Older Than Dirt

[novatech]

I might be older than dirt but those memories are some of the best parts of my life.

Thanks. It was nice of you to refresh my memory, and it needs refreshing way to often these days.

 

[backhoeboogie]

Bhb it's hard to find someone who stands behind their word anymore. However i'll have to say there's still some left here in my area. With me a man has only one chance to not stand behind his word.

Cal I was talking to a really old timer Saturday. He is a very dry old codger. We weren't saying much. Mostly listening to everyone else ramble about New Year's resolutions and the digital television. When all the resolution declarations were being levied, he whispered to me, "I like my life just like it is. Don't want to change a "darn" thang." That sunk in my head nice and deep.

 

[Nesikep]

I remember party lines, 45's (not listed are 8 tracks), glass bottle soda dispensers, though they were never common, TV... Never owned one, never will most likely.. bicycle chain pantleg clips

there were others I recognized while looking through the list.. but

I forgot what they were.. Aaakk!! I am getting old

 

[Calman]

Bhb it's hard to find someone who stands behind their word anymore. However i'll have to say there's still some left here in my area. With me a man has only one chance to not stand behind his word.

Cal I was talking to a really old timer Saturday. He is a very dry old codger. We weren't saying much. Mostly listening to everyone else ramble about New Year's resolutions and the digital television. When all the resolution declarations were being levied, he whispered to me, "I like my life just like it is. Don't want to change a "darn" thang." That sunk in my head nice and deep.

Yep know what ya mean.
When you get to the ol timer age like me, you're pretty well contented with your life,and everyone takes you for what you are it's just too late in life to try to change anything.Not worth the time and hassel.

Cal

 

[I luv herfrds]

Root beer floats at the A&W on Friday nights going to the drive up. TV was black and white. Being told to adjust the rabbit ears. Soda in glass bottles we got at the service station. The candy cigarettes.
We went to a farmer my folks knew for milk with a large milk can. Later it was milk at home in the insulated milk box.

 

[hillsdown]

I didn't know I was that old.. :cry2: It is amazing how things have changed in the last 3 decades or so. John we had to tv's but peasant vision,,grandma and grandpa had cable. That was always a treat to go there for the weekends and watch Star Search and Solid Gold.. The wax bottle candies, why did we all love them they tasted like wax.. :?

 

[kscowboy]

Why yes i am older than dirt. I remember them all. Also remember spending summers on my grandparents farm in the late fifties , a small well pump in the kitchen , the bathtub was a large round galvanized tub used on the cold back room floor , the toilet was some 50 yards away , self contained so to speak , a big ole coal stove to keep the place warm , a small little dairy and egg farm in the hills of north eastern kansas , nothin fancy , they were never rich , but boy what a place it was , full of adventure and the love of two great grandparents !
Big deal was going to town and getting a bag of candy corn
Darn near every glass in the house had a chicken on it from the coop
Grandpa had 1 one Sunday go to meetin pair of overalls and a starched railroad hat

I remind my kids when there whining about one thing or another that they are only one generation away from having to walk 50yards in the snow to go to the bathrooom ! Shuts em up pretty quick.

 

[spoon]

I remember 20 of those so I qualify. But the one thing that differed for me than most prolly was that the only meal I ate at home was breakfast. I ate dinner at school and supper at my parents restaurant every evening then I walked home. During the summer I spent most all day at the restaurant so I ate all my meals there. I really looked forward to going to mamaws house on the weekend so I could get some home cooking.

 

[kenny thomas]

I guess I qualify also as I remember most of it.
What does some of the younger people on here think about these things?
Milkmaid, I know you are smart beyond your years of age. Is growing up today better or just more pressure and stress?

 

[Red Bull Breeder]

Alacattleman a pot of them bushy tail dumplings is still pretty tasty.

 

[lavacarancher]

Yea, I remember all those plus a few more. I remember nickle Coke machines that dispensed bottles from a box that contained cold WATER, not refridgerated air. I remember a gasoline powered washing machine (Aunt had one - only one in the county I'm told). Picking cotton BY HAND, plowing with horses, shocking corn stalk tops for cattle feed, Nehi chocolate sodas in bottles, Tom Mix, Lone Ranger, Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, Buck Rogers, etc "serials" at the movies. The Cole theater always had a double feature, two serials and cartoons on Saturdays - all for a dime.

 

[TexasBred]

Heck my first watch was a "mini sundial". Now that's old. But....remember Dad pulling a mattress out onto the porch and sleeping on it in the summer time. Guess we didn't have as many skeeters back then. Collected soda bottles and cashed them in for more sodas, going to the feedstore to pick out the pattern of feed sack on the chicken feed cause it was going to be my next shirt. Sitting in front of the old B&W tv trying to get the horizonal hold and vertical buttons to take the stripes out fo the pic and keep it from rolling constantly, hitch hiking to 2 a day football practices in late summer and hitch hiking home after the game. Going to the feed mill with a pu load of corn to get it ground and mixed and put in big ol' burlap bags. Yep it was fun.

 

[alacattleman]

Alacattleman a pot of them bushy tail dumplings is still pretty tasty.

i'll take your word on it.... i remember my grandma cleaning and skinning em when grandpaw would bring em home and cleaning and gutting fish...........wonder how many women could do that, or would do it now. she past those skills on to my reluctant mother. but they fizzled out after her

 

[3waycross]

Why yes i am older than dirt. I remember them all. Also remember spending summers on my grandparents farm in the late fifties , a small well pump in the kitchen , the bathtub was a large round galvanized tub used on the cold back room floor , the toilet was some 50 yards away , self contained so to speak , a big ole coal stove to keep the place warm , a small little dairy and egg farm in the hills of north eastern kansas , nothin fancy , they were never rich , but boy what a place it was , full of adventure and the love of two great grandparents !
Big deal was going to town and getting a bag of candy corn
Darn near every glass in the house had a chicken on it from the coop
Grandpa had 1 one Sunday go to meetin pair of overalls and a starched railroad hat

I remind my kids when there whining about one thing or another that they are only one generation away from having to walk 50yards in the snow to go to the bathrooom ! Shuts em up pretty quick.

Thats funny; I think we had the same Grandparents, only mine were in western Missouri. I remember looking forward to going to town on Sat and hoping my Grandma had enuf egg money left over for a Orange soda and a " Bama Pie". My best all time memory is watching with great interest how my Grandpa could thump watermelons till he found the one that was perfect for Sunday dinner. Which was by the way Chicken( home raised, killed, scalded, and plucked) fresh green beans, and new taters from the garden, and best of all milk gravy from the frying pan. My Grandma's greatest joy in life was eatin a fried chicken that she didn't have to pluck.

 

[Red Bull Breeder]

I remember Killing hogs in the fall, soon as cold weather set in we would use the mortons sugar cure never really figured that one out because it was just salt best that i could tell. We would spend a week butchering ours and the neighbors butchering at one place one day and somewhere else the next. Ground sausage with a old hand crank grinder and women would can it.Cut up the fat and render it in to lard. Always loved the fresh cracklings. I also remember mom and my aunt making lye soap out of the cracklings.

 

[Angus Cowman]

I remember Killing hogs in the fall, soon as cold weather set in we would use the mortons sugar cure never really figured that one out because it was just salt best that i could tell. We would spend a week butchering ours and the neighbors butchering at one place one day and somewhere else the next. Ground sausage with a old hand crank grinder and women would can it.Cut up the fat and render it in to lard. Always loved the fresh cracklings. I also remember mom and my aunt making lye soap out of the cracklings.

Them fresh cracklins were somethin I loved em

we always butchered 100 chickens ,2 hogs and a beef every yr I remember catchin chickens and cutting their heads off then we woud scald them ,
I remeber the hook coming out of a hogs leg when they were lowering it into the barrel to scald and it dropping in and scalding my dad, the neighbor pulled his knife and skinned dads overalls off of him,

I think that is one of the reasons I always carry a knife sharp enough to shave with if he hadn't gotten them pants off dad would have been in a lot worse shape

Life was hard back then but we didn't know any better and their were alot of folks that had it alot worse than us
I remember mom and dad always taking chickens and pork to a couple neighbors I think that is why we always killed 100 chickens I know they gave at least 25 away and at least a 1/2 hog

we had a neighbor that was killed by a mule and mom and dad always took his widow some meat and Dad bought all the seed for her garden and we got 1/2 for yrs although we didn't need it

My brothers and I cut her wood for as long as she was living there all we ever asked for payment was a glass of milk and some of her sugar cookies she made the best

Times were Hard but folks were GOOD and took care of one another

 

[btdt]

Dirt roads that are now paved.
Two lanes that are now 4 or 6.
Cup of coffee was 10 cents.
Drive in movies.

 

[kenny thomas]

Who remembers milking the cow and storing the milk in a spring house which was also where you kept the butter, buttermilk, ect. It stayed cool but never lasted long enough to spoil.

 

[Ryder]

I remember Killing hogs in the fall, soon as cold weather set in we would use the mortons sugar cure never really figured that one out because it was just salt best that i could tell. We would spend a week butchering ours and the neighbors butchering at one place one day and somewhere else the next. Ground sausage with a old hand crank grinder and women would can it.Cut up the fat and render it in to lard. Always loved the fresh cracklings. I also remember mom and my aunt making lye soap out of the cracklings.

Them fresh cracklins were somethin I loved em

we always butchered 100 chickens ,2 hogs and a beef every yr I remember catchin chickens and cutting their heads off then we woud scald them ,
I remeber the hook coming out of a hogs leg when they were lowering it into the barrel to scald and it dropping in and scalding my dad, the neighbor pulled his knife and skinned dads overalls off of him,

I think that is one of the reasons I always carry a knife sharp enough to shave with if he hadn't gotten them pants off dad would have been in a lot worse shape

Life was hard back then but we didn't know any better and their were alot of folks that had it alot worse than us
I remember mom and dad always taking chickens and pork to a couple neighbors I think that is why we always killed 100 chickens I know they gave at least 25 away and at least a 1/2 hog

we had a neighbor that was killed by a mule and mom and dad always took his widow some meat and Dad bought all the seed for her garden and we got 1/2 for yrs although we didn't need it

My brothers and I cut her wood for as long as she was living there all we ever asked for payment was a glass of milk and some of her sugar cookies she made the best

Times were Hard but folks were GOOD and took care of one another

I hear you talking Angus C. That is the way it was and that was the way things were supposed to be.
It wasn't called charity. It was called "giving" or "helping out". It was a joy to be able to do it.

I remember going with my daddy and other men to country church yards to dig the grave when someone in the community died. I was too little to help dig, but I think I learned a lot.

 

[Calman]

Who remembers milking the cow and storing the milk in a spring house which was also where you kept the butter, buttermilk, ect. It stayed cool but never lasted long enough to spoil.

I do remember the spring house back in the ozarks in Mo. Mater of fact it's still there.
I remember getting up at four in the morning, starting a fire in the wood cookstove and then doing the feeding and milking while my mother cooked breakfast.

Cal