Wellsville Part 2

The little girl pictured is my cousin, Tara from the Swarthout side of the family and you can also see our Nana, Dad and Lewis pictured in the bottom right.

Wellsville was also home to our Nana Ruth (Hastings) Lefler for a few years. Actually, she lived in the hamlet of Stannards, which was about four miles from my Grandmother and Grandfather Swarthout's house. Nana had married Lewis Lefler after my Grandfather William J. Hastings died and she moved to Stannards to live with Lewis in his incredible home.

Lewis was a kind of artist/interior decorator/big game hunter (I kid you not!) and he had this massive room just dedicated to his hunting accomplishments. I believe they had a zebra skin cover for their couch, but I was young and might be mistaken. I do remember the sky with stars that I believe Lewis painted on the cathedral ceiling; an aligator or crocodile that stood on hind legs and held an ashtray; a couple of moose heads; several bear skin rugs (including a Grizzly Bear that according to Lewis chewed some poor guy's leg off); a bobcat; a mountain lion; a wildebeest; a mountain goat; two marlins (my little grandmother reeled in one of these); some sort of wild warthog thing: a few deer and a giant tiger (I am leaving out a whole lot here!). The tiger was a supposed man-eater that terrorized a whole village and my parents have a photo of Lewis and his buddy, Dr. Blaisdell leaning over the fallen big cat with a local tribesman standing over them. On one of their many trips, Dr. Blaisdell and Lewis survived a plane crash. Lewis like to show us his partially charred wallet that survived along with him.

We didn't visit here as often as our other grandparents, but Tammie and I really enjoyed ourselves when we would go. She especially loved seeing and hanging out with her cousins Nancy, Cathy and little Heather. Nancy and Tammie are essentially the same age (just a few months a part) and seemed to really enjoy each other. Unfortunately, part of their fun seemed to consist of tormenting the only boy cousin.

We reached the Lefler home via a dirt road and as I recall there was an open field across from it and woods right next to it. They also had a pond stocked with trout, a shuffleboard deck and these little cement pools that served as hatcheries and containers for future inhabitants of the pond. In addition, there were a couple of rowboats. One of the rowboats had a hole in it. My grandmother found this out one day when she was trying to snap a few pictures and then had to be rescued as it rapidly started to sink.

Frequently, Lewis would allow the kids to fill up a can with fish food and feed the trout. Sometimes, he would even put a dead mouse in the can and insist that the trout would eat it, too. This would cause some panic in me and I would run away from the can. He didn't have much patience with that and ultimately would throw the mouse in on his own. Sure enough, the trout would come out of the water and swallow the mouse whole.

One day, Tammie and Nancy decided to explore the woods and the surrounding fields. For some reason, I begged to go on this adventure and that was a tragically bad decision for me. We headed out to explore, but it was soon evident that I was too small and just not able to keep up. Did that keep those two from plowing ahead and leaving the little guy behind? Heck, no! Soon I was stuck all alone amongst the milkweed, cattail and other plants in this endless field. The more I walked the more thorny plants, and plants with burrs that I encountered. To make matters worse, I seemed to be allergic to most of these plants and several were taller than me.

Eventually, Nancy and Tammie returned to the house and my mom interrogated them as to my whereabouts. I am not completely sure, but I think my mom went out looking for me, found me crying and brought me back to safety. I was humiliated once again by my loving sister and cousin.

Another adventure that comes to mind is my Uncle Bob driving this insane jeep that had no doors. I sat in the passenger seat and was instructed to hold on to the bottom of the seat. We drove all along the dirt roads and some wood trails (I think that Lewis also took us on these trips). All the kids loved this and I seemed to recall that some of the Wegmans cousins joined us. Tammie and I would talk of that jeep on many occasions and the wild ride with Uncle Bob.

There were several other great moments of playing shuffleboard, rowing boats, and great fishing at Nana's home. I'll never forget the giant rainbow trout that Tam caught and the guy who fell in the pond trying to get it off the hook. Great times and great memories!

Nancy, Cathy, Tammie and Me

More photos of Lewis and Nana Ruth's home and a photo of our cousin, Heather.