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The Back of the Commercial House Hotel - Barn
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| In an email Franklin Kern reports:
Dave:
I Forget to mention that the
barn is where Grandpa Kern kept his horse and buggy. He would
get horses from a friend in Saginaw (Dudewicz) who had racing horses.
After they were done with racing, they would be sold, so grandpa had
one of the fastest horses in town.
If you notice at the
top of the barn were open holes for doves to come in and make nests in
a room at the top of the barn. I remember going up there with
grandpa to get the young squabs for dinner. Also during the
wartime, grandpa allowed the people collecting paper for the war
effort to store the newspaper etc. in the building during the
collection process. A friend of mine and myself would go there
to read all of the comic books that were given for the collection
effort. You also notice that the barn was set up higher, to
prevent the water from entering the first level during the annual
floods. Those floods would encircle the whole hotel. The
water would fill the whole basement up to one or two steps from the
first floor.
The garage you see held
the only car grandpa ever owned. He bought it and drove it
around, but never learned how to back it up, so after he had driven it
into the garage, he never used it. Don't know what
happened to it, or who drove it for him. Maybe your dad can fill
in the mystery.
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