A letter for the 50th Highlandlake Reunion in June of 1971
Myra Imogene Mead Cope
Myra Imogene Mead Cope was born and raised in Highlandlake, Weld County, CO. She was the daughter of Paul Martin Mead (whom the town of Mead was named after) and Ariet Palmer Mead. Paul Mead was the nephew of Lorin C. and Elizabeth Mead, (the founders of Highlandlake), and it was on Paul's farm that the town of Mead was formed in about 1906. As a child, Myra attended the Highlandlake school, and later became a pediatrician practicing medicene in Michigan. She wrote the following letter at the request of the Highlandlake Reunion Committee in 1971 to celebrate the 50th Highlandlake Reunion. Myra was born on 13 May 1895 and died 13 Jan 1983 at the age of 87 years. My notes are in red. |
"I remember well the Highlandlake of my childhood, around the turn of the century. The church where Mrs. (Melissa) Waite, the perennial primary teacher in the Sunday School, and a loyal member of the W.C.T.U. taught us all the evils of alcoholism: where on Christmas Eve the whole family piled into the surrey and drove to speak our pieces and receive a red mesh bag of candy from a glorious tree hung with festoon of popcorn and cranberries and lighted with real candles. Where (Rev.) Mr. Strong sometimes preached special "Children's Sermons", and where Ralph Holmes and I were once publicly reprimanded for "playing" during a sermon. We weren't playing, we were just amusing ourselves by putting our fingers into the perforation in the seat of an empty chair between us. Remember those chairs? I remember my "Papa Paul" opening the Sunday morning services by playing the Doxology on the organ, the signal for everyone to find a seat and then stand to sing it.
I remember the children with whom I went to school, and the teachers, Mr. & Mrs. Lerch, Miss Strawbridge and Miss Clark, Miss Tilyou, Mr. Temple and Mr. Reid. My playmates were Blossom and Fern Entwistle, Vera Woodley, Hazel Brown, Marion Holmes, Pearl Cleveland, Flora Gateley, Clara Munson, Alta Coon, Vernon Patterson, the Ballinger boys, Ralph and John Holmes, to mention a few.
I remember the young couples who were "going together" before they got married. There were Cora and Ewing, Pearl and Will, Carl and Stella, Forbes and Grace, Mac and Florence, Rufus and Elsa, who's names were always linked together, as were their later lives.
I remember racing home from school in an effort to call my friends on the new telephone, before they could call me. I heard a phonograph for the first time one evening at Cora's and Ewing's. I had my first automobile ride in Dr. Dillingham's Maxwell.
I remember our rough and tumble games on the school playground. One day Mona Quaile and I collided and my nose was broken. In the winter, at recess time, we'd rush with our skates across the road to skate on the lake, as soon as Uncle Lorin (L.C. Mead), the Deacon, would declare the ice safe.
I remember Mr. Richie's (Richey's) store where we always got a pound of candy free, after the crops were sold and the summer's bill was paid.
There were lots of nice things about being a child at Highlandlake, and it's fun sometimes to remember them and write down a few. My greetings to any who may remember me.
Myra Imogene Mead Cope
This page was updated on October 17, 2009