I’m only mid 60s, I feel older than that but my kids say I look a decade younger.
We lived three generations together in the old family home, rebuilt in 1840.
A big old four bedroom house with running water. The septic system was added in 1964, so I spent my earliest years using the outhouse.
I grew up very rural. We were only five miles from the nearest town but that was a completely different world.
We only *went to town* once a month to get what we couldn’t grow, raise or make ourselves.
Coffee, tea, sugar from the grocery store. Cloth, buttons and sewing supplies from the variety store.
We did have space in the community frozen food locker. We put a couple of steers away every year.
There was the Farm and Home store for everything a farmer needed, from seed and fertilizer to gum boots and overalls.
Daddy made me learn how to plow and cultivate with the horses before he let me get on the tractor.
Many times he told me “don’t let those horses get too hot”. He never said anything about me getting too hot.
Now though, I am glad he did it. It taught me patience and care and gave me an experience that has served me well.
Other than my daddy, momma and my brother everyone around me was about two generations older. I grew up with their attitudes and beliefs.
It was almost a relief when I quit school to work full time because I had very little in common with my contemporaries.
I was raised to love and care for those around me and that family was family from birth to death.
Caring for an elderly family member wasn’t a chore it was an opportunity to return their love.
I have had a somewhat odd life.
But it has given me great and wonderful memories.
Where is the temperature gauge on a horse? :)
“I have had a somewhat odd life.
But it has given me great and wonderful memories.”
More people envy you that than you probably realize.