Things Were Different Back Then

Many changes occur from generation to generation! Things that folks take for granted in 2009 didn't even exist back when I was growing up. We didn't know what we were missing - or not!

I don't remember ever eating in a restaurant when I was growing up. There was no such thing as "fast food" places. Normally, we ate at home in the kitchen with all of the family sitting down together. Breakfast was the only meal we might not all eat together.

When I was really little, we took baths in a wash tub in front of the open oven door - the oven was turned on to take the chill off the air. The water wasn't changed after each person either! This was a Saturday night ritual.

My parents took out a loan to build our home. I remember the day Daddy came home with the mortgage papers marked "paid in full." That was worth celebrating!

My folks saved money until they had enough to buy what they wanted - a car, furniture, etc. There were no credit cards. They worked hard and saved. Daddy worked at the post office and Mom worked at home. He "brought home the bacon" and she fried it!

Working at home meant cooking, baking, cleaning, washing the clothes with a ringer washer, hanging the clothes outside on the clothes line to dry, roning those clothes and anything else that needed to be done.

We weren't allowed to wear slacks or jeans to school because they weren't considered ladylike. This changed when I was in high school. We didn't wear tee-shirts with stuff written on them. We didn't roll our skirts up at the waist to make them shorter - if we had done that, our skirts would probably have been a couple inches below the knee. So there was no point to it!

We learned to do math using our brains as there were no calculators back then - unless you counted on your fingers (and toes). We also learned to count change. Even with the cash register, we had to use our heads and not depend on the cash register to tell us that the customer should get 75 cents back or whatever amount it was. Now, when someone counts change back to me, I am always really pleased.

I think I saw my first TV set when I was a freshman at Kansas State in 1953. We gathered in the rec room and watched Fess Parker as Davy Crockett and other shows that were on TV then.

We had a phone until Daddy died. Our phone number was "one o" or 10. Mother had the phone service cut off because so many people called and she could not deal with it. So I never had an opportunity to talk for hours on the phone when I was growing up. Nor did I ever get asked out on a date by a phone call.

When we went to the "filling station," a man pumped the gas, checked the oil and water, and washed the windsheild. We paid about 25 cents a gallon for gas. The man did the other stuff for free - this was definitely "customer service."

We had an electric clock plugged in over the kitchen sink and an alarm clock in the bedroom. The alarm clock wasn't electric. We had to wind it to keep it running. There were no LCD clocks or LCD watches either. Daddy had a pocket watch on a chain that he kept in the watch pocked in his vest.

We didn't have "boom boxes" back then. There was a "console radio" in the living room with Mom's rocker setting in front of it. The radio was probably 3-4 feet tall. As I got older we also had a portable radio that we could plug into the wall outlet inother rooms or in the basement. We didn't have air conditioning so when it was hot in the summertime, we would go down to the basement where it was cooler. We did have an oscillating fan to move the air around.

I don't know that we had it hard back then. I just know that it was very different.

California Trip 1953

My brother Bob, his wife Inez, their son nearly two-year-old Richard, Mom and I drove to California to visit relatives. It was a long drive so we all had a turn at holding and/or keeping track of Richard - and keeping him entertained.

We spent time with Mom's mother Grandma Carrie, one of Mom's sisters, and several brothers and their families. Mom and I stayed with Uncle Charlie and his family. He took me sailing in the ocean in a very small boat. I don't remember being scared but I really got sunburned. Some vinegar helped take out the burn.

We spent time on the beach and at the Santa Monica pier. We went on some of the rides - the Log flume, bumper cars, and the carousel with Richard. I really liked the bumper cars but not the log flume so much because we all got very wet.

We saw Grauman's Chinese Theater and looked at all the hand prints and foot prints of the Hollywood stars on the Star Walk. We visited Forest Lawn Cemetery where many Hollywood stars were buried. If I remember correctly, they had a rendering of the Last Supper - a statue-type of thing. It was beautiful.

We also visited Catalina Island. We rode on a glass-bottomed tour boat there. It was interesting. We saw the ballroom there where Lawrence Welk and his orchestra often played.

I'm not sure whether it was this trip or not but we did visit Knott's Berry Farm. We enjoyed eating there. The berry jellies and jams were delicious!

I don't believe I recognized it them but I am a real flatlander! The ocean and the mountains are beautiful but all that water and the heights make me nervous.

It was a pleasant trip and the last time I saw Grandma Carrie. Grandpa Burt died in 1952 and Grandma Carrie died in 1957.