I truly apologize if I offended some of the younger parents out there and don't want to start a thread that is inappropriate for here. I worked at Edinboro University of Pennsylvania for 14 years dealing with Residence Life/Sororities/Fraternities, Disciplinary system, and moved to AZ in 1990 working with Juvenile/Adult prosecution (Felony and Misdemeanor) for 21 years. I come from a family of seven siblings, being next to the youngest at 57, my baby sister is 55 and my oldest brother is 70, with my mom still hanging in there turning 93 in December.
Life was more simple back then. My dad drove coal truck during the day and farmed in the evenings and weekends. We had 60 acres, planted lots of different crops, oats, hay, corn, wheat, had goats, cows, pigs and chickens, typical gardens with everything you can imagine, and did our own yearly slaughtering. I can remember my granddad bringing his .22 and shooting those pigs between the eyes and having them hung on a big meat hook over a huge tub to catch the blood and entrails. And, we SHARED the meat. When it was time for my granddad to butcher, we would go to his farm and do the same thing. This was outside of Grove City, Pennsylvania, about 50 miles north of Pittsburgh.
The land was absolutely beautiful...we had forests, ponds, lakes, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries (does anyone remember choke cherry trees?), and blue berries that all grew wild. Even on some special occasions, we would have large church youth groups out there and have big dances out in our garage and even do Hay Rides with our tractors and wagons (these young folks don't know what they're missing). Of course, have a bon fire and plenty of food.
I can remember my mom out in the yard wringing chickens' necks (after my older brothers caught them), and us smaller kids were scared and shot up the nearest tree to escape all the flopping around. Me and my mom were "buddies", and I used to sit at the kitchen table watching her spread newspaper all over and gut, boil and pluck those chickens. That friendship lasted way up into my 30's, sitting at the kitchen table watching her cook, asking a gazillion questions and talk about other life, whatever, issues. I credit her for being a good cook myself.
We had a huge barn and used to play in the hay and build cabbins, a good sized chicken coop and some other out buildings to house the corn planter, corn picker, combine, hay bailer, etc. We also had a large OUT HOUSE that would accomodate at least 3 butts. We had running water but no inside toilet. I can actually remember my oldest sister (20+ yrs older) giving me a bath either in the kitchen sink, or some big round steel tub (for canning) on the kitchen floor. And, if you had to pee during the night, my mom always brought up the white porcelain "pee pot" with a lid, so you could kneel in the darkness and do your business.
The chicken coop was basically two rooms. This building had to be at least 15 x 30, maybe larger, and we had anywhere between 50-100 chickens. The first room had about six slanted roosts and several feed troughs. Walk through the doorway into the second room and it had at least 10 nesting boxes on two adjacent walls, and another gazillion roosts. They free roamed all day, and some even snuck away to go broody in the barn with many hiding spaces.
This all was between 1955-1965 and I was just a little kid, so didn't have to get up early to milk the cows like my older sibblings. Oh, don't forget doe/buck season. We also had squirrel, rabbit, pheasant, duck and trout. Mom even kept a few hog heads in the freezer, and we always had some cracklin or cracklin bread. I don't recall mom every doing hog head cheese. The younger folks won't know about that.
I don't know if we were actually poor, but Dad did good in providing. As far as I can remember, trips into town were rare, unless you needed things like gasoline, tobacco, toiletries etc. We didn't even buy the milk for school lunches...took our own straight from the cow in small coffee/whatever jars. Mom scimmed the cream off the top and the school just kept it refrigerated for us.
Just wanted to let you know that I came from some very humble beginnings, and I don't think today's kids could handle it. I may have decent jobs, a huge 4BR house that I got $80K below market value, a $60K Baldwin Concert Artist Grand piano plus other expensive toys in the camp, ALL paid for, but I'll never forget my roots. If I had the money, I would move from this concrete jungle/HOA and go find some property with some acreage. ****, you can't even fart straight without the neighbors on each side hearing you.
Sorry for writing another essay, I'm not working on another degree. The only degrees I have are HOT and COLD...LOL --BB
Bobby Basham
Tucson, Arizona
