Delhi News Bureau

HALCOTTSVILLE — Reading through the pages of Beatrice Clark Bussy's newly published book is like stepping through a door to the beginning of the 20th century in Roxbury.

Bussy, who will be 95 on Dec. 23, has just published her first book, "Life on Sunnyside Farm."

At 11 a.m. Saturday, Bussy will read from her book at Quarltere's Garden & Market Place on Route 30 between Halcottsville and Roxbury.

Bussy said seeing her memories in print was like having a dream come true.

"Holding the book in my hands felt unbelievable," she said. "It was wonderful. I am still on cloud nine."

Diane Galusha of Margaretville edited the 52-page recollection of growing up with 10 siblings. Bussy was the fourth of 11 children of LaVern and Carrie Emily Dutcher Clark.

"In this safe and loving home filled with children, hired hands and neighbors, Beatrice and her siblings learned early the lessons of farm life: work comes before play, many hands lighten the load and simple, home-grown pleasures are the sweetest," Galusha said.

"Bea's stories are evocative of a simpler time. I think a lot of people are yearning for a little piece of that," she added.

Bussy said she has always loved to write and was exposed to various types of writing at an early age when her father read aloud to the family.

"My father subscribed to a newspaper," Bussy said. "We would pick it up on the way home from school and he read the entire paper aloud every night while my mother worked in the kitchen."

She also remembers receiving a copy of "Peter Rabbit" as a Christmas gift from an uncle when she was 3.

"I remember sitting at my father's knee. He told me a lady from England had written the book," Bussy said.

Bussy began writing her memoirs in 1997 and was soon doing public readings, which garnered her an enthusiastic audience.

Galusha said a lot of people worked with Bussy to make the book a reality. Bussy originally began working with members of Writers in the Mountains — and particularly Jody Primoff — to get the words down on paper. Michele Scharff polished the rough drafts and Sharon Suess designed the book.

"Bea is a good writer," Galusha said. "She makes you see, hear and smell everything she describes, from the smell of strawberries in June to the bubbling of the brook that runs under the covered bridge."

The book begins with a detailed description of the house at Sunnyside Farm, which was located at the top of what is now known as Carroll Hinkley Road.

She tells why the kitchen was the most important room in the house, recounting tales of everything from making bread to watching her mother cut out patterns to sew the children's clothing on the treadle sewing machine. She has also sprinkled the book with some of her mother's recipes.

One chapter is devoted to the animals that lived on the farm and another to attending Cold Spring School, Roxbury District No. 12. She describes holidays, washday and bringing in the hay with equal fervor.

Bussy now lives in the house that originally belonged to her paternal grandmother and grandfather, John and Julia Roberts Clark. She still runs a bed and breakfast, loves to cook for company and often sits in the parlor with her guests.

The book was published with a grant from the New York State Council on the Arts Decentralization Program. A portion of the proceeds from the sale of the book will go to the Halcottsville Fire Department.

"Life on Sunnyside Farm" can be purchased for $10 at House of Chaos on Main Street in Margaretville and at Quarltere's Garden & Market Place.

If you have some good news you'd like to share, please call Managing Editor Cary Brunswick at 432-1000 or (800) 721-1000; e-mail him at cary@thedailystar.com; fax him at 432-5707; or write to him at P.O. Box 250, Oneonta, NY 13820.