Written by Dede -During the summers, many a carefree Sunday afternoon was spent by a lot of us at “Turner’s Farm”. The actual name of the place was Turnwald. Turnwald was owned by the East Erie Turners, 9th and Parade Streets.
As you made the right turn on to the property, there was a dual stand of pine trees on the left that curved towards the entrance. On holidays, they had either a wagon or an old firetruck (? Not clear on this) that would take kids for rides thru the trees. They always had a police man (state or
county??) checking membership cards at the entrance. It
was the same man for all the years I can remember going
there.
Another thing that they had on Holidays was the clown,
Rusty Rusterholtz and his calliope! My goodness….I can’t
remember how many cups of coffee I had this am, but I
remember that!!
Going to the Turners farm usually were, at best, semi-
planned. It was a good inexpensive way to pass a Sunday
afternoon. The grown ups would sometimes get a ¼ keg
of beer…..Anna ALWAYS brought Planters peanuts in
the shell that she bought at 10th and State. Julia’s specialty
was Potato Salad, my mom’s was baked beans. I can’t
remember what Lucille and Betty brought. Gosh…..all that
mayonnaise in the sun and we all lived thru it!
As people say now…’back in the day…’ All of us kids
could run all over and play and be adventurous. There was
the standard playground equipment and those wonderful
woods that you can run around and play in….I think we
were junior explorers before somebody decided you had to
be organized to be ‘allowed’ to do that.
They had a food stand that sold things if you did not bring
your own picnic equipment; and the also had a room full
of gas burners so you could warm up your baked beans!
Outside they had charcoal grills to do your hamburgers and
hot dogs.
Of the few buildings they had, to me the most fascinating
was the barn (aka the bar), where there was a GIGANTIC moose
head hanging from the wall!! You could buy your beverages
there if you had not arranged for a ‘keg’. They had a fair
amount of covered picnic areas, but in the event of rain,
you could also run to the barn for cover.
As kids, we didn't (at least I don’t think we did!) complain
of being bored. We were our own entertainment….I don’t
really ever remember any of us fighting….we just played.
So sad that as the years have gone by, Turnwald has long
been sold. And the East Erie Turners is now gone.
We were indeed the ‘fortunate generation’
...................... Blogged by Dede ...................
