All of a sudden I open my car door and my feet start to move; the next second I am standing at the front screen door to a very lovely log home. I notice that there is some movement inside and I feel like it is too late to back away now so I press the bell or yell "hello there" or something like that. Truthfully, I was nervous enough not to remember this part exactly. I believe I was picturing being sent away in shame or being told, something like, " Hey crazy lady, get out of here before I call the police" (well maybe not in such dramatic words but you get my point).
As my mind is playing tapes such as "foolish little girl, silly little girl", a woman appears on the other side of the screen and it is now the moment when some words of explanation have to come out of my mouth. I quickly blurt out my reason for being there, which honestly I am not exactly sure of myself. Why do I want to know about Golden, Lyle and Stanley Decker after all these decades? Why am I on some sort of quest anyway? Why is it important at all? I will reflect a little bit more on this later. But when I describe why I am standing in front of her door, I believe I tell her about being 16 years old, being on vacation at Scott’s Farmhouse on Lake Oquaga, meeting three Decker brothers, driving on the hood of their car in an attempt to obey the "letter of the law" ( I was brought up Catholic after all, where the letter of the law is paramount, but I don't mention that ). At this point, she opens her door and joins me outside on her front porch and invites me to sit down on a bench beside her. Eventually she tells me to invite Bob up from the car to join us, and I wave to him to come.
I continue to share some of the more interesting details of the Legend of the Hillbillies (forgive my use of this rather prejudiced terminology), but it was the title given to the three Decker boys by my family members and somehow it stuck.
Sitting on a front porch talking to a perfect stranger, I immediately feel a connection. I really like this lady, I think to myself.
I learn that she grew up in Deposit and attended Deposit High School. As soon as she reveals this bit of information, I excitedly blurt out in a sing-song voice a little ditty I heard in Deposit 57 years ago, " Come on Bull dog, come on Pup, come on Deposit eat 'em up". She looks at me with an amused expression on her face and I discover she has never heard this silly football cheer in her entire life. I must sound so foolish, I think to myself, and I wonder once again if she thinks I am a little nuts. And although some might think we come from two different worlds, we definitely seemed to have a lot of things in common. I discovered that her husband was a guy who originally lived on Long Island and she met him in a bar in Deposit. I am excited to share, "I married a guy I met in a bar also!"
Eventually, she shares some information about the Decker Family and the H.B. Decker Road and how it got it's name. She tells me there are tons of Deckers in the vicinity, and that they are in all levels of endeavors in the community- some prominent and some not so prominent. In fact, there is even a Decker Family Reunion in this area every year or so. Then she mentions that she happens to have a Decker Family Book - circa 1990 (with genealogy type information, listing the descendants of H. B. Decker, the guy for whom this road is named). She says, most generously, that she will dig through some stuff in her house to see if she can find her copy of the book if I feel like stopping by her house again tomorrow. Since this is the closest I have ever come to finding out some real facts about Golden, Lyle and Stanley Decker, how could I possibly say no. This photo below was taken in August 1961 on the dock in front of Scott's farmhouse. This is what Sharon, Dorothy and I did during on daytime hours while awaiting our exciting evenings with Golden, Lyle and Stanley Decker.
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