Thread: Childhood Memories! Tell Yours - (Americans Work Hard)

I remember my grandfather killing the hogs to survive. Those grown hogs were mean

Recently, one of my children went to Costa Rica to farm for two weeks. I was told that she loved the back to basics there. She said, "you, (me), had taught her how to survive on little and to be a conserving person."

And then I remember living with my grandparents when I was a child. We had outhouses, no running water, just beginning electricity, first television that run for only a few hours a day, etc. in my memories. Life was hard but I still loved the people and nature around me. Life is not suppose to be easy

CrazyBird: I, too, remember my grandmother going and getting a chicken (from pen to table) it was so good. The same grandmother made from scratch - cakes. She sewed on a footpedaled sewing machine. I can still can see that awful green dress she made me when I started school in the 60's. I was the proudest child around of that dress.

And to this very day I buy real butter, for I had churned homemade butter as a child and Ole my to this very day I desire the real stuff. Now, this is being spoiled in my opinion.

I am currently studying my ancestry

My past family settled this new America, I am not a quitter, kind of person

Americans are the hardest working people in this world

My ancestors were here long ago as well.

I remember my grandparents home. Outhouse, no TV and pumped their water from outside. If you didn't grow it or shoot it yourself, you didn't eat. I'll never forget my grandma going out to pick out the chicken from the yard for dinner. I was citified and it was a shock for me. To me, if it didn't come on a tray wrapped in cellophane with a price tag on it, I didn't eat it. LOL Entertainment was music. Seemed everyone knew how to play something....most multiple instruments.

I was ashamed of where I came from for awhile. But when I started looking back and finding out about it, I became very proud for all they went through. It didn't take any time at all blending in with a host of different ethnic groups here. None ever got rich or famous, atleast as far as I can trace on my dads side. But they were all God fearing people and very dedicated to this country and proud to be American.

There life wasn't easy but sometimes even as "advanced" as we have gotten, it seems the simpler life was better in so many ways.

I was privileged to grow up when life was simpler. Many amenities but still simpler than today. There was indoor plumbing but no car of our own as Dad worked for and then owned a car dealership and used a car from there but we walked everywhere anyway. There were city buses but mostly Mom got sick of waiting for them and we walked. We could walk home from the movies after dark without fear. When the dog barked at night it was because he smelled a cat or small animal, not because there was anything to worry about. We were probably one of the last families to get a tv in 1958, black and white and such poor reception that we rarely watched. Always a garden every summer, mostly for Mom's joy. There was plenty of produce at the store, locally grown and picked by kids looking for extra money. Lots of the boys who planned to play football hired on to bale hay for area farmers. This was before the school had weight rooms.

It was in no way perfect, there was plenty of angst, but I believe the simple life helps us think for ourselves, to trust our gut instincts. It allows us to find and listen to the quiet, still voice of reason.

HomeOfTheBrave:

Oh yes! My peach tree by the road this year is producing the biggest peaches ever. I told my children just look at these big as your adult hand peaches. Plant a tree - grow - something it is wonderful for you

My mother didn't drive until I was in the fifth grade. So as a child I walked about two miles in the weather to school with my younger sister to school, alone. We were some of the first children to arrive at school to get warm and ready for the school day. (It is not safe, today.)

Once I made, my son who is 27, who would not bring home his school books to do his work. So, I made him walk back to school much less than I had to walk as a child. And do you know he never left those books at school again.

Moved to other topics.
MD

I REMEMBER MY FIRST DAY OF KINDERGARTEN. IT WAS THE ONE AND ONLY TIME MY MOM EVER TOOK ME TO SCHOOL. THERE WAS NO REASON TO PROTECT KIDS AGAINST MONSTERS IN THE STREET. KIDS WERE SAFE WALKING TO SCHOOL...EVEN THE YOUNGEST ONES. MY GREATEST FEAR WAS THE GREAT DANE THAT LIVED ONE BLOCK OVER. HE WAS WAY BIGGER THAN ME AND WOULD ALWAYS RUN UP TO ME IF HE SAW ME. I THOUGHT HE WAS TRYING TO ATTACK ME.....LOL. HE WAS JUST A BIG TEDDY BEAR.

ANYWAY, ON MY VERY FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL MY MOM TOOK ME THERE. I ALREADY KNEW HOW TO WRITE MY NAME AND THE NAMES OF EVERYONE IN MY FAMILY.

MY MOM DID NOT GO HOME WHEN SHE DROPPED MY OFF. EVERY NOW AND THEN I WOULD SEE HER PEAK INTO THE CLASSROOM TO MAKE SURE I WAS OK. I WAS THE OLDEST KID SO THIS WAS A NEW EXPERIENCE FOR HER AS WELL. SHE WAITED THE ENTIRE FOUR HOURS TILL I GOT OUT OF SCHOOL.

THE SCHOOL WAS IMMACULATE. EVEN THE BATHROOMS. THERE WAS NO PEELING PAINT OR DRUG DEALERS OUT ON THE CORNER. AND GET THIS.....THERE WERE PENCILS AND PAPER AT THE SCHOOL. THEY EVEN HAD BOOKS FOR EACH AND EVERY STUDENT. ALL SCHOOL SUPPLIES WERE SUPPLIED BY THE SCHOOL.

THE CAFETERIA SERVED HOT LUNCH. THE PARENTS HAD TO PAY 35 CENTS A DAY FOR THE LUNCH. THERE WERE NO FREE LUNCHES. IF YOU DIDNT WANT TO PAY THE CHILD COULD BRING A BAG LUNCH. THE CAFETERIA WAS IMMACULATE AND GET THIS.....WE NEVER GOT SICK. AND KETCHUP WAS NOT CONSIDERED A VEGETABLE. WE GOT REAL VEGETABLES.

OOOPS. THIS IS GETTING KIND OF LONG. SORRY ABOUT THAT. I COULD GO ON FOREVER.

redpony353:


PETITION TO SUPPORT THE AMERICAN WORKER
http://americanworker.org/


Thank you for this

Originally Posted by vmonkey56

redpony353:


PETITION TO SUPPORT THE AMERICAN WORKER
http://americanworker.org/


Thank you for this

YOU ARE WELCOME VMONKEY56!!!!

Big Fish Tales

Has anyone ever caught a fish with their hands?

I have!

Also, there was the eel I caught on the river bank when I was nine...

Thought it was a snake, that cane pole went in the river real quick.
And up that river bank I went!

NO NEVER HAVE CAUGHT A FISH WITH MY HANDS. THAT MUST HAVE BEEN SOME EXPERIENCE. THE BIGGEST FISH I EVER CAUGHT WAS ABOUT TWO FEET LONG....A CATFISH. MMMMM. THAT WAS A GREAT BBQ. I ALMOST LOST THE POLE THOUGH BECAUSE HE BIT WHEN I HAD THE POLE LEANING AGAINST A ROCK SO I COULD GET A SODA. BUT I GOT HIM ANYWAY.