52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - 2025; Week 17 "Favorite Place"

THE PORCH SWING:

My earliest memories of visiting my maternal grandparents include their porch swing.  Though I was born in St. Joseph, Michigan, where they lived, my parents and I moved to the Detroit suburbs when I was a toddler and only visited St. Joseph in the summer and on Easter week-end.  I was always excited to visit my grandparents because their home and the town were happy places to be.

My grandparents had a two-story home on Pleasant Street in St. Joseph.  Kitty corner from their home was the local Catholic church and school and directly across the street was the Catholic convent where the nuns lived.  The street wasn't very long, perhaps containing 10 homes at the most, between Court Street and Church Street.  Being in the downtown district everything of enjoyment was within walking distance. 

St. Joseph, Michigan downtown State Street: 

There were the stores to shop or browse in:

Murphy's Dime store with the wooden floors (which still exists today under another name) where my mother had worked right after high school.

Gillespie's Drug Store and Soda Fountain where we would get an ice cream sundae. 

St. Joseph Band Shell along the Bluff of Lake Michigan and the St. Joseph River where Sunday performances were held by the St. Joseph Municipal Band:

We could walk down a staircase from the bluff to the railroad tracks and a little further we would be on the sand by Lake Michigan.  

There was also Silver Beach with the famous Carousel (which has now been restored).  

Wilbur's Ice Cream on Broad Street which had the best assortment of flavors and where we would stop on our way home from the band concerts.

Wilson's Bakery where my grandmother would visit at 6 am on the mornings when we were visiting in order to purchase some tasty treats including the 7 sisters coffee cake that my mother loved.

Along Main Street, just steps from my grandparent's home was Bittner's Meat Market where my grandmother would buy fresh meat and poultry to make meals for us.  I always thought her roast chicken was the absolute best and now I wonder was it because (1) it was a fresh chicken or (2) was it because she used a gas oven.  In any case I have never been able to replicate her roast chicken.

But the thing that gave me the most pleasure was the porch swing that hung on my grandparent's front porch.  It provided a place to sit in peace and quiet, a place for reflection and calm.  It resembled this swing:

There were other chairs on the porch and my grandparents would graciously allow me to sit on the swing while they would take the chairs.  We would talk and they would always be interested in what was going on in my life.  After my grandfather passed away when I was 12, whenever we would visit, my grandmother and mother would sit on the porch with me and we would just relax and enjoy the flowers my grandmother had around the house.  I spent countless hours on the swing myself reading and relaxing.  

When I was around 16 I decided that I wanted to live in St. Joseph.  I dreamt about it constantly, made journal entries about it and even after I was in my 20's and my grandmother was also gone, I would take vacations to St. Joe and stay with relatives.  It was the place where I was the most at peace and the happiest.

The years went by and in 1997 I finally achieved my dream when my mother and I moved back to St. Joe after the death of my father.  My mother was able to enjoy 19 years back in her home town and it is now 28 years since I have been back here as well.

The house on Pleasant Street is gone. That side of the street was demolished and a banking complex was built in it's place. (The Catholic church, school and convent building still exist on the opposite side of the street.)  I have walked the street many times trying to picture just where the house was and have determined it had sat where the drive-up lane of Fifth Third Bank sits today:

But in my mind's eye I can still see the house as it was when I was growing up and I can picture the porch swing that I spent many hours relaxing on.  Unfortunately the porch swing is not shown in this portrait but I can see it in my memory:

Good memories of happy and peaceful times along with continuing feelings of contentment and joy living in my home town.

copyright 2025, Cheryl J. Schulte