.  I felt so bad for Don.  We played tennis instead.

We drove Ron to Angola, Indiana for college. When we left I looked back and there was Ron hiding behind a tree.  I cried for two hours. He had to be there a week early to get ready for soccer.

Don served in the army in Korea.  He never talked about being on the front line because "better if I did not" he said.

We bought a rug pad from a neighbor and in a short time was congested.  They said I was allergic to kapok in the rug. They thought I would have to have my lungs out.  The doctor said "tear that rug pad out".  In a few years back to sports.

Worked for the North Syracuse schools for 22 years driving school bus. Took a different route about every year. It was a challenge and could have written a book!  Two days after retiring threw the notes away.  Worked at K Mart.  I came home one night and Don not golfing. He said "We can't leave these kids alone"  I quit the next day.

Don died on August 18, 1983. He was 54 and I was 49.  We had taken a trip to boy scout camp to visit Kevin .  It was a long day and when we got home I wondered why he didn't bring in the suitcases. I called an ambulance and he was in the hospital four days  We all went to see him.  I would park the car several blocks away and walk up the hill to the hospital.  They sent him for rest. Days later we were playing Pitch with Doris and Joe Wool.  Elaine came by and wanted her father to go out and look at a car she was going to buy. As he walked out he fell to the ground. I rushed to the house to get his meds.  They did CPR.  Once again, I called an ambulance.  they got lost because Leroy Road does not come straight through. We just heard sirens. He did not make it to the hospital alive. 

Two weeks later Karen and Charlie got married. Ron and Kevin walked her down the aisle.  Elaine sang "The Rose".

After a few years I joined a Parents Without Partners. They were having a singles dance once a month but were giving it in Rochester. I said "Let me try to run the dances in North Syracuse as there are so many lonely people right here".  I ran the dances 10 years getting the DJ, snacks and workers at the door.  We had about 150 each dance.

Our church had a Senior Adult Luncheon on the third Friday each month.  I made out the menu, purchased the groceries and cooked for ten years. I had three friends who worked setting tables and cleaning up.

I was President of the Andrews Memorial Methodist women's group for 6 years.

I have seven grandchildren and a 85, a great grandchild.