When We Were Kids

When we were kids grandfathers wore heavy beards and sideburns. Their high leather boots were hand made as were most of their working clothes. In the summer they would sit on the bench in front of the village store, chew tobacco, spit on the sidewalk and swap tall stories with old friends. In the winter they and their old cronies would sit around the pot bellied stove and spit their tobacco juice into the crusted coal bucket.

Grandmothers, on Sundays, wore fancy high-buttoned shoes, many petticoats and shawls. They usually spent their time platting rugs or making quilts. Secretly, she smoked her pipe. They were not permitted to vote and neither were they expected to discuss politics with the men. A woman's place was thought to be taking care of their home and raising children.

Chickens were usually sold to the huckster who made his weekly rounds for .25¢ each, Butter was .l0¢ per pound and two dozen eggs were worth .15¢.

The storekeeper usually gave a stick of peppermint candy or a long licorice stick to the children after their parents completed their weekly visit to the store.

Laborers on the farm worked for less than a dollar per ten-hour day.

Traveling salesmen generally came by train to the county seat, then hired a team from the local livery stable. A young boy was hired to go along to do the driving. Two or three days were required to contact the various village stores to sell their wares. At night, they would stay at the hotel, which was a part of the village. Tips were unknown in these small hotels and, hat and coat attendants were not a part of the services.

A beautiful, large floral kerosene lamp and stereoscope in the parlor were the height of luxury.

No one ever heard of calories, microbes or virus. Babies were born at home. No one ever dreamed of demanding monies from the state or federal governments to take care of parents and grandparents. Relatives provided this care. If there were no friends or relatives, the 'Poor-house' was the place to go.

The only means of local transportation was by walking or hitching old dobbin to the buggy, surrey or sleigh. People lived to a good old age. They traveled miles to visit friends and relatives.

School ended in the early part of April. Many of us went swimming before the end of the school term. In the summer we continued our swimming in the afternoons and evenings in our birthday suits. In the winter, when our old swimming hole was frozen solid, we would skate. Many times we made mallets to smack the ice to stun the suckers that could be seen in the shallow water beneath the ice. Our mothers would cook them for supper.

The old village blacksmith was one of the smartest men we knew. He always seemed to know the exact length of an iron bar needed to go around the wooden wagon wheel. The wagon maker, too, was a marvel to us.

A college graduate was someone you read about in the newspapers. A boy or girl who proceeded beyond the eighth grade was considered smart.

The family who had an automobile in the community was considered rich. Traveling long distances was by the old steam-coal burning locomotive. Air travel was only a dream.

Men and women played tennis, golf and bridge in the cities. Large towns had their movie houses where you could see a silent picture for only a nickel. Friends and neighbors would come to listen to the new music box called a phonograph that used round cylinders. Player pianos were a luxury.Evangelists were certain the young were bound for Satan's Paradise. Yes, they were the good old days.

When we were kids, our parents could not go to the store and buy the numerous toys that exist today. We had no toy guns to play with. Once we got our father to cut one out of a board and then whittle it down to the same size and shape as his own favorite firearm.

As a substitute for a gun, we often made 'pop-guns' out of elderberry stalks. We would select a long straight stalk, and then work to pull and push out the pithy center. Our next project was to make a ramrod out of a piece of hickory. On the one end, we left a large handle of about three inches. We then cut the rest of the hickory into a long round section, slightly smaller in diameter than the core of the elder stalk. Now, we would take pieces of paper, soak them in water and make wads which were inserted into the core so that it was fairly tight. A second wad was inserted and with a sudden shove, the air between the wads was compressed to a high degree so that the first came out with a bang. Believe it or not, I was able to kill a few sparrows with it. So they were dangerous if not handled properly.

Later, we graduated from the wooden guns and popguns to the making of bows and arrows. The kid who made the longest and strongest bow was envied by the other kids. We scoured the neighborhood for worn out umbrellas to obtain the steel ribs for arrows. A few window panes were accidentally broken by the flying missiles.

My father showed me how to make a sling shot by using the leather from the side of an old worn out shoe. This was cut into an oval shape with several short slits in the center to form a pocket. Then a piece of rawhide strap was fastened to each side of the leather. A stone, about the size of an egg was placed in the pocket. It was whirled about the head several times to gain speed. One strip of rawhide was released from your hand and the stone sailed into the air perhaps a hundred yards or more.

I still remember the story my father told how he saved his life when he was a young boy. One time he was crossing a neighbor's field. This neighbor had a very mean bull. The bull charged him. He had no tree nor was the fence near enough to provide safety. He did have his sling with him, thus he flung a stone from it and hit the bull in the head with such force that it fell to the ground. While the bull was unconscious, he made his escape.

Santa usually saw that we got a nice red wagon or perhaps a sled. The girls might find a doll under the Christmas tree.

I remember we had a long 'bob-sled’, which held about eight or ten. This 'low-slung' sled had round iron runners which the local blacksmith so carefully fitted to the wood. No other sled in the community could go faster or farther. Later, most of us received a 'flexible flyer', or 'lightening guider'. They were much easier to pull up the hill.

When the first automobiles came into the community, the kids were all asking for the blownout casings. They replaced the hoops and old buggy iron tires to roll before you. Sometimes they were harder to handle and quite often rolled out of control.

Once in a while we would be given scraps of lumber. Usually there were several pieces six or seven feet long, an inch or more thick and perhaps two or three inches wide. We would nail blocks of wood to them and then try to walk. They were our homemade stilts. One had to have a good sense of balance to walk when the blocks were two or three feet high.

No, we never had much money to spend, but we had a lot of fun making our own things to amuse ourselves.