Rememberances

Ann Robson:

These memories are result of years of fun of exchanging e-mails of growing up that was our world in ‘30s and ‘40s. Our childhood years were defined by Great Depression and World War II. We hold memories to treasure as well as to measure against changes since that time.3 Ours was a world without most of amenities everyone now takes for granted. In those long ago times, a myriad of enrichments still belonged to future. Frozen foods, automatic washing machine and dryers, all plastic products, ballpoint pens, calculators, freeways, motels, airline travel – all but unknown until after war. Television, computers and cell phones were unimaginable, along with watches that needed no winding. All movies were in black and white. Most telephones were on party lines, thereby inevitably providing a sharing of personal information to a wider audience that one might wish. Resumes for job-seeking were unheard of. The rhyme to describe hard depression years was “use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without..” When contemplating disposal of anything, no matter how humble, rule of thumb was caution, “you never know when you might need it” which echoes in our ears yet today. Although it was our parents who bore heavy burdens of depression, times made even children aware of need for frugal preservation of possessions, what there was. The war brought rationing of meat, shoes, sugar, and gasoline. Other items like bananas and chocolate simply didn’t show up in stores often and were sold out quickly when they did. Land was donated for Victory Gardens through-out war years. Veteran’s Day was then Armistice Day. Nuns went about only in pairs. Nurses wore uniforms and caps in white. Doctors wore white jackets. Desks had a hole on top for ink wells. Cars had running boards, some coupes had rumble seats outside on back, and white-wall tires were highly desirable. Turn signals were done by driver’s hand. In 1934 a Chevrolet four-door sedan cost $435.

Skip Johnson:

The world was definitely different when we were growing up. I know we never had a garbage pickup on farm, as all table scraps were fed to dogs and cats, and things such as potato-peelings were given to chickens. News-papers were used for fire starters, and small amount of cans we had were hauled to a ditch. Most of our food was home canned in glass fruit jars, which of course were washed and kept for next years. Our eggs were traded for groceries and brought home in egg-crate. Plastic containers were unknown. Life was basically more simple. We didn’t have electricity until rural electrification project came through this area when I was 7 in 1937. Our farm house was wired for lights as it had a “Delco” battery electric plant but my parents couldn’t afford batteries that it required, so it never worked while we lived in house. When we did get electricity, they used light fixtures, etc. that were already in house. Now we had a radio and could listen to 'The Lone Ranger' and other programs. I remember listening to 'The War of Worlds'. I’m sure we heard disclaimer, but for some reason we thought it was true and were all terrified !! I think we were very lucky to be living on a farm. We had plenty of food to eat and wood to heat house with, although only kitchen, dining room and living room were heated. Pocket doors to parlor were always closed in winter, and upstairs where bed-rooms were, was also unheated except for heat that rose from down-stairs. I still like to sleep in a cold bedroom, but not as cold as we had then. Drying clothes in winter was a challenge. I remember bringing my dad’s overalls in frozen stiff, and we would stand them up just to be funny. We had some small lines behind cook-stove to dry things on, but couldn’t do many at a time. We also had wooden racks. We didn’t change clothes often then either. I think we took one bath a week in a round galvanized wash tub in front of open oven door of kitchen cook stove and prayed that no one came in while we were bathing. Not a private place! We didn’t have a school bus when I went to a one room country school. When weather was too cold or snowy, my dad took us on a bob-sled and we covered up with a horse hair blanket. They didn’t cancel school, as teacher would stay with elderly farm couple who lived across road from school. We survived fine though really didn’t think about it much, as cold and snow were expected in winter. We thought it was fun to be taken to school on a bob-sled. We enjoyed a lot of simple pleasures of life and didn’t miss modern conveniences, as we never had them. My mother made most of our clothes and we had one cotton dress for each day of week. Of course we wore long underwear in winter and couldn’t stop wearing them until temperature reached 70 degrees. I never had a doll or many other toys. I remember playing checkers with my dad, riding my stick horses outside until I was old enough to ride work horse, named Pet. We fished in creek in summer and skated on ice, wearing clamp on skates in winter. It was a fun time without spending much money. I always wanted a pony but my dad said we couldn’t have one as our landlady, Mrs. Clover, said we couldn’t as it would be eating half of her grain and pasture grass. Years later I found lease agreement, and nowhere in lease did it say that we could not have a pony.