DINOSAURS
This one is for the old folks. You know who you are. If you?re younger than 50 hit the ?back button? and read something else. You won?t understand this one and that will make you either unhappy or mad. Don?t want that.
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DINOSAURS
This one is for the old folks. You know who you are. If you?re younger than 50 hit the ?back button? and read something else. You won?t understand this one and that will make you either unhappy or mad. Don?t want that.
BRAVO! I'm a dinosaur and proud of it. Although a fictitious family, I'm of the school of thought that the Waltons had it figured out. :)
Well said Dee
But hold on, this up and coming generation is going to need us! Hey we still remember how to do things without a computer or calculator. As for reading newspapers I also write for them. Anyway I foresee an implosion of all this technology and what happens then? I know people think I'm a flake but they though I was a flake back in 1981 when Canadain mortgage rates were 20% plus and I told them they would see rates under 10%. In 1982 I told people of the economic crash we just went through and are still experiencing. Yup foundational skill are eroding at an alarming rate and when the foundation is gone what happens to the house? I know the brainchildren in charge will tell you it can't happen, like they said man will not fly, the world is, flat, and nobody would dare attack the USA. Do some homework, ask a cashier to count out change? Mark my words it's coming and somebody will need to teach the masses how to cook, boil water, and count change. Hey did anybody in your family ever drive a Bennett Buggy? Think about it?
the new outhouse and it's a dandy :D
http://lh3.ggpht.com/_yOQ3Iih4_AU/SL...ious%20062.jpg
Dee
Thanks for depressing me this morning. LOL. I haven't been called a dinosaur yet but I have a friend whorefers to me as an old fossil.
Dave
Deanna,
I'm 43. My FATHER was born in 1923 and grew up during the Depression. He fought in WW2. My grandparents were those people you described and I remember virtually all of those things you listed in your article. When I called home using a Sprint FON card on the then-new global fiber optic network during Desert Storm, my dad got choked up and almost cried. When he explained what was going on he said, "Son, it sounds like you're next door. When I left for Europe I said good-bye to my folks and we all figured it was for good. And I never spoke to them again until I got off the train at the depot in Jeff City after the war. You see, there were a few telephones at the post office and that was about it. And you had to just about yell into the phone to be heard when you called to the next town. So it just hit me how much things have changed...how much I have seen in my lifetime...what I have been a part of...and it overwhelmed me for a minute."
My father was on the first wave of infantry landing craft that hit the beach at Omaha Beach on D-Day. He was one of the very, very lucky few who came through that unscathed...physically. He also designed the world's largest COBOL database, the Houston Port Terminal Railroad Authority's surface freight tracking system. It is still tracking all of the surface freight in the northwestern hemisphere today...now THAT's a "dinosaur!"
He taught me to hunt rabbits with a single-shot .22 rifle when I was 12. He didn't even carry a gun. He taught me to fish when I was about 5, and he never picked up a fishing pole. When he was 9 years old, he and his father caught the world record blue catfish from the Missouri River on a jug line. They were fishing to survive after my grandfather got laid off from his job as a conductor on the railroad. He made his living fishing commercially and gambling.
While all of the homes I've lived in had indoor plumbing, our second homes did not. My grandfathers always had farms, river cabins, etc. I'm very familiar with outhouses, ice boxes, coal oil lanterns, and pumping drinking water by hand...or thinking nothing of sticking a tin cup into a cold spring and drinking from it.
I remember when the fax machine was invented. And I remember when the overhead projector was the "high-tech" audio-visual equipment in the classroom. And most of my classrooms didn't have air conditioning until I was in high school.
The point of all of this, though, is that I've only met one other contemporary about my age who has ever had a similar set of life experiences. I married her. And she is from Europe and spent a lot of time with her grandparents. I think I must be the world's next-to-youngest Baby Boomer. I have a brother 3 years younger than I am.
Deanna,
I wish to "thank you" for the walk down memory lane! I will be 62 in March and I can remember when "62" sounded very old!:) A lot of my fly fishing "buddies" call me an "old ****" and that is fine with me because of the way I was raised, I know I will and can make it when they will be totally lost as to how to survive when all the "buttons" they now push quit working and they will. Your article brought back many great memories and some that were not so great. For instance:
The first farm house I remember had an outhouse and no indoor plumbing except for a hand pump located in the middle of the kitchen floor right next to the milk separator that always reminded me of the "tin man" in the Wizard Of Oz! I know a lot of FAOL members do not know what a milk separator is, but, I do and I know my Mom spent many hours with it to be able to sell the butter and cream she produced using it. She also sold eggs to others from our chickens. I was raised mostly by my Mom because my Father spent many hours away from home driving his own truck hauling whatever people wanted hauled so that he could provide for us. I, thankfully, do not remember when, at the age of 4, my Mom said I came up missing. She always took me to the barn each morning when she would do the milking and other chores and when she finished one morning, I was no where to be found. She told me that she looked everywhere and even walked to the neighbors which the closest one at that time was 1 mile away and her and several of the neighbors searched the hills and woods looking for me. When they found me I was walking back through the woods to the barn following our tom cat. They figured I had traveled with the tom cat on his daily route for the entire day! I am thankful that I do not remember that because Mom said I got one swat with a switch with every step from the barn to the house!:)
Our second farm had indoor plumbing and a wall mounted telephone in the kitchen. Our phone number was 2 long rings and 1 short ring. If you needed to call someone, you gave the phone crank one long ring and Lena, the operator would pick up and ring the person you wanted to call. I still remember meeting Lena and watching her use the switchboard with all the holes and cords she used to connect and disconnect people. My Mom always painted the woodwork in the kitchen white every year and that walnut wall mounted telephone got a coat of white paint each year! When they retired and sold the farm I asked them for the phone and still have it today in its original working condition, plus all the layers of white paint, and keep telling myself that one day I will strip the paint off and restore the walnut finish which I have yet to do. We raised all our own food from the 3 gardens and raised our own beef. The only thing we purchased from the store would be flour, coffee and sugar. My Mom worked very hard to provide the food for us and she seemed to enjoy every minute of it. It was just the way things were for us even though some of my school friends were used to living from the grocery store and having things I never had. My Dad had his beliefs on how things should be and some I thought were wrong back then and was sure they would scar me for life, but, they ended up being good lessons on how to make it through life when things got bad. We never had a Christmas tree because Dad said it was a waste of electicity that we could not afford. He did not understand why people thought they needed to wait until Christmas to give someone something they needed. He said they should receive those "gifts" when they needed them and not have to wait. He always told me to never buy anything on credit and always pay with cash. If you needed something and did not have the cash to buy it, you waited until you had the cash. He never got over my wife and I buying on credit a refrigerator, washer and dryer after we got married! He also never allowed me to go "trick or treating" because he said it was unfair on the elderly on limited incomes to have to purchase candy to give to children who did not need it and now that "makes sense" to me although I did allow my son to go. Before school would start my parents would buy my "school" clothes. No, I did not get to pick what I wanted to wear or what the latest fade was, my parents would purchase 5 shirts, 5 pair of pants and new shoes and socks and that gave me a school "outfit" to wear each day of school. As soon as I got off the bus at the farm from school I had to take my "school" clothes off and put on my farm clothes which were last year's school clothes. We did have a TV, but, it was not allowed to be turned on until all school homework was done, all farm chores done and supper over and dishes washed and put away plus you never watched TV if it was still daylight outside. It was a black and white but we had one of those special plastic screens taped over the screen that has the blue strip at the top, red in the center and green at the bottom to give you the impression the picture was in color.:)
My Father was born in Winston County in Mississippi as southern baptist and my Mother was raised Greek Orthodox which made going to church on Sundays a very interesting experience! My Father left Mississippi when he graduated high school and moved to Ohio. He always told everyone he moved to Ohio for 2 things. One was to get a job and the other was to meet a girl he was not kin to.:) In Ohio is where he met my Mom and with her being raised Greek Orthodox, she definately was not kin to him!:) My Mom dragged me to every church of every denomination she could think of if she thought Dad would attend with us, but, that never happened. She was a strong christian women and her determination to get me to church every Sunday engraved in me that I needed to follow the straight and narrow path. I am proud to say that I am now a born again christian and know my creator even though I may not act it at times.
I could go on and on, but, I do not want to make this thread any longer than what it is. I thank my Mom and Dad for the way they raised me because I know I can make it when the bottom falls out and I can provide for my family. Being raised the way I was is why I like tying my own flies and making a lot of my own tools instead of buying them. Create your own and you learn to appreciate them more. I love being in the outdoors and hiking many miles when fly fishing because I was raised to appreciate the great outdoors and I want to continue exploring it since it keeps getting smaller and smaller with each new housing development created.
My Father passed away 5 years ago and since my Mom has never had a driver's lic., I take care of her wants and needs. She is 87 and still lives by herself and takes very good care of herself because she knows how to from the way she was raised. She is a little spoiled now and that is my fault but she deserves all of it for what she done for me.
Thanks, Deanna, for the great "ride" down memory lane....
I could have written parts of flyguy66 and Warren's response...closer to Warren's other than the Greek Orthodox Mother, and Warren, God bless you and her!
flyguy, if you mean Jeff. City, Missouri, (what other one might there be?), I know exactly whereof you speak. Goin' to "Jeff" was a big deal for us kids back in the 50's and 60's. A huge, metropolitan area to us kids from a town of less than 1000 and 60 miles away. I grew up in Owensville...if you remember where that is, and my wife grew up on a farm north of St. Martins. We lived outside Jeff. City the first 25 years of our marriage. First near Brazito then on our farm between Russellville and Centertown. Do those towns dust off a few memories?
A comment on the Depression. Back then, down here in the Missouri Ozarks we didn't know it was over until someone told us in 1968. It didn't make any difference and we weren't any different from over half the people in Gasconade County. 1968 was a banner year, the year my grandparents got electricity. They never did have running water in the house. Come to think of it we didn't have running water at our house until I was 8 or 9.
A wonderful piece of writing. I believe I'll be proud to be a dinosaur. As with the others, I know my wife and I can take care of ourselves just fine without all the electronics.
I have to offer this observance. We like to eat at Cracker Barrel resturants. I've often commented on how lots of folks think those things hanging on the wall are antiques.....well heck....we still use most of them!!!! And Warren...I darn well know what a cream seperator is....and a crosscut and buck saw!!
Vic...still in the Ozarks.
Just call me T-Rex. hehehehe
We had an outhouse when I was growing up on the farm. My dad even cut a moon into the door.
Mike :D
Vic,
My uncle lived in Owensville. My maternal grandpa was the fire chief in Jeff City for ever and a day, Donald Hunter. My grandma was the head nurse at the hospital. And they owned the rollerskating rink for awhile.
I was taught the Ozarks ethics of not missing when you shoot because you can't afford to waste ammo and that a coffee can is a durable goods purchase...the coffee that comes in it is incidental. While fishing, you scoured the banks for lost floats, hooks, lures, flies, and weights. A forgotten fishing rod or tackle box was like winning the lottery. And this stuff was serious business because the vast majority of the meat you ate you either caught, hunted, or raised yourself. And who wanted to go to all the trouble to raise stuff when hunting and fishing were so much more fun?
My dad's father, the railroad conductor turned commercial fisherman-gambler I mentioned earlier, won a percussion lock damascus steel wire barrel 12 ga side-by-side from a traveler on the train one night in a game of craps. It was made by the Royal Belgian Gun Works in 1863. Shoots paper black powder shells. I said "shoots" because I still have it.
AMEN! Remember when Republicans were moderate, CEO's worried about the best interests of their stockholders, doctors made house calls, and jobs were (more or less) secure?
Well, certainly stirred up some memories in this old dinosaur! In my growing up travels I've lived where were we had ice boxes that required 25 lb blocks of ice at least twice a week and the out house was the order of the day.
My very favorite person in this whole world was my Grandmother ~ (she passed in 1985 at age 101). On their "homestead" she cooked on a wood stove (some of the best cooking I've ever had came from that stove) and I remember dressing behind that wood stove on many a cold morning. On one of our reminiscent conversations I asked her what the greatest invention of her time was and she told me it was electricity, when the country got wired up and the oil lamps became decorative symbols; and indoor plumbing being a close second! I asked her what was the most memorable public event in her lifetime and she said it was when Lindbergh flew the Atlantic. The church she belonged to at the time, as did many churches in the country at the time, held an all day and night prayer vigil for him during his flight.
flyguy, I believe I remember when Don Hunter was chief but I'm not certain. I moved to Jeff. in '71, was he still there then? If not then I'm just remembering people talking about him. I was on the Police dept. there in the mid '70's. Lawrence Patton was chief.
All you guys are stirring up memories. The wood cook stove my grandmother cooked, their ice box, jw, the Repubs. are moderate now!!
Vic
Vic,
Since I was born in '66, yes that would have been when he was chief...cuz I used to get to sit in his car in the driveway and wear his hat. Every once in awhile...if I was good...he would even turn on the red light on top. :D
His son who lived in Owensville was a guard at the prison, uncle Eddie. And I had a great uncle, Virgil, who owned a donut shop attached to his house who made the most incredible donuts. And...ok, I'm just gonna say it...Central Dairy.
My paternal grandfather came to this country from Germany in 1870, when he was 20 years old. My grandmother's parents brought her to this country when she was six. Granddad settled in Stoutland, Mo, where he built his flour mill, and where he raised his family. His older brother, who had come over 2 years earlier, bought an existing mill on the banks of the Gasconade River near Crocker, Mo, where he raised his family, and where their house still stands today.
Mom was also born in Missouri, but they moved to Oklahoma in a covered wagon when she was 5. In 1905, when she was 9, her family pioneered into the panhandle of Oklahoma, again moving in a covered wagon, and lived in a sod house, complete with a dirt floor, for the first year they were there. They gathered "chips", sometimes know as meadow muffins, to burn for both heat and cooking.
My sister and I were both born at home, in Oklahoma, in a house that had "a little brown shack out back". We burned coal to heat the house, and Mom cooked on a kerosene stove. Dad put in a huge garden every spring, as did mom's younger brother and his wife, who lived about 5 miles from us and on a farm. Once things began to ripen in the gardens, every weekend was spent at one place or the other, and was devoted to harvesting and canning.
We had a wall crank phone, and were on a party line, like everyone else. The switchboard was in the living room of the lady who was the phone operator, and I can still see her taking rings and pulling and plugging in cords to make connections for the callers, while she chatted with the caller, and visited with friends.
When I was 5 years old, we moved to central Texas, where I was raised and educated; and where I learned to fish and hunt. After completing my graduate studies, my wife and I moved to the Houston area, where I have since lived, and where we raised our family. Unfortunately, the mother of my sons is no longer with me.
I will be attending my 55th high school class reunion in June.
Had a comment, But it slipped my mind,yeap,yeap,yeap;)
you know you're a dinosaur when all the checkout clerks ask if they've made your grocery bags too heavy and never ask if you need help out, just do it.
In one of my previous jobs, I was telling my senior IT guy about how I actually had an intern in the past that asked me if I knew that Paul McCartney was in a band before Wings.
After a few awkward seconds of that deer in headlights look, he finally asked, "Who is Paul McCartney". If he wasn't so talented with hardware, I'd have had to let him go for that. I did however move him to a different department for a while. After I left the company they put him in charge of IT. They are doomed. Some things in life require the temperament and experience that only time can provide.
Great article, Ladyfisher........I LOVE being a dinosaur...................ModocDan
Deanna,
Thanks for the walk, it was great fun. I'm a dinosaur and proud of it, now, if the fish would just recognize my great predator prowess and let me catch them...:lol:
Kelly.
As somebody once said, you really know your a dinosaur when young attractive women start to call you "sir".
At 51 years young my kids, nephews and niece have yet to call me a dinosaur, but they do tell me I am as old as dirt. :lol:
I remember my first phone number, JUNO38185.
I must be really old. I remember walking to the town well to get water. The pump (as in hand pump) was kept warm during the winter months. Everyone carried the household water in a wood bucket. That way it wouldn't freeze solid in the winter. It does get cold in North Dakota.
Everyone in town had an outhouse, no plumbing for anyone. Remember those North Dakota winters? Sometimes that trip to the outhouse was downright miserable. Thank goodness for Sears and Monkey Wards catalogues. Tipping over an outhouse was a favorite "trick" on Holloween.
We raised our own veggies and had a chicken yard, as did everyone else in town. Kids showed up in class with single shot .22 rifles and .410 shotguns as early as the first grade. Afterschool activities were hunting for the family table.
School attendance dropped during planting time, harvest time and during deer, duck and goose seasons.
TV had 3 channels and we got all of them sometimes. Folks who didn't have TV would visit the neighbors for the Ed Sullivan Show and Lawrence Welk. After TV there was usually coffee and some kind of food. During the TV programs, kids were sent off to play. The TV had a small round screen and huge cabinet. I had the measles and got to watch Eisenhower get elected. I remember Science Fiction Theater, The Shadow, Fibber McGee and Molly, and The Lone Ranger on radio.
Nobody locked their doors, every kid was watched over by every adult. There was no way we could get away with anything.
Kids clothes and shoes were bought with "growing room" in them. We didn't have our jeans with cuffs to be cool. When we grew into them we could roll down the cuff.
REE
In 9 days (February 9th), I will be observing my 61st Birthday (actually my 61st Anniversary of my Birth), and I will start living my 62nd year of existence on the Planet "Earth", located in the "Milky Way Galaxy"! In the whole scheme of things important, the events that happen on this small planet, seem so insignificant to the events of the Universe. The time and fortunes that are spent on war and hatred, could have been better spent for the advancement of humanity, and to better understand our place and purpose in life!
Where did the time go to, it just seems like yesterday I was a youngster, without a care in the world. Now here I am is my so-called "Golden Years", attempting to finding a way to fill my remaining days, with a purpose!
It is mind-boggling, times and events that I have live through, and some that I participated in....
I grew-up in a time when there was no electronic calculators, portable radios, internet, digital anything. I was just a child when my father fought in the "Korean War", after he was in"World War II' before I was born. I became aware of the fearing the unknown, living through the "Cold War", "McCarthyism" which destroyed many innocent citizens "Constitutional Right", "Cuba Missiles Crisis" trying to go to sleep not knowing if there would be a tomorrow. The Assassination of President Kennedy, Civil Rights Marches and the hatred of some against U.S. Citizens that were of a different color. The Assassination of Martin Luther King, the Assassination of Biddy Kennedy, President Nixon resigning from office over "Water Gate", Project Apollo and the 1st man on the Moon. The rescue of "Apollo 13. President Gerald Ford taking Office (never being elected, and his Attempted Assassination! The end of the "Cold War", and the beginning of "Terror Attacks", the Attemptd Assassination of President Regan! Desert Shield Storm, the attempted Assassination of President George H. W. Bush, September 11th, 2001, Iraqi Freedom, Afghanistan, Laban, Al Quida...the list is endless of the failures to better the future for those who will inherit what we leave them. Every generation, throughout time, believes the next generation is going to the Dogs!
Our planet is becoming more violent, radical groups are coming out of the wood work, to destroy everything that generations have fought and given their lives, to make this world better for humankind, so all can live in peace!
I just pray that humans will begin to start becoming humane toward each other, and begin the process of turn things around, learning from the mistakes of past generations. I hope that future generations do not suffer because of our generation's mistakes, and only be left with "Inheriting the Wind"! ~Parnelli
Al Campbell also felt that things had changed, when he wrote the article Changing Times in June of 2002. Al Campbell was 5-years my junior in age, but I always felt he was my Senior!
KB,
Not that we were wealthy. Far from it. We lived in a converted chicken coop. My Dad thought the TV was something that would help with knowing something of the world besides a very small town in North Dakota. Ours, humble as it was, was the place folks gathered to watch Ed and Lawrence.
REE
I don't mean to play one-upmanship here but I remember the telephone in my grandmother's house. It was a large wooden box that hung on the wall. The receiver was trumpet shaped and attached to cord that was not coiled. The mouthpiece was attached to the wooden box and could be tilted up or down for tall or short people. On the right side of the wooden box was a crank handle. You would put the receiver to your ear and crank the handle a time or two to get the operator's attention. When she answered (the operator was always a she) you would speak into the mouthpiece on the wooden box and say something like, "hi Thelma, I need to talk to Bill." Then she would ring Bill's number and connect you to him. BTW, my grandmother's phone # was only 3 digits.
When I was a kid we had a regular rotary phone but it was a party line, and all local Bellows Falls Vermont numbers were only 4 numbers.
And of the half dozen operators or so, one was my god mother.
I couldn't get away with much in that town :)
I was before plastic. Try to imagine your world without plastic. Anyone remember the smell of burnt bakelite?
My first job was in the Coast guard as a radio operator, we used CW not RT. CW is morse code RT is voice. Most distress traffic was in morse code because cw would punch thru all the static that voice sometimes could not.
I do not miss single pane windows, in winter you could freeze a glass of water on the window ledge inside of the house.
We had an outhouse about 150 feet from the back door. There was one cold water tap out in the taphouse and no bath or shower facilities. In the 1960 we actually got indoor plumbing. My mom cooked on a wood stove with a water tank on the side for hot water. That stove heated its corner of the house and that's all. We had huge eider down comforters on our beds that sometimes had frost on them in the morning. Us 3 kids bathed in a large cast iron tub that looked exactly like a cannibal stew pot. It's real purpose was for boiling up the slop for the hogs, but once a week all three of us would clamber in and get a bath.
For a fridge we had a dugout which was exactly that, a hole dug in the ground covered with logs and about 2 feet of sod. In winter we'd hitch the horse up and drag large blocks of ice down into the dugout. Covered with straw they would last well thru summer and into winter when we'd replace them with new ones. They would only lose about 1/2 their bulk per season. Most of the stuff we ate we grew or shot ourselves and preserved it during the long hot summers in that cold dugout. No need for air conditioning either every house had a veranda that circled the house. there was always shade somewhere. On hot nights the entire family slept outside on the lawn. No namby pamby garden either. Ours was 5 acres of hoe crops and 1 acre of raspberry and strawberries.
We didn't have a phone till the year I finally left home. We would borrow the neighbours in an emergency.
I fed the sheep, pigs, goat, cows and chickens before I went to school then again when I got home. Our family never did have a car, My Granddad had one but he lived a mile or so away. We had a tractor only. Mom said we got electricity in our house the day I was born.
My Grandad remembered there not being any radio, I remember when there was no TV.
I do remember Bennet buggies. lol
Ron I forgot about taking the 22's to school. I had a single shot cooey 22. My friend had the cooey with the tube magazine. I always wanted one. but I still shot more game than he did. I think because I had to be more careful placing my shots. We shot the 22 shorts because they were 12cents a box cheaper than the LRs . Our house wasn't a converted coop but the 2x4 lumber for it came from a Nearby Turkey farm that was being torn down so my dad traded for 10 boxes of apples and 5 boxes of peaches.
We went across the street on Sunday night to watch Ed Sullivan, my Mom always made snacks for everyone.
In the Queen Charlotte's my phone number was 12. You phoned the operator asked for the Queen Charlotte Islands exchange, when Agnes Mather came on the line you asked for 12. If you were not home Agnes would tell the person where you were. She always seemed to know.
She was telephone operator, postmaster, and storekeeper for the only store/bank in town.
How could you not vote for Eisenhower with a slogan like...... I like Ike. I remember being glued to the radio for the elections which took all night and most of the next day to count instead of the instant electronic counting of today.
Ps the radio I was glued to was a little red rocket Crystal set that I kept hidden under the covers so my mom wouldn't make me put it away.
Think Im still the oldest dinosaur on FAOL for those that dont know my age it will show again on FAOL in a week or so---love reading all the posts so far. Brings back memorys. Been there did that so far. Ever use a two holer???? with a friend??? Did the WWll GI bill school thing for two engineering degrees met the wife while in the service. Ever ride in a Mack truck with hard rubber tires,have the milk freeze on the back porch. Hear a man with horse and buggy going around the neighborhood yelling Rags Rags--never knew what they did with the rags. Also the ice man. Now days you have to camp one boy scouts and two adults or two scouts one leader---As a scout I would take a week canoe trip alone with the scout master. Walked two miles to and from school each day. No police cars when I was a kid,the cop walking the neighborhood would see me on the bike with my 410 shotgun going hunting and yell "Be Carefull" Now if I take my pellet gun out in the yard someome will call the cops.
Fly fishing as a youngster started with a steel rod. Shouldnt brag but i will--Dad was one of the top fly fishers in New England at the time,knew most of the rod builders so when I got a little older I had my pick of a closet full of the next best thing--bamboos. Dad would test the new models and told to keep it. Tied flies holding the hook in our fingers untill I brazed a jewelers pin vise on a c clamp. Hunted for feathers ,Mothers sewing box for yarn.Deer and other animals for material. Want a red color head on a streamer--get out the red paint. We only had black thread----BILL
Gnu Bee,
My Dad got me a single shot Winchester rifle because I had to be careful with my aim with only one shot. Being able to shoot accurately served me well later in life. I forgot about using the shorts to save money. My Dad would give me 5 bullets to go hunting. One rabbit and 4 bullets left was okay. One rabbit and three bullets left was a no-no. Means I missed with one shot (better not take two shots to kill something) and I had to spend more time taget shooting before I was allowed to hunt again.
Bill,
Yup, I have used a two holer with a friend. Not an enjoyable experience at all, considering what we had been eating and drinking. I really felt sorry for those that followed us.
REE
The problem with these threads is the first liar doesn't have a chance. I like my son, grew up and MS. My son went to visit a friend from his first job working at W. Ga. College in upper Michigan. He was amazed at the level of poverty he saw up there. He thought the south had a corner of really poor folks. We heard a little about the poverty in the Appalachian mountains of the east but no one ever talked about life for folks in the mid west or the far west except how good life was in the big city where everyone made lots of money and had all of the modern conveniences.
I was amazed at the things my granddad's saw during their lifetimes, both world wars, man's first flight and man's landing on the moon. My dad's father told me about plowing with oxen, shooting black powder guns, taking all day to travel to town by horse and wagon.
We didn't take rifles or shotguns to school when I was a kid but when we got home all you had to do was step out of either door to start hunting. Fishing consisted of drowning worms in Sabougla Canal with my mom and the lady who lived on the next farm. I was privileged to pick cotton (by hand), chop cotton and corn; do a little plowing and planting with a horse; I remember my family killing hogs (fresh sausage, tenderloin and pork chops, hot cracklins) usually the coldest day of the year. I had a bullwhip and worked cows when I was 8 or 9 and chased my younger brother with the whip to trip him. I was a big Lash LaRue fan back then. We had a outhouse and bathed in a washtub. We had water and electricity in the house. I remember when mother got her first electric stove and replaced the kerosene model. The sharecropper who lived down the hill used wood and drew water. We heated with wood, coal and sometime propane. We cooled with shade and fans.
I am amazed I never heard of anyone gettng bit by a black widow or brown recluse in the outhouse. I figure that would be a prime breeding ground.
Poverty is like measles, it can happen to anyone you just try to get over it as soon as possible - Uncle Jesse
My father-in-law, who is in his early seventies, grew up on the desert in southeast Idaho in a town called Mud Lake, Idaho. They had a one-room hutch with a dirt floor and a sod roof. The two boys slept out under the wagon during the summer and in a converted chicken coop during the winter...brrrrr.
Kelly.
my Grand Father left Mud Lake in about 1920 for Oregon, I still have relatives that live in that area. I did some pump work in that area when I was living in Shelly, on one of the farms I saw one of those old "houses" nothing but poles with mud shoved between them and dirt roofs. my Grandfather told stories of digging up sagebrush to burn to heat the house. My great grandfather was justice of the peace and sold moonshine there for a while.
Eric
JP and Moonshining, sounds like covering all your options:D. One thing my dad-in-law does is talk a lot about his youth and the fun he had with his horse out on the desert, he didn't seem to mind how poor they were - it was their life. They heated with sagebrush and ate Antelope regularly.
Kelly.
The article was interesting and one subject that I have thought about a great deal! What is amazing to me is how the time interval has shortened between new changes. Look at the first airplane and how long it took to go from a one engine one seat plane to an enclosed plane. From there to the first jet. From that to the first multi-engined jets to space craft to the first man landing on the moon etc.
[QUOTE=rtidd;344251]DINOSAURS
If our generation of Baby Boomers doesn?t meet the expectations of our parents, wonder where the current ?Me? generation is going? If it isn?t on Face Book or Twitter or some other social networking vehicle it can?t be of value. That doesn?t say much for our current status does it?[QUOTE]
The "Me" generation is going to do heart surgeries from half a world away; going into the cells of the human body to study the genome and treat cancer, diabetes, and other maladies that were a death sentence to members of the Greatest Generation, all before a child is even born; and when those kids are born, they'll learn multiple languages by going on line to a kindergarten in a foreign country; and be going to view the depths of the earth through miles of rock to find fuels that will carry us into the next century and to the next galaxy.
All these things that the Greatest Generation gave us: flight, cars, TV, radio...aren't going to hold a candle to what's coming for humanity. Space travel, cures for diseases, teleportation of matter, emissions-free energy...and things I can't even imagine. Each generation stands on the shoulders of those that came before it, building, growing, questioning, changing, advancing.
This doesn't make the Me generation evil, or spoiled, or ungrateful. The things the Me generation will be doing are incalculable now, and were impossible 50 years ago. And that's something all of their ancestors would be proud of. In this day and age it's so easy to focus on the negative, but the good far outweighs the perceived evil of Twitter and Facebook in the technological revolution.
My 85 year old grandmother talks with her 4 year old great-granddaughter every day...on Skype.
I'm kinda feelin'....well....vintage.
[QUOTE=njsimonson;345380][QUOTE=rtidd;344251]DINOSAURS
If our generation of Baby Boomers doesn?t meet the expectations of our parents, wonder where the current ?Me? generation is going? If it isn?t on Face Book or Twitter or some other social networking vehicle it can?t be of value. That doesn?t say much for our current status does it?Sometimes I write in parables, but this was the point of my post. You make a very important point. The "greatest generation" called the "baby boomers" spoiled, self-absorbed, long-hair, draft-dodgers who listened to the devil's music (the Beatles, Elvis...stuff that's pretty tame by today's standards). They constantly said, "get a haircut" and "turn that music down" and "you call that music?" It's no different now. In the pre-war years and during Prohibition there were gangsters terrorizing the streets with machineguns blazing in America's cities and the Zoot Suit and fedora were the height of popular fashion for men in imitation of the gangsters. Now it's low-riding baggy pants, tribal print t-shirts, tattoos, and rap music. And baby boomers holler "turn that crap down" and "you call that music?"Quote:
The "Me" generation is going to do heart surgeries from half a world away; going into the cells of the human body to study the genome and treat cancer, diabetes, and other maladies that were a death sentence to members of the Greatest Generation, all before a child is even born; and when those kids are born, they'll learn multiple languages by going on line to a kindergarten in a foreign country; and be going to view the depths of the earth through miles of rock to find fuels that will carry us into the next century and to the next galaxy.
All these things that the Greatest Generation gave us: flight, cars, TV, radio...aren't going to hold a candle to what's coming for humanity. Space travel, cures for diseases, teleportation of matter, emissions-free energy...and things I can't even imagine. Each generation stands on the shoulders of those that came before it, building, growing, questioning, changing, advancing.
This doesn't make the Me generation evil, or spoiled, or ungrateful. The things the Me generation will be doing are incalculable now, and were impossible 50 years ago. And that's something all of their ancestors would be proud of. In this day and age it's so easy to focus on the negative, but the good far outweighs the perceived evil of Twitter and Facebook in the technological revolution.
My 85 year old grandmother talks with her 4 year old great-granddaughter every day...on Skype.
But I also agree with Ladyfisher: it is a tragedy when the older generation abdicates their responsibility to transfer their skills and knowledges to the next 2 generations. And the Baby Boomers have done that. Why? Because we are self-absorbed and spoiled...just like the Greatest Generation said we were. We're "too busy." So we blame it on the generation we've labeled "the me generation" and say they aren't interested. Well, it was our job to motivate them and capture their interest.