THE SUMMER I STAYED WITH JESSE

THE SUMMER I STAYED WITH JESSE KERSEY The Kersey's and Berglund' have been acquainted for several decades. I think Dad and the senior Kersey were childhood friends. We would often visit them when they lived above Ola. One time we were sitting at the dinner table and Phillip was sitting next to Neal. Neal noticed that Phillip did not have anything on his plate, so he reached over the forked over a nice large pork chop. Marge was widowed early on, her husband was killed in a logging accident. Eventually she moved to Letha and married Fred Smith. She had at least one child by him, little boy named John Smith. John John didn't talk until well after age two. All he had to do was point and grunt and multiple siblings would fetch and carry for him. One summer, Jesse had rented a small house in Letha. I went to live with her for the summer. She had a small sewing machine, I purchased a pattern for a shirt with French cuffs. I sewed it and Mom did not scream and tear it apart. I wish I still had that shirt. I love French cuffs. Jesse and I picked fruit in a local orcharge, prunes probably. She hired a classmate of mine to babysit the kids. Her name was Marilyn and she lived next to Uncle Tom's Cabin. First day we came home Marilyn was exhausted. I do not think she had ever babysat a rowdy bunch of younsters. I became acqainted with Joe Dewey, a boy a year ahead of me in highschool. He is Mormon and assured me that the Book of Mormon had some good adventure stories in it. We bonded over sci-fi. He wrote it and I read it. Joe also was missing a forelimb. Nice young man. One day Jesse came home and told me that she had met a wonderful man and they were going to get married. She was a bit disappointed that I was not more excited for her. I was not very interested in men, romance etc. At any rate they married and lived happily until he died years later. Jesse had a step daughter named Connie. I see her on Facebook ever once in a while. That was a great summer, I enjoyed it very much.