The family of Harold and Amy Child moved to this forty-acre farm in Goshen, ID in April 1947. The family members were Harold, Amy, Elvin (almost 17-years old), Jeanice (15-years old), Shirley (11-years old), Bonnie (almost 10-years old), Connie (6 years-old), and Terry (about 8 months old).
Connie remembers, "We lived on our family's little 40-acre farm in rural Goshen, Idaho, for several years. Our small farm house had two bedrooms."
"My mother always planted a huge garden in the summer, but the summer I was eight, she decided to plant some watermelon seeds. This was her maiden voyage as far as I know at planting watermelon. With focused anticipation, we watched the garden grow throughout the summer and anticipated eating a homegrown watermelon right there in Goshen. We were all delighted to see the watermelon seeds sprout and plants begin to grow.
One lone watermelon formed within the plentiful watermelon vines and we watched it carefully. Being the only watermelon, it never lacked for company as we watered and tended it. Our mouths were watering as we imagined how sweet that well-developed, beautiful, healthy melon would taste. Finally one Sunday, our mother announced the time had come; we would eat the fruit of our labors. We carefully picked the melon and brought it in to cut. Much to our disappointment, one whack with the knife revealed the dark secret hidden within that beautiful skin. Our watermelon was a squash! Yes, they do cross-pollinate. What did it taste like? We'll never know since we threw the whole thing out."
~Connie-about 8-years old~
~Connie-about 8-years old~
~Bonnie, Shirley, and Connie~
Connie remembers, "While we lived on the farm, we kept our bottled fruit and produce in a cellar a pit dug into the ground with a sod roof, and steps down to a door, which kept it cool. When Terry was three-years old, he asked if could get the potatoes for the evening meal. Mama gave him the dishpan in which to carry the potatoes and sent him on his way. He was down there quite awhile and when he finally came back out, had had something quite fun and exciting in his dishpan, and it wasn't spuds. He had found a litter of newborn puppies. We'd taken in a stray dog a few weeks earlier and, somehow concealing her secret, she had given birth to her puppies in the cellar."
This is the farm in 2011. Connie lived here from 1947 until she got married on December 12, 1959.
The farmed was owned by her parents Harold Child (step-father) and Amy Madsen Child.
I remember visiting here as a little girl. The grass was green, there were beautiful trees, and many flowers. I specifically remember an old-fashioned metal pole with about six curved rods with a basket of flowers hanging off of each end.
