Anna with her siblings in 1964. From left to right they are: Elna, Anna, Florence, Arthur, Delvina, Odelle, Lester, Adrian, Leo, Gary, Clarance and Willie.
Anna’s siblings Robert, Keneth, Richard and Joyce were not in this picture. Both Kenneth and Joyce died at birth. Richard had also died as an adult before this photo was taken. Robert was still alive but was not in the photo.
Joe and Stella Barnier, the parents of Anna DeMars, who turned 100 today on Jan. 7,2023.
Anna with her siblings in 1964. From left to right they are: Elna, Anna, Florence, Arthur, Delvina, Odelle, Lester, Adrian, Leo, Gary, Clarance and Willie.
Anna’s siblings Robert, Keneth, Richard and Joyce were not in this picture. Both Kenneth and Joyce died at birth. Richard had also died as an adult before this photo was taken. Robert was still alive but was not in the photo.
The house that Anna Barnier grew up in is shown above. The house still stands on what was the family’s homestead in Otsego.
(Editor’s note: The following are memories of Anna DeMars, who turns 100 today, and her sister Florence Peterson of their time growing up while being raised by Joe and Stella Barnier. They were put down on paper years ago.)
Stella and Joe had nice horses. Stella loved especially one called “Jenny” was her favorite. She loved to brush them and when Pa came in from the field, she would go out to take care of them. Pa liked to cook, so he would go in the house and finish dinner, so when we came home for lunch at noon from school (which was just across the road), we’d hurry and eat and go back to school. Pa liked to put onions in everything, even the mashed potatoes and they were good! He like them browned real good and sometimes almost black.
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They raised a big garden. Lots of potatoes and corn and vegetables of all kinds. And they had a lot of berries-she canned hundreds of quarts and 2 quart jars of fruit and vegetables and pickles. They canned meat and chicken too. She made lots of sauce and jam and jelly even out of gooseberries and chokecherries.
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Christmas was fun. No gifts- a skimpy tree but a lot of love and fun and we would all sing around it. Ma loved to play the mouth organ and Pa had a violin which he played good. Ma carried her mouth organ in her apron pocket all the time - Odelle was the leader.
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Ma made a lot of meat pies (tourtiere) at Christmastime - like sixteen at a time! They were our special treat - and lots of donuts which she froze along with the pies in a little red tank outside. That was her freezer. Lester would sneak the frozen donuts and he had a belly ache from it. She made big, I mean big, molasses cookies and sugar cookies, they were so good. Pa liked baked beans so every Saturday she made sweet buns and baked beans. Bob Peterson would come every Saturday night to bring Florence home and he had to have beans and buns. Gerry Bryan liked her whipped cream cakes. They were so good. She sneaked the cream off the milk while Pa was milking and boy was it good - the test would be down though so then he knew she did that, but he liked it too.
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We always had company on the weekend. One week the Bourgeouis and the next the Barniers. She made coleslaw in a dishpan and lots of fried potatoes. We could always have our friends and cousins over and the neighbor kids. She loved them all. We would go sliding on the hill at night after chores and skating on Eddie Bander’s pond. The kids would come over after and have popcorn and cocoa. Ma would wait up for us and Pa would go to bed. Another thing we did after Pa went to bed was sit in the kitchen around the cook stove (our house was cold) and Odelle and Leo would tell stories and they would mock our mailman, Charlie Reed. He was so homely but fun. We laughed so hard and Pa would chase us upstairs to bed. Ma would just laugh.
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Pa would knead the big pan of bread for Ma in the morning. She used to have headaches (is it any wonder?).
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Lester had polio when he was thirteen years old and lost his right arm, but it didn’t slow him down. He was our leader for everything. He had a Model A Ford when he was in high school. He gave every body a ride and in the winter, he’d ram it into a snow bank and would shovel it out and go again.
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Gary had polio also when he was young, but he came out of it OK, thank God. Pa and Ma prayed a lot believe me. Every Sunday we had to put our penny in the collection at church. We would get one penny for church and one penny for candy at Hutch La Point’s store after church, we would always stop at aunt Mary Plude’s after church and at uncle Remie Barrier’s hoping she had treats for us and she always did. It was our second home. Aunt Francis was our baby sitter when Ma had all her babies. We slept on her feather beds.
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Pa and Richard went into “bootlegging” in the 1930s. Was all secret so we thought, someone squealed on them. Then one night the Feds came and raided the place. Ma had a pint of whiskey in her bra - thank God it was a big one (the bra that is). They didn’t find it, but they found the still under the chicken house. Pa had to pay a fine and went to jail overnight. Richard and Victor Carron were on the road with the truck load of mash, when they got word that the Feds were there. What a night! We all cried because Pa went to jail. But it was our bread and butter. We were poor, but we always had vegetables and bread and meat.
Somehow we all grew up and here we are except for the deceased: Richard, Art, Lester, Leo, Clarence, Gary, and Delvina. May they rest in peace.
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Ma and Pa loved us all. Ma would give her little boys a bath and wash their hair; they had curls. Clarence, Robert, and Peto. She set them on the table and curled their hair, then she hugged them and would say, “I love you so much, if I had two, I would eat one.” Thank God she never had twins.
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