In the 1930s, growing up with my parents and brother in Greenfield, I recall the activities my father, John, did in his spare time.
His regular job was working at the Greenfield Tap and Die plant on Meridian Street down the hill from where we lived.
Those were the Depression years and most everyone was poor.
His hobby, of which he was so proud, was making grape wine. He had rows of grapes growing in our backyard tied to posts and ropes.
He felt that, in order to have a better wine, he needed to find wild grapes. My father and brother-in-law, Glenn Hammond, would go searching the countryside to find some. They would bring some home to add to the regular grapes and all of them were put in a burlap bag to put into the wine press.
My father wasn’t happy with the wine press he had and decided to build a new one — handmade from beautiful hard maple. A cast iron wheel with many threads fastened to blocks of wood pressed the grapes that were in a wooden box.
Later in life, it took three men to lift this beautiful wine press that my brother now had and, at one time, it was on display at the former Yetter the Florist Gift Shop on Bernardston Road in Greenfield.
The wine that was made was stored in bottles and kegs.
Whenever there was a family gathering or during the holiday season, he made sure that everyone who wanted some of his wine would have some to take home or taste.
At Christmastime, he would help my mother make many loaves of bread for many of our relatives.
I recall that my father and mother also had a big garden and raised chickens and roosters for food to eat.
Robert Bitzer, of Erving, is a lifelong resident in his 90s of Franklin County, having been born in Greenfield. His columns are inspired by his own memories of the county.