"In all your ways acknowledge Him"

The year was 1949. It must have been a Sunday, that October 11, when Grandma and Grandpa said good-bye to their life in Cashmere.  My Vintage Jewel, a black Bible engraved and given to Mr. & Mrs. W.E. Gerry by their "Cashmere Baptist Church friends."  Proverbs 3:6 "In all your ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct thy paths."  Such a sweet word for my grandparents as they left the only place they'd known as a family and looked to the Lord to direct their "path."  I long to know all the details of their decision to leave Cashmere.  The orchard had burned , as I remember for the second time and their life at the orchard had ended.  The cycle of life in the orchard, the beautiful Apple Blossoms and the harvest of their labors were to be no more.  How they must have agonized at leaving with an unknown future ahead, the place of their roots together and the birthplace of their two sons. But God had a plan which included me in the life of my Grandma & Grandpa at my birth on Feb. 13, 1950. God, in His graciousness, prepared the way as our family moved to Poulsbo where Grandma & Grandpa now lived.  Their little cottage was pink, overlooking Liberty Bay.  Grandpa always had a big garden and there was a Weeping Willow in their front yard with swing and a handy. place for a switch if needed.  It was dreamy.  It was too wonderful.  God had indeed directed their path and the path of their son, my father.  The Willow tree is gone but the grape arbor that Grandpa planted is still there as well as the Butterfly Bush Grandma started from a cutting taken from a bush at Lake Retreat Bible Camp we went to in the summer.  He has directed our paths.   

Grandpa owned an apple orchard

Summer has passed and ah, the beautiful colors of fall have arrived in all their splendor. It seems that most days and all seasons, my heart reflects on another part of my family history, my Vintage Jewels. My thoughts travel to Cashmere and our fall trip to buy the most beautiful apples one could find anywhere in Washington State.  But the apples were only the symbol of the reason for our travel.

My father grew up on an apple orchard in Cashmere, Washington and it's only of late that I have begun to understand his need to reach back to his life in the apple orchard, a jewel in his life as a child.  Thus our trip to Cashmere.  We drove the splendor of Blewett Pass from our home in Poulsbo on the westside of the state to arrive at Tiny's Fruit Stand to pick our boxes of apples and have a picnic lunch.  It was always a beautiful, sunny day and the site of  the orchards was intoxicating as we drove across the river and through the countyside of the valley.  As the boxes of apples had been collected we could now begin our drive through what was then a sweet little eastern Washington town that hadn't changed much.  We would tour the Aplet and Cotlet Factory, did we remember that grandpa had once worked there?  And the soda fountain where my dad had also worked at one time.

And then the site of the Cashmere Baptist Church, the centerpiece of Cashmere. The church my dad grew up in.  The church where my Grandpa built all the little table and chairs for the Sunday school The church where grandma & grandpa and their two little boys grew in faith and friendship.  Cashmere, a Vintage Jewel, the home of my father and his family.