Learning to Read

In the early 70s my grandparents, Poliect and Epestimia Konev bought a house on Berry Lane, less than a mile from Whisky Hill Road. As a child, I loved spending the night at their house which was across the street from a large family of my first cousins who were older than me. In summers, we would beg our parents to stay over at my grandparents’ house, wake up early to pick berries and after dinner when the sun began to set, we would sneak away from our older cousins, push the yellow Beatle car out of the yard, down Berry lane so that our aunt, uncle, and grandparents would not hear us start the car. Once we were far enough away, we would start the Beatle and off we went to the Whisky Hill store!

We spent all our hard-earned money on ice cream, candy bards, Pepsi, and all delicious confectionary that made the hard work of picking berries all day worth it! It was not until we were older than our grandparents told us how they used to listen for our car to start, chuckle and again decide to say no when we asked them to take us to the store. They believed that when we sneaked away, our purchases were that much sweeter and we were willing to work that much harder the next day picking berries!

Those were my fondest memories of growing up. I am grateful that you are restoring Whisky Hill!

Submitted by Irene Konev