Kerosene lamps with their yellow glow and on special occasions-the Alladin. Some Sunday's the preacher would come for dinner. Fried Chicken and all the other things that went along with it. After the meal, an afternoon visiting and resting until the evening meal and then back for the evening services. These were special occasions when the Alladin would be "fired up". Refrigerator was an old Arkla Servel kerosene burner that worked when it felt like it. Radios were battery powered-using the battery from the Model A Ford to double duty. Couldn't run the thing down on Sat nite listening to the Grand Ole Opery or the Ford wouldn't start Sunday morning for Church. Well, finally we got "rich" and traded for a Delco Light Plant. 32 Volt D.C. was just beyond belief. Lights that would light up the entire room, radios that would work all day, no batteries to conserve for the Ford and what about the new "Gibson" Refrigerator that worked night and day without causing trouble? Lights would start to get dim so older brother would be the one to go to the engine building and fire it up. A double row of 2 bolt batteries--8 on bottom row and 8 on top row. The old one lunger would immediately start crankin out the voltage and the lights in the house started getting brighter. We were in "seventh heaven" with this marvelous invention. After 4 years we heard of a newfangled thing-a-ma-jig that everybody was talking about. Called the R.E.A.! Us kids didn't have the foggiest idea what it was but figgered it had to be big and important. Only people with initials were inmportant. We'd heard of some bankers that used their initials. They WERE important-we weren't! Well, R.E.A. came and pappy signed up after much thought and discussion with my mother. They just didn't know if they could make the monthly payment of $4.00!!! Needless to say-they did and it was no turning back after that. The old Delco's were junked by the truckloads. Worthless junk since the R.E.A. came to town. I think times were much better back then but then I guess I'm and old fossil. No light bill, no phone bill, no car payments, house payments, no insurance bills. Who said we are progressing. Of course, people died lots younger. My life was spared in 1945, strep infection, with a new miricle drug---Pencillin! We'll continue with more at a later post-if people wanna hear about life in rural Illinois in the 40's and 50's. Matt. 24:44

-- hoot gibson (hoot@otbnet.com), June 15, 2000

Answers

You keep talking - I'll keep listening!!

One of the great pleasures of having an extended family is listening to the stories of life "way back when". Course, now that I get to be one of the ones TELLING the tales, they're even more enjoyable!!

-- Polly (tigger@moultrie.com), June 15, 2000.

Keep'em coming Hoot. I, of course, am too young to remember any of this.... Gerbil (well, ok, I do remember gas being under a quarter a gallon.)

-- Gerbil (ima_gerbil@hotmail.com), June 15, 2000.

Hoot, I love to hear stories about back when...I only hope someday somebody will still want to listen when it's time to talk about "my time" (from me or anybody else!)Please keep sharing! BTW, My mom used to live sorta by Hoot Gibson's spread at one time I do believe....

-- sheepish (rborgo@gte.net), June 15, 2000.

Boy, do I feel young for a change !!!!!!!!!!! I was in diapers in 1950....by the time I was six I remember one of my chores was to pick up the pieces of laundry from the washer tub to the wringer using a pretty big stick..the trick was to just get the edge of a shirt,buttons DOWN,onto the stick, lift it up to the wringer and let it "feed" in..if you tried to short cut this and stuff a whole shirt in at once, the wringer would pop open with a loud bang (and Mom would know what you had tried to do)!!!! I love hearing and sharing about life in the "good ole days"...let's here somemore Hoot !!!

-- Lesley Chasko (martchas@gateway.net), June 15, 2000.

The article is great , please keep them coming.

-- kathy h (saddlebronc@msn.com), June 15, 2000.

This is great Hoot! Give us more details. What did you listen to on the radio? What kind of music or radio programs? What were your favorites? Did the whole family listen? Were all ages in attendance at the music parties or was it just adults or alot of young singles?Tell about the war and how it affected your family or even how your family coped with the depression. Iknow i'm asking alot at once. Answer at your leisure. I find it all fascinating! Denise

-- Denise (jphammock@earthlink.net), June 16, 2000.

It is certainly more interesting than the "1900s House" about a middle class family in London.

-- Hendo (redgate@echoweb.net), June 16, 2000.

Hoot, I was born after the REA came through, but the power went off a lot (and still does). We had electric appliances, and the second TV in the county. But the preacher coming for dinner sounds familiar. There were church socials and family gatherings on Sunday, just because my grandmother and three of her daughters all went to the same church and NO ONE had an entire dinner ready, so the partial meals were put together to make one, then forty-two was played all afternoon until time for church again. One Sunday it was cold as blue blazes. After the impromptu lunch, the men went down to the pond and cut out chunks of ice from it and we made ice cream. We all live in NE Texas, and houses here used to not be built for winter. You could chunk a cat through the walls of most houses, but we still made ice cream. Ate it inside with our coats on. We already had the coats on anyway, cause the house just wasn't warm. It was a lot of fun. My one remaining aunt and I were laughing about that not long ago. I fully believe that life was better then. My elders and betters had troubles, but most of the time everyone was happy. How many people do you know that seem really happy now? As my grandmother said, be happy. In the end that's all you have anyway.

Keep the stories coming, Hoot!! I'd like to relive the memories. Even though we have never met, the memories are similar.

-- Green (ratdogs10@yahoo.com), June 16, 2000.

Don't stop now, Thanks

-- Cindy (atilrthehony_1@yahoo.com), June 16, 2000.

Hoot, I was a teenager back in 1956. I had a 49 Ford with a sun visor and white sidewall tires, 4 speed transmission. I don't know if they ever made a prettier car. Do you remember how they had the little window beside the front seat windows and you could turn it so that fresh air blew on you all time. I wonder why they ever quit making those little windows. I guess air conditioning did in the little windows. Life was so good if you didn't get a toothache. Eagle

-- eagle (eagle@alpha1.net), June 17, 2000.

Our Friday night music parties included everybody in the family. Kids would play outside in the summertime, young singles would also attend. The music we enjoyed was basically country or "home grown" music which included Gospel or "church songs". While listening on the radio it was WSM in Nashville, Tn. XREF in Del Rio, TX, KSTL in St. Louis with Johnny Ryan, WLS in Chicago. Louisana Hayride but cant remember the call letters anymore. I had a crystal set that was "on" all the time. Tuned to WPAP in Dallas or XREF with a headset. Kept the headphones hanging on the bedpost and just lett'r rip. With a long wire antenna about 1,000 foot long and up about 20 foot, it would pull in a bunch of stations. For those whom don't know, crystal sets didn't require any voltage to operate. This was also the starting of my desire to acquire a Ham Radio License which I finally got around to in 1980. I eventually obtained the highest license available---the coveted Amature Extra Class. One of my proudest accomplishments. I was from a close knit family totalling 7 boys and 1 girl. Oh don't worry, sis could hold her own! She became an R.N. 4 brothers served in the military, 3 died young and before their time but not in the military. I'm now the youngest after Frank died in Sept. of 72 in a construction accident. Pappy, who was a farmer and writer, died in 83 at 75 years, Mom is still alive at 87. None of the family reached national notoriety but that's ok. We are still close with family get togethers every little whip-stitch. My sons were the first to acquire B.A. degrees in Education. One teaches while the older left to pursue a career in business. My wife is college educated and is an X-Ray Technoligist. I'm the dummy in this family--! My first car--56 Chev. Bel Air. My 2nd car a 55 Chev that just couldn't be beat---drag racing, that is. 265 ci, 4 bbl. carb etc etc etc! Making and Throwing Darts--the Country boy way! In case you'all wanna know about it. Matt. 24:44

-- hoot gibson (hoot@otbnet.com), June 17, 2000.

XERF and WBAP. Sorry about the typo. May be others too, that I didn't catch. Matt. 24:44

-- hoot gibson (hoot@otbnet.com), June 17, 2000.

Not pre-1950, but thought you'd like it anyway. The 'kids' at work looked at me funny when I mentioned the 'blue laws', I said "You know, when stores couldn't be open on Sunday.(blank stares) Just the little corner grocery, and that was only till dinner time (1 pm) (blank stares). We used to ride our bikes in the parking lot of the Grand Union after church.(blank stares)" These kids are so used to 'life' being 'on call' 24/7, they couldn't IMAGINE that Wal-Mart or Shop-Rite was actually CLOSED on Sunday! I felt so old, I went home early.

-- Kathy (catfish@bestweb.net), June 17, 2000.

Kathy, yeah the blue laws! We couldn't buy meat on Sunday, nor beer or wine (no problem for me as I was maybe 10!). Department stores were only open at night on Mondays (and then radically on Friday nights) and only at the new shopping center (forerunner to a mall). Stores were closed on Sundays (I wish they were still!!!) My mom, brother and I would watch The Flinstones on Friday night (right after International Showtime with Don Ameche as host!) and pop popcorn...no movies out, but we had teevee...But this is Hoot's post, and I am getting off topic...

-- sheepish (rborgo@gte.net), June 18, 2000.

Hi ~ I'm a lurker, trying to get caught up on all the posts. I wanted to ask Hoot more about the batteries. My grandparents died in 1970, so I can't ask them. My sister found a sign in their basement that said "Have you checked your batteries today?" I think it said Delco on it too. If I understood your post correctly, you had to use a generator of some sort to charge the batteries when they got low? Did the generator run on gasoline? When I heard about the sign, I thought perhaps there was only electricity sometimes, and they had to charge up their batteries for when there wasn't any electricity coming through. Now I think, though, that this was probably pre- electricity supplied by a power company (northern Wisconsin in the 30's or 40's I think).

-- J.E.Froelich (firefly@nnex.net), June 18, 2000.

J.E.! The engine, built by Delco, turned a generator also built by Delco, to charge the batteries. Voltage was always present or at least available from the batteries. One only ran the engine, gasoline burner, until the matteries were charged up. Some folks had a hydrometer to check the charge however the batteries we had - had a hydrometer already built inside the battery that was located on the bottom right end row. Very seldom used the hand held hydro or even looked at the battery. We KNEW when the batteries were low---the lights were dim! I imagine some dude sold a bunch of those gizmos to people who didn't know you didn't really need one. hahaha. Well anyhow, we did have to keep an eye on the batteries for water level and corrosion buildup on the connecting terminals. The engine ran at 1800 rpm-slow compared to the little screaming memmies sold now-they run at 3600rpm. Of course these now adays are alternators while the old Delco's were Generators and put out D.C.-32 volts. Run time was 10 minutes or less about every other day. We didn't have much demand for electricity back then. Some lights, refrigerator and maybe a radio. I was looking for an old Delco system a few years ago and just couldn't find any. I've since found there's a internet site where people collect, rebuild etc those old dudes. Problem is -now I don't have the money to buy one!!! Delco was not the only manufacturer of those 32 volt light plants back then---just the most common. Matt. 24:44

-- hoot gibson (hoot@otbnet.com), June 19, 2000.

Hey Hoot! My 17 year old son says that he thinks it was KWKH that broadcast the Louisia Hayride. Does that sound right? I can remember people talking about listening to it, but don't ever remember us listening to it. We were usually in town on Saturday night. All the stores stayed open until 10 pm and people would just go to town and hang around to talk to other folks they knew. We used to sit in front of the furniture store and watch the television they had on display in the front window. Lots of folks would gather there. The furniture company sold lots of TV's that way. That was around 1957.

-- Green (ratdogs10@yahoo.com), June 19, 2000.

Green! Don't think thats it. Seems like WWL or WLW or something like that. Been too long for my old feeble brain to remember. hahaha. Making darts. Using a wood shingle [not a shake] that's thin on one end and about 3/4 inch thick onother end. Whittle it to resemble an arrow as on a weather vane, with the thick, heavy end as the point and the thin end as the feather. About 2 inches behind the "head" cut a notch about 1/4" deep angled toward the dart head. Next cut a willow stick about 3/4 inch thick and 2 ft long. Tie a heavy string or cord on the end and the other end of the string double knot it. By holding the stick in your left hand and the "feather" in your right hand --pull the dude hard enough that the willow stick bends. When it's bent quite a lot -let the dart go. I believe you'll find that the dart will disappear into the sky----!Watch out for it when it comes down! We used to throw those darts for hours back then. We also used to build and use the two stringged slingshot. You know, like old David, the sweet singer of Isreal used to thump ole Golithe dude with. One could also make a nice round rock disappear --trouble was with me--I NEVER knew which way it was going!!! Rollin a steel ring with a T stick. I once put a handle in a mallet head per request of our shop teacher about 40 years ago. I looked around and found a broom handle and installed it. He wasn't too happy at first but when the whole class just cracked up, he relented and thought it was funny too. I certainly did. Built a 6 foot propeller in shop out of a 2x4 and rode on the hood of my cousins 50 Ford and watched it spin. The principal of the high school wasn't laughing! So, one can still have fun withoug bloodshed, violence, drugs and liquor. Runnin my little Shorts Duplex 2 cylinder steam engine with a steam activated sliding valve----next time around. Matt. 24:44

-- hoot gibson (hoot@otbnet.com), June 19, 2000.

Just last night, I was thinking of the games we played in the 1940s. Wanted to pass some on to my grandkids, but couldnt remember just how they went Kick the can. I draw a circle on the iceman's back.Hide and seek, of course, and 4-5 others that kept us happily occupied until dark, and sometimes after. No need for computer games and such... we never had a real base-foot-or basket-ball...We went to bed happy and tired, and I don't recall anyone ever getting bored.

At our house, radio was for after the Saturday night bath. (Water was heated in a teakettle on the kitchen stove. No 20 minute daily showers in those days!) Judy Canova was a favorite, along with Fibber McGee and Molly and Amos n Andy. The Shadow was okay, but restricted: too violent I suppose!

My first car was a 37 Chev. And it had virtually the same engine as my second: a 47 Chev. And I do believe both were simpler than the engine on my new Husquarva chain saw! I can't believe you can't even replace your own burned out headlights any more, much less do anything else without factory training...

Ah, so many memories. The ice man and rag man and pot mender and scissors sharper---all with their horse-drawn wagons, of course.We lived in a small town, but with gardens, chickens and meat rabbits in the backyards. The telephone (when it came) was for VERY SPECIAL occasions (which might be one reason I still cringe when making or getting a long distance call). Kids went to the tavern to get pa a bucket of beer---a literal bucket! Meat market with chickens (with heads and feet still on) hanging above the sawdust covered floor.

Even I have a hard time understanding this one: My mother's homemade bread lost favor when the local baker got a machine that SLICED bread, a whole loaf at a time, right before your eyes! What would science think of next!

I think the world started going to hell when they replaced steam (railroad) engines with diesel electrics, which was in the early fifties where we lived. From then on, everything went downhill.

Our parents got tv about 1953, but Diane and I didnt get one until her folks gave their discarded one... which just happened to be the day JFK was assassinated.

Footnote: How come there wasn't this much interest in this "old" stuff when I used to run it in Countryside? I would have done a lot more!

Jd

-- Jd (belanger@tds.net), June 21, 2000.

I guess times are just different now, JD. Thanks, Hoot! I love this stuff. Not too many people I know can reminisce about the old days without complaining. Please keep reminiscing! Jean P.S. JD, too and all of you!

-- Jean (schiszik@tbcnet.com), June 22, 2000.

Jd, I wasn't reading Countryside until recently or I would have been interested. I think part of the appeal of homesteading to me is it's nostalgia. It's amazing to me that we have changed so much in such a short time. My grandmother tells about when she was young and living on a very self sufficient farm. She said they hardly noticed the depression. She loved it. And to this day she can tell me how to do just about anything. Sort of like another Carla Emery. It's a shame she ended up in the city. My grandpa's family sold the farm when the patriarch died. My grandpa said it would be easier work and less hours in the city. What a shame. She regrets it also but women didn't pull much weight then.

Oh Hendo mentioned the 1900's house. I liked it this week. I couldn't believe the mom was loosing it like she was. She knew what she would be doing there. I would have been frustrated with that stove though.

Hoot and Jd keep posting about the old stuff as it comes to mind. I like it! Denise

-- Denise (jphammock@earthlink.net), June 22, 2000.

JD! The homemade bread brought to mind about a family we visited with years ago. They were really 'hillbilly' folks-living way back in the river bottoms on top of a hill. Backwaters would get out and they were stranded at home. Well anyhow, those folks never had "store bought" light bread. Mable always made light bread on Thursday. She'd make enough to last a week. When we'd go down there visiting --- if it just happened to be thursday, the bread baking on her Home Comfort wood cookstove---you can imagine the rest! When they'd come up to our house, via a team of horses and wagon, we had gotten rich enough that pap always bought bread. Their kids were just as facinated by our store bought as we were by their homemade. I remember several years later their oldest boy had bought an old 47 Dodge with fluid drive. It stalled on him up in our neck of the woods and his daddy came to drag the dead car home. He used his team of horses/wagon and a log chain. They tried first to pull the car and start it, not knowing the fluid drive had to be towed at about 40 mph. Of course it was needless---the old team couldn't run that fast so he went ahead and towed it to their home--about 6 miles away! "Bushing up" rods on old chev's, before rod bearings, with bacon rind or leather shoe toungs--then tradin it off. We rode the steam train in dollywood last month and really enjoyed it. I'd like to see steam come back--fired with wood or coal and not diesel fuel! Matt. 24:44

-- hoot gibson (hoot@otbnet.com), June 22, 2000.

Hoot, I surely am glad that my kids can't get the instructions for your darts! They don't have the common sense that God gave them, and it's a long drive to the hospital to extract one of those darts! The oldest is 9, but I bet they'll come up with some propeller and dart stories of their own, by and by.

It's great to hear about the things that have stood the test of time, like listening to good radio, and I played kick the can, always at dusk, with all the kids in the old neighborhood.

I wasn't even a twinkle in my father's eye in the '50s. My first car was a Cutlass! But my Chevy Suburban has that little triangle window, Hoot. It never closes right, and the wind whistles, maybe that's why they stopped making them? But you're right, I like it.

Grandma told me about Wonder Bread, when it first was made. She said the promotional van drove through neighborhoods giving out these little individual loaves, and all of the sudden homemade bread was out of style. She remembered slicing those promo loaves the lengthwise, and making a big sandwich for Grandpa on the whole thing. Grandma thought it was funny that these days women don't learn to make simple things like bread, biscuits and pie crust; something she remedied early on with me. She told and I listened to great truths about the Depression, and had written poetry about it.

When margarine was new, apparently the yellow dye was in the corner of the plastic bag, and the margarine was still white. That was a kid's job, to knead the dye into the Oleo so it looked like butter.

Hoot, my father said that before the '50s, one kid every year out of his school class would die from simple infections, like pneumonia, until the widespread use of penicillin.

-- Rachel (rldk@hotmail.com), June 22, 2000.

"Starting School" Sept. 1921, Miles Standish School, Mpls.

I remember so well my first day of school. Walking proudly beside my mother, who had my brother by the hand. My two older sisters skipped ahead. My dress was green checked gingham with a big white organdy sash, complete with matching rosettes in my hair. My high top patent leather shoes with the three straps that buttoned. My white half socks with the green striped cuffs held neatly in place with elastic bands. My sisters, also in the same gingham dresses and bows, except for the colors. Their high top shoes had laces, for older children did not wear the buttoned straps. How I envied them. My brother in a little blue chambray sailor suit with white braid and a red tie. My kindergarten teacher was the gray haired, gentle grandmother type and as my sister was in her room earlier, she wasn't a stranger. It was a happy day.

--by Evelyn F. Davison, my grandmother, of blessed memory.

-- Rachel (rldk@hotmail.com), June 22, 2000.

Tradin for a steam engine. The year was 1966 and the engine was a 2 cylinder upright, Shorts Duplex High Speed Engine with a sliding, steam activated valve. Mounted on a home-made boiler-made from a 4 foot section of 16" Oil well surface pipe. It had a 4" chimney through the center and a little fire box on the bottom. Engine was mounted on the side of the boiler with a home-made whistle on the engine top. I went and traded a Gibson Mastertone 4 string banjo for it at Calhoun Illinois and drug the thing past my daddys house--in the middle of the night! Woke him up, fired the engine on the tailgait of my old 55 GMC pickup and let'r rip. Watched the flywheel turn and tooted the whistle. Pappy loved those steamers as much as I did but he wasn't too impressed at this late hour. Sold the engine several years later but still have that worthless boiler. An old indian lived just south and west of our old homeplace about 3 miles, as the crow flies. His name was Roy Cheek, long dead now, and he converted a 1926 Pontiac, 6 cylinder flat head engine to steam. He cut the timing gears out of chunks of steel he acquired somewhere. Filing the gears by hand with a file while using homemade jigs cut out of wood! He never got it running because of the incomplete boiler. He was not a welder and didn't have any money to hire one. My brother-in-law bought the old car years later. Don't know what he ever did with it. Roy should've burned drip gas as it was close by to his house and very plentiful. We used to burn it in our old cars. Every Thursday nite my brother and I would go "drippin" to supply enough fuel to run him for a week. He had a 1948 Hudson Hornet with a 30 gallon drum in the trunk. We carried 5 gallon gasoline cans from the road to the 210 bbl tank that was always full of drip. I was bigger than him and more stout so I carried 4 cans at a time while he only carried 2. We'd fill'm up and carry them back across the field, stepping over a rodline, watching out for a mean bull, the landowner and the pumper. Made for some interesting nights especially when it was pitch black outside and we couldn't use a flashlight!!! Next time: ???? Matt. 24:44

-- hoot gibson (hoot@otbnet.com), June 22, 2000.