i was born in may of 1943 - there were many things to do growing up on grices creek. we went swimming every day in the summer. mama never went with us. we always went after our dinner settled and we stayed all afternoon. none of us could swim, but we learned fast. bobbie, jane, soula and our baby brother shelby. we went naked sometimes. we would stand on each side of the bank with a tobacco stink in our hands and wait for the snakes to stick their heads up and WACK-O, we would knock them in the head. after we thought we had killed them all - we would go swimming - we never did get bit or hurt.
another thing we did was swing on grapevines. once one broke with me - it's a wonder it didn't kill me, but it didn't even hurt me.
we would always take our city cousins up in the hay loft and we would jump out and it was really high. we never got any broken bones.
we hated going blackberry picking - but mama made us. she would rub us with something and we wore long sleeves and long pants. she would make jam and jelly. it was so good. we were all skinny.
i also hated to go get the cows. but if mama said go - you went. we could all milk.
daddy was a bird hunter and we always had about sixteen bird dogs. (i'm not kidding.) we also had lots of cats. my sisters and i didn't like cats very much.
in the summer, we would always have a garden and we would take the blades from onions and use them for our straws. we always had good food. we never had hamburgers or hot dogs. i never had a hamburger until i had a date. we had corn on the cob, green beans, okra and tomatoes, always at night we had hoecakes. we didn't have meat much, except chicken. mama would make strawberry jello and slice bananas in it. she would put it in the frig under the ice trays. we had vanilla ice cream and saltine crackers together. when we got the ice trays out if you stuck your tongue to the ice trays - your tongue would stick and it was hard to pull loose.
mama washed every monday, if it wasn't raining - she would sort out the clothes on the back porch. put the pieces to starch - she would make up a big dish pan with starch. if we ran out of clothes line - we hung them on the garden fence. of course, we had a ring washer. we poured the wash water on mama's flowers. the cistern was right by the back porch and if you turned the handle to fast the chain would jump off.
we all drank out of the same dipper. we didn't have running water and didn't have a bathroom. we we washed our hair - we would heat a tea kettle full of water and take it out on a plank that went to the cistern and also a big water bucket of cold water and wash our hair. i guess we washed our hair at the kitchen sink in the winter.
we always had to wear hose. mama didn't want us to go bare legged - or we wore bobby socks.
soula and i would walk up to sue and lavernes and play in the play house - of course, it was out under a tree. sue and laverne lived right up the road.
our first cousin, jack rye, got a new bicycle for christmas one year. he came riding up the next morning. i believe it was green.
another fun thing was - when betty sue came home from new york and brought those sweet babies. she is mr. walter and georgia pitts daughter - they lived on the next farm. they also had bobby and jeanie. as soon as betty sue got there - we would walk down the road so we could play with her babies, johnny, michael and kevin. jeanie would always take us to the new elvis movie and she would let us drive. she had a new car and had gotten it in dover [TN].
another highlight was the farm bureau supper. it was over at the campground. daddy took a load on the bus and they always had home made ice cream.
the 4H club riley was once a year in the spring. they would have games and singing up at the old gym - then we would walk down to the picture show in erin - always a western. i would be so excited.
les and ethel took us to the circus once in erin. we were so excited! bobbie, jane and soula kay! they got us some cotton candy - i thought it looked sooo good but when i got it, i didn't like it.
for fun, we played annie over, hide -n- go seek, baseball and horse shoes. as we got older, soula and i watched american bandstand after lunch - then we would go to the creek or stay at home and lay out in the sun. sometimes we would take a quilt and crawl out the upstairs window and lay on the tin roof. les would throw cold water on us if we got the chance.
we didn't have a phone or a car.
but we always had fun.
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