My grandmother was taking care of 3 sisters for weeks at a time when she was about the same age. The youngest sister had polio and granny’s parents spent lots of time 175 miles away in Ann Arbor at the hospital. (horse drawn wagon trips)
At 9 years old my sisters and I took care of ourselves a lot. We were expected to keep the house clean, do laundry etc in the afternoons while our parents were at work.
“(horse drawn wagon trips)”
My mother, now 97, rode to school on a horse. The boys left a rifle in their saddle, unless it was raining, and hunted on the way home. If they shot something they ate meat. If not, no meat. When I was young anybody could have bought a gun in K-Mart. No waiting. You could also mail order them from Sears, as I recall. The only restriction was they had a book you had to sign to buy ammo that required a driver’s license. My how times change.
Funny story. When Neil Armstrong was about to step foot on the moon I yelled into the kitchen, “Mom! Come here or you’ll miss it!” She yelled back, “I saw Orville and Wilber Wright perform at the Ohio State fair. This is nothing.”
When I was 12 and up my mother would be driven to town to do a week’s marketing and laundry, often for 4 or 5 hours. I would be left at home with the 2 and 4 year old brothers, and a list of 7 or 8 chores. I didn’t always get all the chores done, and mom always found something wrong with what I had done. I still hate house cleaning.
On the other hand, when 12 she also allowed me to take my 2 and 4 year old brothers on an hour bus and subway trip to the Museum of Natural History. Still love that and am on the GGG and Catastrophism ping lists of FR.