To be real honest, it has been hotter then hell! My central air keeps the house just the right temperature, which started me to wondering what we did back in the days before air conditioning was an everyday necessity. I do not remember us even having the luxury of a fan. When we went to church there were little card board fans in the music racks. Remember them? Usually they had some sort of advertising printed on them. Most often it was from the local mortuary. School started in September usually right after the Kansas State Fair left Hutchinson, Kansas headed for Oklahoma. By then the summer had lost its grip and fall was near. School let out in May when it was just starting to get hot, so we did not suffer much in school.
But what about at home? There were windows on all sides of the house and they were open as far as the could open to get a cross ventilation. It must have worked because I do no remember being overly hot, ever. We played under the trees and we could always sneak off and find a creek some where and dangle our feet in the water and hope an old snapping turtle did not come along.
I can remember momma having a scarf tied around her head to keep the sweat out of her eyes. What I am neglecting to tell you is that back then we cooked on a wood stove in the kitchen, so we had the added heat of a fire in the stove when it was already hot enough to choke us. Course I do not remember a lot of cooking going on except on Sundays. I am not sure what we ate through the week, but we must have eaten something and I am sure mother cooked something. You can not feed 8 people and not cook. I do remember mother used to give us a "sugar teet" when we had sugar. That was our idea of a real treat. She took a small piece of fabric and put a spoonful of sugar in the center and then pulled up the edges and tied a cord around it. We chewed on that and thought we really had something. It is amazing that back then I did not even know we were poor, but I look back now in sheer horror. How did we survive? Why did we even want to? My mother had to be the strongest woman in the world to eke an existence for her family out of absolutely nothing.
What amazes me more than anything is that I set here in my air conditioned house with the television playing in the background and my car outside waiting to take me some where. I have 2 freezers downstairs full of food, money in the bank, clothes in the closet and I think back to Nickerson, Kansas, as the good old days and thank God for giving me those memories. I only remember being happy. I do not remember being hot, or cold, or hungry, or lonely. I have a very happy memory of a coat my mother made out of something she took apart. It was a bedspread or something and it was a light aqua color. Dolly Partin had her coat of many colors, but I had my coat of corduroy. I do not remember much about any other clothes I had, but I am sure I had them. We wore little dresses back then. Even when we worked in the fields, we wore dresses.
Yep. I do not care what anyone thinks, those were my good old days. They were the days when I did not have to worry about anything of anyone. I have always deluded myself into thinking that it did not matter that we were poor, because everyone was poor, but that is not true. People were poor, yes, but we were dirt poor. Facing the reality of that has just taken place in the last few years. Some times it makes me sad. I wish I had told my mother what a wonderful job she did when she was here to tell, but I did not. If I had been just half the woman my mother was I could have changed the world.
Life would be best lived in reverse.
But what about at home? There were windows on all sides of the house and they were open as far as the could open to get a cross ventilation. It must have worked because I do no remember being overly hot, ever. We played under the trees and we could always sneak off and find a creek some where and dangle our feet in the water and hope an old snapping turtle did not come along.
I can remember momma having a scarf tied around her head to keep the sweat out of her eyes. What I am neglecting to tell you is that back then we cooked on a wood stove in the kitchen, so we had the added heat of a fire in the stove when it was already hot enough to choke us. Course I do not remember a lot of cooking going on except on Sundays. I am not sure what we ate through the week, but we must have eaten something and I am sure mother cooked something. You can not feed 8 people and not cook. I do remember mother used to give us a "sugar teet" when we had sugar. That was our idea of a real treat. She took a small piece of fabric and put a spoonful of sugar in the center and then pulled up the edges and tied a cord around it. We chewed on that and thought we really had something. It is amazing that back then I did not even know we were poor, but I look back now in sheer horror. How did we survive? Why did we even want to? My mother had to be the strongest woman in the world to eke an existence for her family out of absolutely nothing.
What amazes me more than anything is that I set here in my air conditioned house with the television playing in the background and my car outside waiting to take me some where. I have 2 freezers downstairs full of food, money in the bank, clothes in the closet and I think back to Nickerson, Kansas, as the good old days and thank God for giving me those memories. I only remember being happy. I do not remember being hot, or cold, or hungry, or lonely. I have a very happy memory of a coat my mother made out of something she took apart. It was a bedspread or something and it was a light aqua color. Dolly Partin had her coat of many colors, but I had my coat of corduroy. I do not remember much about any other clothes I had, but I am sure I had them. We wore little dresses back then. Even when we worked in the fields, we wore dresses.
Yep. I do not care what anyone thinks, those were my good old days. They were the days when I did not have to worry about anything of anyone. I have always deluded myself into thinking that it did not matter that we were poor, because everyone was poor, but that is not true. People were poor, yes, but we were dirt poor. Facing the reality of that has just taken place in the last few years. Some times it makes me sad. I wish I had told my mother what a wonderful job she did when she was here to tell, but I did not. If I had been just half the woman my mother was I could have changed the world.
Life would be best lived in reverse.
