Personal history

It's not every day someone comes to your door and tells you that 64 years ago he lived there, but that's what happened to us Sunday.

John Wolfe, now 80, was 6 when his parents moved to the mansion, and 16 when the Darlingtons bought it. His parents managed the farm, milking the cows and tending the vegetable gardens. In the winter they lived in the mansion, and in the summer they moved to the summer kitchen. In 1942, electricity had just been installed, but they still used the privy. He and his brother cut the grass with a horse-drawn reel mower.

They kept food in the spring house, next to the summer kitchen. (Many people have asked what that building was for and I said it wasn't a spring house because there was no spring--apparently it had just been buried.) What we call the "stallion pen" used to be the "bull pen," but there were horse stalls around the driveway (which was then a quarter-mile horse track). And he did confirm that the house Dawn was born and raised in used to be the pig pen.

In 1942 there were no silos or a milk house, and the "white house" (now a rental unit) was just a place to store tools. There was a fence around the mansion and the rose walk (which Dawn remembered as a child) was there before her grandparents. It was probably the most fascinating two hours I've ever spent talking to someone.

Unfortunately it was two hours that I was supposed to be getting ready for an inspection by the local B&B association. When they arrived, I still had piles of laundry throughout the house, I hadn't wiped down the kitchen counter, and (worse) I had a strip of fly paper by the refrigerator with 38 of the little bastards that had moved in during the grand opening weekend. (If it's any consolation, it was a Victor fly trap, which is a company based in Lititz, so at least I was supporting the local economy.)

I think they were impressed, anyway, but now I have to go to one of their meetings and then get voted in September at the earliest. (They wouldn't even talk to us before we were open.) I understand that as a co-op you want to be sure members are committed, but I also think you'd want to make it easy for people to join. That said, I also heard they had one B&B that had kitty litter boxes in the kitchen, so maybe it's not such a bad idea that they are a little discriminating.

John Wolfe promised us a picture of him with a team of horses in front of the old barn. The only other photo I have is from this 1942 newspaper article.