Elden and Catherine Herron moved onto an 80-acre farm on M-65, one quarter mile south of Spratt Corners where the Werth road dead-ends at M-65. They purchased adjacent 160-acre farm in the mid-1950s. They had two children in the early 1950's - myself, born in 1950 and my sister Kathyrn born in 1951. When we were born the family lived in an old-style frame house without the current amenities of water and toilets. Loved those mid-winter mornings. I remember staying in bed until my folks had stoked up the wood cook stove in the kitchen because this house also lacked the least semblance of insulation and it got cold. There was a little oil space heater in the bedroom end of the house that kept things from freezing, but it was a lot more basic than what I'm used to these days - living in the ease of California. Of course going to the old country school that my grandfather had attended was a bit more bracing than what I would like to return to, also.

In 1960 Chris, the first of two younger sisters was born and a year later Angie was born. By the time they were getting big enough to talk to, I was a big-time high school student, and I was busy. So I never really spent much time with them as kids. It was only when they were in college at Michigan State University, and I had entered into yet another phase of graduate school at the same place, that I actually spent time with them. We got to know one another sort of well then. I could bum cigarettes from Chris and they both would introduce me to co-eds they knew. Oops, I'm married now.

By the time Chris and Angie arrived dad had built a modern house with indoor water and plumbing, insulation, and central heat. To top it off they closed the old one-room schools. This pair just doesn't know what it was like in the old days. You know we walked five miles to school and six to get back, and it was uphill and against the wind in both directions. Then we had to do the farm work after school.

In the current generation of the family, I married Deirdre O'Leary from Cork, Ireland in 1989 - yes over ten miserable years ago. And poor Paul Sachs married my sister Chris even longer ago. Betwixt us we have four girls: Chris and Paul's kids are Amber (1991) and Camille (1993) and our two are Catherine (Katie-O, 1992) and Jessica (1994). The Sachs' live in Steamboat Springs, CO, but they are now going their separate ways. They seem to like that snowy place. Our youngest sister Angie and her husband Tom Irvine also live in Steamboat. Deirdre and I and the kids currently live in Richmond, CA (the Bay area). Kathy and her husband Roger Sheren live just outside Philadelphia, PA where they remodeled a 200-year-old farmhouse. Actually, they now live in Gross Pointe Park where they have just about finished rebuilding a distinctly newer 1930's era huse.