The memory is a very complex thing for each of us, and has its challenges at times. I go back to my early childhood and remember a lot of hardships my family came through. Things commonplace then, but unheard of in this day and age we are living in. It was not a disgrace to be poor, and I never felt I was. I knew I was loved and that was enough for me. My parents were hardworking and we lived a very frugal life. For one thing we had no electricity or inside plumbing, no radio except "sometimes" when the battery wasn't dead. A lot of times no car, meant walking where ever we went, living in a converted grainery was our home. My mother washed our clothes on a washboard, heated the water on the stove, or sometimes when the weather was so hot, on an outside fire. She ironed our clothes by heating the irons on a stove, which I still have, and remember using them to help iron such things as handkerchiefs and flat pieces. My parents always had a garden and my mother canned a lot of food for the winter months. A hog was slaughtered for the meat, and lard they would rendered from the fat. Most of what groceries that were bought was flour, sugar and salt. There wasn't such things as packaged foods, and "instant" anything in those days. Very seldom did we have an ice box for saving food. Mother always cooked 3 meals a day, besides all the things she did to care for us. An ice box required a purchase of ice to keep things cooled sometimes delivered by a local man we duded the "ice man". Our "dwelling" was heated with a coal stove. There was a time when it was the only source of cooking our food, most uncomfortable heating the house unbelievably hot in the summer. At a point in time, we acquired a used kerosene 3 burner stove to use during the summer. What a blessing that was! We usually had a cow to supply our need for milk, another blessing, I might add. If this is boring and sounds outlandish, I want you to know we owe a lot to the ones that came before us. I am most blessed to have had parents that loved and cared for me. In the new year, just beginning, what are you thankful for?
grandma
