Memories of Grandpa’s Old Mission Farm: Hauling Cherries to Gleason & Co.

(Editor’s Note: Mel Winnie shares a story about working on his grandparents’ farm on the northeast corner of Center Road and Old Mission Road. Read more about their farm, gas station and family here. If you have an OMP story you’d like to share, send it to me, [email protected], with a photo or two. Some ideas: memories of growing up here or spending summers here, the story behind a photo from your photo album, why you moved here last week, why the OMP is special for you, or whatever else strikes your fancy. -jb)

I was about four or five and was living in Traverse City. My parents took me out to my grandparents’ farm for a week on the northeast corner of Old Mission Road and Center Road.

(Editor’s Note: Mel’s parents are Robert “Bob” Winnie and Ada Smith. Bob passed away in 2016. Mel’s grandparents/Bob’s parents are Robert Gordon Winnie [known as “Gordon”] and Opal Frances [Lardie] Winnie. Opal’s parents were Frances Roy Lardie [known as “Roy”] and Florence [Warren] Lardie. Read more here. Mel notes that Roy and Florence owned the farm there, while Gordon and Opal ran the gas station. Roy and Florence lived in the house next to the gas station. -jb)

The first day I got up and rode my bicycle around the farm all day. The second day when I got up to get my bicycle, it was locked up in the shed. I went to my grandma and asked for the keys to the shed, and she said I would have to go talk to grandpa, who was out in the orchard with the pickers, to get the key. So I did.

When I asked him for the key, he said, “We will get your bike out right after the work’s done. Now grab a lug and start filling it up.” I picked and picked and picked and picked some more and finally filled the lug. I didn’t like it at all. But it was lunch time, and that meant that I got to ride on the trailer down to Gleason’s to drop off the cherries and get lunch. That was cool.

Then it was back out in the orchard to pick some more cherries. Again, I picked and picked and picked and picked some more. It took what seemed like for——-ever to fill the lug. Finally, the trailer was full, which meant that it was time to ride on the trailer behind the tractor down to Gleason’s.

When we got back and had dinner, my grandpa unlocked the shed and got my bike out. I was too exhausted to ride it! The week went on doing the same routine day in and day out. Then I was playing on the tractor and moving levers and lowered the three point and somehow broke my leg in the process.

That was my first experience having to work! I wasn’t liking it at all. I wanted to be back in TC where I was free again. It did teach me that you must get the work done first before you play. I’m now almost 69 and remember it well.

I didn’t take up farming.

I don’t think I impressed my grandpa.

(Thanks for the great story, Mel! I have a feeling your grandpa was proud of you for getting the work done every day. Those lugs took forever to fill up! -jb)

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