Message from Pete

people are still asking for the only webpage address that they will ever need, so help them out and send the homeless page url to everyone on your personal email list. also torola [at] sbcglobal [dot] net is the email addy to use when sending material for the page unless you go directly to "pie" theranch [at] wcta.net with your info.

back in the late 40's we had an 80 of land where ruonavaara's now live on m-26 east of laurium. we milked a few cows there in the summertime and made several acres of loose hay which we stored in a barn on the property. when thimbleberry season would roll around in late july i would hitch a ride with the folks to the farm and then walk to the calumet and hecla railroad grade where berries grew sometimes profusely. if not next to the grade they could be found in secret patches in the woods. at any rate i would pick a two quart coffee can with a thimbleberry leaf on the bottom of the can to soften the bottom somewhat (it never really helped but was soaked in juice when the pail was emptied). then i walked about 2 miles home to laurium along the railroad track and made my way to tebor's market on hecla st. he paid me one dollar and then called one of his customers that he now had berries for them. i never did find out how much he got for them but i was often amazed that "who would pay more than fifty cents a quart". this was one of my ways of earning spending money as a boy.