Debra Noye

Cherished Memories: Tales from Perry County Storytellers Debra Noye

Native Perry Countians are a proud bunch, who had the privilege of growing up in a peaceful rural county in central Pennsylvania. Today, we still strive to preserve our special way of life. Part of the preservation effort is to share our stories, and recollections with our grandchildren and others. Hence the birth of Cherished Memories, which takes the reader on a journey back to the 1930s and forward to the 1960s in Perry County, Pennsylvania.




Farming is, and always has been, the major industry in Perry County, and the tales of how Perry County farmers came into the modern age, have been handwritten for everyone to experience. The century farm takes us on a journey through the cow paths to throwing around hay bales.




Discover the old techniques for removing unwanted insects and weeds from the field crops. Many a corn crop fed the cattle and the farmer, as it was dried, ground into cornmeal, cooked and eaten with molasses. Rationing caused many sacrifices, so you cherished a new pair of shoes. One-room schools were miles away, and the trek to attend classes was a daily exercise, fueled with homemade apple butter sandwiches.




Times were tough, but families worked, played and prayed together! Summer meant gardening, and swimming in the river or the local creek. Winter brought out the sleds for slick rides, but few children had snowsuits or boots. There was lots of fun and laughter, with pranks at Halloween, caroling at Christmas time, and hand-churned ice cream for any occasion, as long as the ice man delivered ice.




Oh, you're wondering what happened to the outhouse, the icing on the cake, the buzzard on the shoulder, who built a cannon, who had their mouth washed out with Lava soap, whose milking stool ended up in a museum, and a special use for lipstick. It's all inside, as a Cherished Memory!