Times Gone By

Yesterday morning I wrote down some thoughts about old things. Later my friend and I discussed some things and experiences that were part of our childhood, but have to be explained to our grandchildren. That got my memory going and I want to share some of them with you. Raise your hand if you also remember any of these:

1. Our refrigerator had a tiny freezer compartment that held about two ice trays so if we needed more we went to the ice plant and bought it. We put a quarter into a machine and a huge block of ice came out. We later chipped that into smaller pieces with an ice pick.
2. My grandparents didn’t have indoor plumbing until I was about nine, so when we visited we used an outhouse that was out in the pasture. I hated walking out there because I was afraid of the cows!
3. For a year we lived in a house that didn’t have hot water. We heated water on the wood stove for washing and bathing. We heated water for laundry in an iron cauldron over an open fire and then put it into a wringer washer. We hung the clothes on a clothes line.
4. When I was a teenager I got pneumonia and the doctor came to our house to treat me.
5. I remember trying to make a phone call and having to wait until the others on our party line were finished talking. Mom always fussed at me for listening to their conversations a little too long. 
6.  When we visited the city we often rode in an elevator that had a kind gentleman who asked what floor you wanted to visit. Then he pushed the button for you!
7. My first camera had a flashbulb cube on top. (I had used Dad’s Brownie before that and remember looking down into the little viewer. And it had a handle to rewind the film.) 
8.  A young friend and neighbor of ours lived in an iron lung. I visited her often and was both fascinated and repulsed by it.
9. One of my favorite places to go was to the drive-in movie. We packed our dinner and took lots of pillows and blankets with us. Dad made sure we arrived early so we could play on the playground in front of the screen. Sometimes we had to change parking spaces three or four times before we found a speaker that actually worked when it was hooked onto the window. (Speakers were often vandalized.)  
10. We usually had chicken for Sunday dinner because my dad went out to the yard, picked one out, rung its neck, and brought it in to the kitchen for us to pluck. I have plucked chickens, ducks, geese, quails, and pheasants. Also helped clean and prepare squirrels, rabbits, and fish.

More memories, not enough time... You know that if you also remember these you are old. Lol

And if you remember this outhouse you are from Caddo!

Comments

[Megan]

I remember #9 and have cleaned fish and plucked chickens. You beat me (gratefully) on everything else. And I'm not what you'd call a spring chicken.

Odds are nobody says spring chicken these days.

[Marilyn Crabtree]

All of this sounds so familiar. Yes, I experienced so many of the same things. Fun times and no fear of playing outside until dark before going home.