By Barbara Emery Moseley

This is a continuation of Barbara’s first piece on Stonehurst during World War II.

Romey had a trained baritone voice, and I could play the piano. One of his favorite pieces was “Ol’ Man River,” from Porgy and Bess. I can still “hear” the words I followed so carefully: “He don’t plant taters, he don’t plant cotton, and them that plants ’em is soon forgotten, but Ol’ Man River just keeps rollin’ along.”

More than likely you have forgotten that in the beginning of this narrative it was noted that the big barn at Stonehurst was in such bad shape that it had to be taken down.

However, some of the horse sheds were converted into a garage for the guests. One bay was made into a pig pen. The pig would be fed the table scraps.

One afternoon, after lunch, many of the guests were relaxing on the porch, unaware that they were about to have unscheduled entertainment: the pig got out! I was able to grab it by its hind legs, like a wheelbarrow, and get it back into its pen. No one even clapped!

Elsie collected bells of all sizes and shapes. Most of them fit on the mantel, but one of them was a huge farm bell she bought in Westminster.

When she and Romey built a smaller house on land my mother sold them on Hickory Hollow Road, the bell came down the hill and is now mounted on my barn. Sometimes I ring it on the Fourth of July!