Strawberry Fields on Cape Cod Massachusetts

This is a love story about my parents and how they met and fell in love. It was back in the early forties in a small town called Falmouth, in Cape Cod Massachusetts. Cape Cod is an island, joined to Massachusetts by bridges that cross the Cape Cod Canal. The Cape was scarcely populated in those days, and farming was one of the main occupations of the people living there. Houses were far and few in between, and the Cape was heavily wooded. I remember my mom telling us stories about snakes, deer, and other wild animals that lived in the woods. She told of tales of riding her horse to school, which was a one room school house for all the neighboring children. It was a simple life, one with wood burning stoves, and horse pulled plows, farm fresh eggs and vegetables. A time long ago, when the world was going to be at war, world war II.

My grandfather owned and operated a large farm. One of the main products he raised was strawberries. Cape Cod was known for it's strawberry patches, and my grandfather was one of the main producers. He raised other crops, but the main crop was the delicious strawberry. For acres of land you could see nothing other than the red strawberries growing on the dark green leaf. My grandmother preserved some of the strawberries in canning jars, mason jars they were called in those days, and the rest would be sold on the fruit stands, and to other cities and towns.

The Lewis family was a big family and mom had many siblings: Arthur, Johnny, Frank, Gilbert, Mary, Elsie, Olivia, and Francis. Because everyone in town farmed their own farms, farmhelp had to come from outside of Falmouth. The sons were off to war, and help was needed. About fifty miles from Falmouth was a prospering city called New Bedford. It was the "Whaling City," and was known for the whaling industry in it's earlier years. Herman Melville's great novel Moby Dick was based on New Bedford and his adventures on a whale ship.

New Bedford in the forties was a prospering city, and many factories were opening up there. Most were stitching factories, and New Bedford would become one of the leading manufacturing cities in New England. Many of the men were off to fight the war, and women were the prominent workers in those days.

Grandpa would drive his pickup truck each morning to find farm help. His travels to New Bedford would be the nearest city where he could find boys willing to work. My dad, and his brothers, still too young at the time to go to war would load up on the pickup, and go off to work. To work the strawberry fields.

This is how my mom met my dad. He was a worker on the farm. They met and fell in love. I heard it was love at first sight. Romance would be alive, and both were very happy. But the happiness would soon be dampened when my dad was of age now to go into the army. Dad enlisted, and was sent overseas to France, and then to Germany, where the fighting was intense. He became a medic in the army, and would be in great danger. My uncle Johnny was missing in action, and my aunts husband would be killed in combat. Mom was in fear and worry about my dad.

Mom moved to New Bedford, to live with dad's mom, and help her with the younger kids. She soon got a job in one of the war time factories, which produced supplies for the men overseas, and was able to save a little money. She would wait for dad to come home from war before they would marry. Time passed by and they were married on September 16, 1947. They remained in love and married until death. Mom died in 1988, and dad just three years later from a broken heart.

When I think of strawberries, I think of them! Of the love they shared, and the happiness we had together as a family.