My students had a project to find out the stories of their grandparents. This is example for one of the responses:
There is lots to tell but first I'll share just how much different my home (as a child) was from yours. I was born in 1930 in a very rural home = the ninth child in the family. Of course, I do not remember much about that first house but I do remember moving day when I was perhaps three. I stayed with a neighbor and they had a news-paper with colored comic pages. I had never seen that before and I tried to find a way to separate the page to "let those cute little people out" That first home and most homes after that did not have electricity - we did not use candles but kerosene lamps. We had no running water in the house so, of course, no bathrooms. Toilet facilities were in a separate little house! Bathing was done in a tub placed by the kitchen stove and water was heated in an attached section of the stove called a resevoir. We had no radio, no TV, but we did have a phonograph player which had to be wound up with a crank at the side. Records were black flat discs and you had to manually lift the needle arm and place it on the record. We moved again before I started school (first grade- there was no kinder-garden). On that move, we could not find my cat named Boots. All of these homes were in the country. I did not live in a city or town until after I graduated from high school. I liked to go to school, and will always remember my first grade teacher - Mrs. Mamie Duncan. Learning to read was fun, chasing boys at recess was fun, playing marbles with the boys was productive - I was pretty good and won a few marbles. Because we lived in the country and rode a school bus, there really was not an opportunity to "hang out with friends". As I grew older, there were many times, we would "spend the night" with a girl friend. Especially if that friend lived in town so we could go to the basketball game. I loved to watch basketball. Our school was much too small to have a football team so all of the enthusiasm went to the basketball games. As we grew a bit older - teenagers, we would have "slumber parties" at someone's home. It was a time when home permanents were popular and we gave each other home permanents. After World War II, (1945) my oldest brother came home from the Army and he was able to help with the electrical wiring of our house and we were finally able to have electricity. The Rural Electrification Program had been put into effect (by the Federal Government) and electrical wires were available in many areas where they had not been previously. Now we could have electricity, AND A RADIO! We loved to listen to certain programs - like Jack Armstrong - The All American Boy - and others. My brother was two years older and he liked those programs. Of course, there were also The Lone Ranger - The Hit Parade Jack Benny, Fibber McGee and Molly - really good things and we laughed a lot. A few years later a bathroom was added to the house, but we still did not have a furnace. All heat was done with a heating stove placed in the center room of the downstairs. The kitchen also had a cooking stove that produced heat (both summer and winter). Bedrooms were never heated (very cold in the winter and heavy comforters were needed). My chores growing up were to clean the chimneys on the kerosene lamps - they would always get Smokey when used. From about age 10 or so, it was my job to walk back to the pasture field and bring the cows down to the barn so my mother could milk them. During the summer we always worked in the garden, and helped with bringing the mown hay to the barn. It would be hard to describe, but it was my job to drive two work horses when the hay was taken into the hayloft of the barn by a special contraption that was set and released by my father and other brothers. I liked cleaning better than cooking so weekly I would do a super-clean job on our living room. Since there was no electricity, I would take the cushions from the couch and the rugs, into the yard, beat them with a "beater" to get the dust out and return them. Dishes were always done by hand so drying dishes was never-ending. The good part about chores and working was that we all worked together. Working was something everybody did! My parents had only eighth-grade educations. My mother worked some before she was married at age 19. She has talked about working in a "suspender" factory and an overcoat factory. Since I was the last of nine children, I do not recall that she ever worked outside the home. My father was a part-time farmer, a house painter (both inside and out). During WWII, we were a night watchman in a factory because jobs were plentiful with all of the able bodied men in the military service. Following the War, he was always self-employed. How did this affect my upbringing you have asked? My parents were firm believers in education and all nine children completed high school. This was not always common during the Depression. When I (the ninth child) graduated on a Tuesday, my father died the following Monday. Maybe his life work was completed. Since I was the youngest, I later was able to go to college by providing my own funds so I am the only one of my siblings with a college degree. This does not mean I was ever the smartest one. It just means I had opportunities the others did not have. Did we travel? Not at all. Cars were not dependable. I can recall a time on a visit to my grandparents house that our car could not make it up a hill until we got out (the driver stayed in) walked up the hill and again rode in the car. A BIG treat was for the family (a small part of it) to drive about seven miles into town and visit the root beer stand and get a cold root beer in a frosted mug. Yippee! We also had free movies in the summer time in the small town near my home. My father would drive us there. We would sit on blankets in the street and watch a movie on a large screen put up across the street. Sometimes for a special treat, we even got popcorn! I should talk more about my siblings. I do not recall a time when all nine of us lived in the same house. I had four brothers and four sisters. The older girls would often "live in" with another family and help with housework /cooking/ washing, etc. My brothers would be "hired" to help other farmers with chores, etc. However I do remember times when three of us girls were in one bed. I*m sure the boys had that same experience. We played a lot of card games as a family as well as outdoor games in the summer. My father was pretty good at croquet. Since I mentioned "bed" in the previous paragraph, I must tell you we did not know what a mattress was. We had a sort of canvas sack called a tick. Today you can still find material called ticking. In the summer when the wheat or oats was threshed, there was nice fresh clean straw. The "tick" was filled with straw and it was a real treat to climb up on that high spot for a nights sleep - even if there were three in the bed. The straw gradually settled and wore down until there was little "padding" left. I always lived in Ohio and in Richland County (near Mansfield) until I was 22. I then moved with a girlfriend to Toledo, Ohio, where I worked for an insurance company. It was there I started college - going to night school- while I worked days. That was the beginning of my seven-years needed to get a degree. The first two years, college was night school, and work was day time. After that, college was day and work was extra. I will be eternally grateful that I was able to finish college and am so proud of all of my children and grandchildren who value their education and are great students and great people. I hope I have helped you to get just a glimpse of my life. It was not a hard life - there was joy and fun and lots of room for creativity. Ask your mother about making a "playhouse" when we were on the ranch in Wyoming. I loved to play with paper dolls. Our comic page of the paper always had a girl with a couple dress to cut out. My friend and I would then make other clothes, color them and cut them out. We also cut out people (families) from magazines, cut out rooms and laid it all out so we had a "doll house". My mother had a large box with buttons in it. I liked to sort the buttons - putting same types and colors together. I think that is why I went into accounting which is how I earned a living after high school and college. Accounting is simply putting like things together. Good luck with your assignment - I'll bet your will get lots of great stories from all of the grandparents of your classmates. Grandpa wants this computer and I have to start cleaning our house. It is always wonderful to hear from you and anytime you want to tell us about "hanging out with friends" we would love to hear just what you do. Keep working hard in school and keep being just the wonderful, sweet, cutie pie that you are. We love you bunches! Grandma *****
There is lots to tell but first I'll share just how much different my home (as a child) was from yours. I was born in 1930 in a very rural home = the ninth child in the family. Of course, I do not remember much about that first house but I do remember moving day when I was perhaps three. I stayed with a neighbor and they had a news-paper with colored comic pages. I had never seen that before and I tried to find a way to separate the page to "let those cute little people out" That first home and most homes after that did not have electricity - we did not use candles but kerosene lamps. We had no running water in the house so, of course, no bathrooms. Toilet facilities were in a separate little house! Bathing was done in a tub placed by the kitchen stove and water was heated in an attached section of the stove called a resevoir. We had no radio, no TV, but we did have a phonograph player which had to be wound up with a crank at the side. Records were black flat discs and you had to manually lift the needle arm and place it on the record. We moved again before I started school (first grade- there was no kinder-garden). On that move, we could not find my cat named Boots. All of these homes were in the country. I did not live in a city or town until after I graduated from high school. I liked to go to school, and will always remember my first grade teacher - Mrs. Mamie Duncan. Learning to read was fun, chasing boys at recess was fun, playing marbles with the boys was productive - I was pretty good and won a few marbles. Because we lived in the country and rode a school bus, there really was not an opportunity to "hang out with friends". As I grew older, there were many times, we would "spend the night" with a girl friend. Especially if that friend lived in town so we could go to the basketball game. I loved to watch basketball. Our school was much too small to have a football team so all of the enthusiasm went to the basketball games. As we grew a bit older - teenagers, we would have "slumber parties" at someone's home. It was a time when home permanents were popular and we gave each other home permanents. After World War II, (1945) my oldest brother came home from the Army and he was able to help with the electrical wiring of our house and we were finally able to have electricity. The Rural Electrification Program had been put into effect (by the Federal Government) and electrical wires were available in many areas where they had not been previously. Now we could have electricity, AND A RADIO! We loved to listen to certain programs - like Jack Armstrong - The All American Boy - and others. My brother was two years older and he liked those programs. Of course, there were also The Lone Ranger - The Hit Parade Jack Benny, Fibber McGee and Molly - really good things and we laughed a lot. A few years later a bathroom was added to the house, but we still did not have a furnace. All heat was done with a heating stove placed in the center room of the downstairs. The kitchen also had a cooking stove that produced heat (both summer and winter). Bedrooms were never heated (very cold in the winter and heavy comforters were needed). My chores growing up were to clean the chimneys on the kerosene lamps - they would always get Smokey when used. From about age 10 or so, it was my job to walk back to the pasture field and bring the cows down to the barn so my mother could milk them. During the summer we always worked in the garden, and helped with bringing the mown hay to the barn. It would be hard to describe, but it was my job to drive two work horses when the hay was taken into the hayloft of the barn by a special contraption that was set and released by my father and other brothers. I liked cleaning better than cooking so weekly I would do a super-clean job on our living room. Since there was no electricity, I would take the cushions from the couch and the rugs, into the yard, beat them with a "beater" to get the dust out and return them. Dishes were always done by hand so drying dishes was never-ending. The good part about chores and working was that we all worked together. Working was something everybody did! My parents had only eighth-grade educations. My mother worked some before she was married at age 19. She has talked about working in a "suspender" factory and an overcoat factory. Since I was the last of nine children, I do not recall that she ever worked outside the home. My father was a part-time farmer, a house painter (both inside and out). During WWII, we were a night watchman in a factory because jobs were plentiful with all of the able bodied men in the military service. Following the War, he was always self-employed. How did this affect my upbringing you have asked? My parents were firm believers in education and all nine children completed high school. This was not always common during the Depression. When I (the ninth child) graduated on a Tuesday, my father died the following Monday. Maybe his life work was completed. Since I was the youngest, I later was able to go to college by providing my own funds so I am the only one of my siblings with a college degree. This does not mean I was ever the smartest one. It just means I had opportunities the others did not have. Did we travel? Not at all. Cars were not dependable. I can recall a time on a visit to my grandparents house that our car could not make it up a hill until we got out (the driver stayed in) walked up the hill and again rode in the car. A BIG treat was for the family (a small part of it) to drive about seven miles into town and visit the root beer stand and get a cold root beer in a frosted mug. Yippee! We also had free movies in the summer time in the small town near my home. My father would drive us there. We would sit on blankets in the street and watch a movie on a large screen put up across the street. Sometimes for a special treat, we even got popcorn! I should talk more about my siblings. I do not recall a time when all nine of us lived in the same house. I had four brothers and four sisters. The older girls would often "live in" with another family and help with housework /cooking/ washing, etc. My brothers would be "hired" to help other farmers with chores, etc. However I do remember times when three of us girls were in one bed. I*m sure the boys had that same experience. We played a lot of card games as a family as well as outdoor games in the summer. My father was pretty good at croquet. Since I mentioned "bed" in the previous paragraph, I must tell you we did not know what a mattress was. We had a sort of canvas sack called a tick. Today you can still find material called ticking. In the summer when the wheat or oats was threshed, there was nice fresh clean straw. The "tick" was filled with straw and it was a real treat to climb up on that high spot for a nights sleep - even if there were three in the bed. The straw gradually settled and wore down until there was little "padding" left. I always lived in Ohio and in Richland County (near Mansfield) until I was 22. I then moved with a girlfriend to Toledo, Ohio, where I worked for an insurance company. It was there I started college - going to night school- while I worked days. That was the beginning of my seven-years needed to get a degree. The first two years, college was night school, and work was day time. After that, college was day and work was extra. I will be eternally grateful that I was able to finish college and am so proud of all of my children and grandchildren who value their education and are great students and great people. I hope I have helped you to get just a glimpse of my life. It was not a hard life - there was joy and fun and lots of room for creativity. Ask your mother about making a "playhouse" when we were on the ranch in Wyoming. I loved to play with paper dolls. Our comic page of the paper always had a girl with a couple dress to cut out. My friend and I would then make other clothes, color them and cut them out. We also cut out people (families) from magazines, cut out rooms and laid it all out so we had a "doll house". My mother had a large box with buttons in it. I liked to sort the buttons - putting same types and colors together. I think that is why I went into accounting which is how I earned a living after high school and college. Accounting is simply putting like things together. Good luck with your assignment - I'll bet your will get lots of great stories from all of the grandparents of your classmates. Grandpa wants this computer and I have to start cleaning our house. It is always wonderful to hear from you and anytime you want to tell us about "hanging out with friends" we would love to hear just what you do. Keep working hard in school and keep being just the wonderful, sweet, cutie pie that you are. We love you bunches! Grandma *****
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