OUR farm house had running indoor water-—about around us did now.
DAD bought 120 acres/house/barns/other outbuildings/2 tractors/other machinery in Nov 1947 for $12,000. House & building were circa 1903 or so. AIR FORCE vet was our farm manager. Dad had a full time job. Made $12,000 a year-—I h was A LOT in those days.
I HAVE THE ABSTRACT from that land. Goes back to about 1852.
We got TV around 1950 & it went off at 11 PM.
WE pasteurized our own milk—2.5 gallons every other day. NO cafeteria—even in high school.
PB & J sandwiches for 4 kids every day===a WHOLE LOAF of Wonder bread.
HOMEWORK was mandatory & bedtime was 9:30 PM thru 11th grade.
Later on Friday nights if a game.
Could buy 8 oz of milk in carton for 5 cents at high School-— but NO cafeteria.
Also had school lockers with NO locks-—never a problem.
Had HOME EC classes & was in 4-H. Showed a heifer at County Fair.
Friday night football/ basketball was the most entertainment we had.
When A & W opened up in town of 4100-—THAT was a BIG DEAL.
Today, ALOT of our farm is now HOUSES & APARTMENTS-—TOO MANY & TOO CLOSE TOGETHER.
MY Welsh pony could find a way to get out & we could always find her cozied up to a neighbor draft horse who was grazed on a chain...next door. She lived to about 27.
Hunting season-—all HS kids old enough to drive always had guns on racks inside their truck cabs. NEVER AN ISSUE.
WE had at least 7 long guns in the house & there were NO keys for the doors. Old fashioned skeleton keys. House was never locked.
This thread has opened up the floodgates.....
DID NOT have running water inside
“This thread has opened up the floodgates.....”
Getting up at 4 AM to help Dad and Uncle feed hay to about 100 cows on week days finished that in time to ride bike to school.
Hay bails were stored in old abandoned sharecropper houses. Fun handling bails of hay with coons, possums and skunks in the dark at 5 AM on 20 degree mornings.
Mother sewed together flour sacks so late summer brother and I could pick cotton still remember the 25 cents when I first got paid.
We went to school in town but the rural schools all shut down during the cotton harvest so whole families could pick cotton most money they made all year.
Going to cotton gin with grandfather, manager was always a man who had lost one arm to all the machines.
Late 1950’s NE Texas.