Liberty, Michigan 1989

One morning, my brother and I started talking to a man who had come to cut the grass in the small yard where we waited for the school bus. He cut it by hand with a scythe which was fascinating to us. We called him the Weed Cutter and spent a lot of time talking to him whenever he came by to cut the grass.

Eventually he told us about a Bible School at his church and asked if we wanted to go. It turned out he went to the Mennonite church in Liberty, just like Lynette our babysitter's family did.

The Bible School was the highlight of my summer. It was two weeks long, every July and I attended every year from second until tenth grade. It was almost like being in a pioneer story: children were given an extraordinary amount of freedom and responsibility. Older kids watched out for the younger ones as a matter of course.

We had recess at mid-morning which consisted of either a never-ending no-score-kept game of softball or a trip to the general store, a short walk down the road, up and over the hill. The general store stocked all sorts of candy and bubblegum for a penny, and didn't seem to mind the hoards of kids who ran in, coins in hand, excited to be making purchases all by themselves with no adults around.

Below is the general store in Liberty.