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Full House Full Heart and Full of Fun: Sharing Memories with Viola Sears

photo provided Still on the ball and on the move, Viola Sears loves sharing memories of her most treasured things... family, fun and the farm.

photo provided Using a walker for balance, (she calls it her Cadillac) Viola gets around every day and is seen here with her sister Margorie before going for a walk in the Vermont summer sun!

Tuesday July 10, 2012

By Cookie Steponaitis

    For eighty-eight years Viola Sears has had a measuring stick for success. “When the house was full,” she shared, “and the chatter at the table was coupled with the patter of feet running in the halls, and there was a hot meal on the table, it was a wonderful day.” She chuckled and added on, “I guess you can say I raised not only my family, but a lot of other kids over the years, yup a lot indeed.”

    Born in West Addison, on a crisp October day in 1923, Viola (Mullis) Sears was the third of four children and absolutely loved life on the farm. “I grew up milking cows,” Viola reminisced. “Of course, we all did. Chores included shoveling manure, milking cows, cleaning out stables and whatever else was needed. Dad raised not only our own beef and pork, but vegetables as well. Every Saturday night was salt pork and beans for dinner.”  Slapping her knee and grinning she asked how many people had that on the menu nowadays.  Outside of her family, Viola does not remember socializing much as a young child. She would go to church and even Sunday school, which she willingly admits was not her favorite thing and the focus of life, even then was the family. “When I was forced to go to grade school, I hated it,” Viola stated  adamantly. “I would suddenly get sick, if you know what I mean and the teacher would send me home. After a couple of times of seeing me outside playing as soon as we got back to the farm, my mother and a switch from a lilac bush had a conversation with me about going to school and I can’t recall missing school for being sick again.”

    Viola went her first two years of high school in Moriah, New York because she could live with her sister and then spent two years boarding at the home of Mrs. Hannah in Vergennes so she could attend the high school.  “I didn’t date and to be honest had no real intention of it,” remarked Viola, “when one day the girls where I was boarding said ‘come for a ride with us.’ When I got outside there was this man in the back seat and I knew I had been fixed up for a date. His name was Leonard Arthur Sears but folks just plain called him Windy ‘cause he liked to talk a lot. That is how I met my future husband.” Now before the romantics get too excited, Viola went on to state, “that there is not much room in the rumble seat of a Model T,” and she was not really taken with, “ this man from the city and it took him quite a while and many dates to earn her support.”  On one date he showed up with a proposal and a diamond.   “You have to understand,” Viola paused and rephrased.  “I liked him a lot and here I was 18 years old and not married. That was really old in those days. So, we got hitched and I loved that man until he passed in 1977. There was never a dull moment and I would never change a thing.”

    Living at first in Springfield, Vermont when Windy served in the military during WWII, Viola had a club of women friends that got together every week to sing, and to this day the words to those songs come easily to her lips and heart. Celebrating family, country and faith, Viola sang a couple of songs out loud, never pausing and or searching for a word or phrase as if it was still 1943 and America was at war.

    The couple moved to Viola’s grandfather’s farm in Ferrisburgh and raised four children, Leonard, David, Helen and Nelson and raised vegetables as well as farm animals. “There was one particular Billy goat,” Viola paused to share, “who did not last long. Every day when I would go outside to wash and hang up clothes he would take aim at my butt and when I bent over, he would charge. The clothes, the water and I would go rolling across the lawn. After a couple of weeks of that I ended the conversation and he ended up in the freezer.”

    When Windy fell ill Viola went to work full time at the Weeks School and from the early 1950’s-1980’s served as a cottage mother for hundreds of students. Some came because they had no home; others came because they were in trouble with the law and still more came to learn a trade and get their high school diploma. Treating each of them like they were her own, Viola worked with them to adopt her motto of ‘forget the past and focus on all of the good things coming to you.’ “I still get cards even now from students,” Viola explained sharing a few. “They thank me for holding them accountable for getting out and living life and not letting them feel sorry for themselves or more importantly giving up.”

      When asked to remark about how life has changed the most for her, Viola was sad for the kids today and all the fun they are missing out on. “Vergennes used to have an ice-cream parlor, a bowling alley, a theater and places to meet and be together. Even more than that, we made our own fun. We had hot dog roasts and we pinched our pennies to buy hotdogs and marshmallows. My job was to pick out the best sticks and to get the fire just do. We would swim, play, eat and just enjoy being outdoors in Vermont.”

      An avid walker, Viola still likes to wear out the carpet in the residential care home she lives in. She goes outdoors at least twice a day every day and spends time in the sun and appreciates the beauty of her Vermont home. “I may not be as busy as I once was,” reflected Viola, “but I have already finished knitting and crocheting all my family Christmas presents. And that includes grandchildren and more.” About three weeks ago, a Sears’s family gathering was the highlight of Viola’s week and she shared with this reporter the food, people and discussion that went on. “We always loved to cook and to be together,” Viola remarked.  “Whether it was canning, sewing, making dandelion wine, pickles, or preserving things for the pantry, our home was always buzzing. I made all my kids clothes and taught all my kids to cook.”

     With stories of square dancing with husband Windy at Bulwagga Bay or in Bristol, a sharing her love of picking apples for first 10 cents an hour and then eventually making 25 cents an hour, or her prized buffalo head nickel collection, Viola lights up the most when talking about her family that now resides in both Idaho and Vermont. “I gave birth at home to my first three, my mother delivered them,” smiled Viola at the memory. “Now I have eight grandchildren, eight great-grandchildren and a parcel of great-great grandchildren. All of them are loved and special.”

     Pausing for a moment Viola grins and asks, “Got all that? Well, come back another time, ‘cause there is more to tell.” More indeed! As Viola concluded the interview and left to go on her afternoon walk outdoors, this reporter couldn’t help but fire off one last question. “Viola, do you have any advice for the people in Washington, D.C.?” Without missing a beat or slowing down, Viola fired back, “Sure, tell them to have a sleep over, skip some rope, and then talk out their problems. They would do better to function as family and friends than political enemies.”  There you go… advice from the generation that made America great and gave Vermont just another story of family, work and the power of positive thinking.

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