Grandma's House

[CSMarine]

Boon, I don't concider myself as that old. (my grandkids do) but it wasn't that long ago that very few people had air condition. I'm only 60 years old. I watched TV the first time when I was 6 years old. Our entertainment was listening to the Lone Ranger and Grand Ole Opra on the radio. The house we lived in up until I was 7 years old only had fireplaces for heat. No screen on the windows, but we still slept with the windows open. We used an outhouse instead of a bath room. Our water came from an old hand pump on the back porch. We took a bath in an old number 2 washtub on the back porch. The same tub we washed clothes in on wash day after they had been boiled in a big black kettle in the back yard. The modern idea of a nice cultivated lawn was out of the question. The yard had to be bare dirt, to keep the snakes away. I'm sure not everyone in my generation lived that way, but many who were raised in rural Florida did.

[Dubble Trubble]

Oh yes, I can remember when the yards were swept, not mowed!

Dubble

[SS-342]

Aye, CSM, snakes and FIRE! Sometimes we'd have to hoe the yard but usually the yard chickens took care of the grass.

Most if not all of those old houses were made of good heart pine we called lighter'd. The'd go up like a torch if ever caught afire. No doubt cypress shingles as well on the roof. If you were like my family the house didn't have ceilings and you could watch the stars at night through holes and cracks in the shingles. Leak, yep but nothing much a bucket couldn't catch in real bad spots.
A good, strong, cold northwest wind would almost blow the covers off the bed.

Home Sweet Home!

[CSMarine]

You hit it on the nose. We were real well off, we had a tin roof. It was used. But no ceiling, so the catch buckets when it rained still had to be used. The walls were just an outside shell. No inside walls so the studs were exposed and no insulation. Didn't matter about the covers blowing off we sunk down so far in the feather beds you stayed fairly warm. Hated the job of first up in the morning to get the fire started on cold winter mornings. Chickens in the yard and chicken crap between barefoot toes...ahh the memory. Bet many out there think we're bending the truth some. First 22 cal. rifle at age 9. Being chased by wild hogs everytime you went in the woods to play, bb gun wars, swinging off grape vines, having to cut swamp cabbage as a chore, working in tobacco in the summer for extra money as a teenager.

[SS-342]

Yep....We've been there!

I didn't know but all the world was like mine until Uncle Sam's Navy got ahold of me.

Some folks don't know what they missed!

[CSMarine]

SS, where were you raised?

[SS-342]

Mostly in the country in Madison County. I lived in Madison until about nine years old. My daddy bought the farm and we moved out in the country. I got a taste of both worlds and stuck to the country. Other than time spent in the Navy and going to school, I've been here. Don't intend to leave any time soon and I'm 69 years old. When I do leave, I'll just swap Heavens!

I didn't see all the world in the Navy but enough to know....there ain't no place like HOME!

[DixieReb]

Thanks, Billy, that was a great read. Some of your memories remind me of a few of mine. Everybody's Grandma must be a lot like yours was, I have a lot of memories of mine doing a lot of the same things yours did. I hope you get it all published one day, it sure will be a good book.

[DixieReb]

Hey, CS, I was in Hamilton County today. Went to the Suwannee River Raid Re-enactment. Good Battle.