I would like share with you some of my many memories on this page. The old house shown above reminds me of the farm house where I grew up. I have so many memories there...

Working in the fields with my sister & brothers......Mommy always planted a separate garden to grow our food supply. Then they(Mommy & Daddy) planted extra potatoes, corn, & beans to sell. We also grew tobacco every year for extra income. Hay was cut & baled two times per year, so we had to help haul that to the barn. There was always plenty of work to keep us busy. The rows were always equally divided when we were sent to weed & hoe it. Bruce & Ted would always beat us to the fields & then laugh when they got through first! I especially hated working in the tobacco. Seems as though there was always something to do there....plant it, hoe it, weed it, cut the suckers out of it, top it, & the most dreaded part...getting those blasted tobacco worms off the leaves!!! That still gives me shivers just thinking about those big ole ugly worms!!! I was afraid of them, so I left them on the leaves! (Of course, I didn't tell my parents about that part!) My brothers constantly scared me with those hideous worms. One day, my cousin was also there working with us. I still think my brothers egged him on...he put one of those big fat green worms on my shoulder when I wasn't looking. Then they asked me what was on my shoulder. Well, when I looked down, I went berserk!!! I started running for home as fast as I could go, screaming & crying at the same time. They kept yelling for me to slow down so they could get that worm, but I wasn't listening too well at that point. Wanna hear the explanation he gave for putting that monster on me??? He really didn't think I was afraid of them!!!!! Well, Duh!!!! How dense was he?????

Having fun................Even though we had plenty of work to do, there was always plenty of time to play, also. We were poor, but really didn't know that most of the time. We didn't have many toys, so we made our own fun!!! We would take hay bales & stack them to makes tunnels in the barn loft. We would crawl through them & try to hide from each other. We found grape vines & we would swing on them. We would play in the brook, splash each other & look for crawdads. Gosh, was that water ice cold!!! We played Tag, Red Rover, Annie Over, Hide & Seek, Mother May I, Simon Says, Jump Rope & lots of other games. We would catch June Bugs & tie a string around one of their legs. Then they would fly around in circles. We got buttons from Mommy's button tin. Then we would put a sting through the button holes & tie it in a circle & make our own noise maker. We'd put a piece of thin paper on a comb & make music with it. Daddy showed us how to make a little toy using an empty thread spool, a rubber band & a pencil. We used our imagination to make toys. We had a lot of fun.

The front porch.............Ahhhh, now those are fond memories. That was our gathering place in warm weather. We had a long front porch. We would sit outside in the evenings after supper was over with. We could watch the lightning bugs flickering, hear the frogs & crickets singing their summer songs, then we would hear the long whistle of the nightly train that came through, the sound getting louder the closer it got. (The railroad was on the hill above our barn.) Sometimes my sister, Mary Helen  & I would catch some lightning bugs & then pull off their tails. Then we would put the lit part on our ring fingers & pretend we had diamond rings! (Guess that would be considered insect cruelty now!!)Sometimes, Daddy & Mommy would tell us ghost stories. We would beg them to tell them to us, then would be scared to go to bed by ourselves later!

Sunday Dinners...................Sundays were always special at our house. We always had an extra special meal for Sunday Dinners!!! Lots of the time, we would have company for dinner on Sunday. I suppose the most popular dinner was fried chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy, biscuits, green beans, slaw, corn, sliced tomatoes, cornbread, peas & pies or cake for dessert. Mom was & still is the best cook around! If company came, we kids always had to wait & eat last. But there was always enough. Just seemed like it took forever sometimes before the grown-ups got through eating! After dishes were done, everyone usually gathered on the front porch for just talking & enjoying the day!

Hay Rides...................Sometimes, we talked Daddy into a hay ride. We had a long flat wagon that we used to haul hay in after it was cut & baled. So, Daddy would scatter hay on the wagon,and off we would go. He drove us down Red Cut road first & then through the little town of Elk Valley. If we saw anyone outside, we would yell & urge them to "Get On!" Of course, we had already let our friends know, so they would be ready & waiting to get on board! I believe the route we took was around the loop, then past the school & on toward Stanfield. Then Daddy would turn around & make the journey back. Pulling the wagon with a tractor was slow going, so it was always dark way before we got home. Great time for sitting close with a boyfriend!

Halloween.................We always had so much fun on Halloween! Back then, it was safe to walk without your parents. Some friends would come to our house to start out. Daddy would drive us to the Valley & drop us off. Then we would start walking back up the valley, toward the school & then on toward Stanfield. Kids would join us as we walked. It would be "pitch dark" before we ever got off Elk Fork road making our way toward Stanfield. We had so much fun talking, yelling out to people we passed, scaring each other. We did this even after we were teens. We walked & the younger ones would trick-or-treat at each house we stopped at. By the time we reached Stanfield & got ready to turn left onto the road to home, most of the kids would have already got to their own home. Then we would walk on until we made it home. I might add that this was probably a 5-6 mile journey of walking. We were usually tired, but it really didn't seem that long of a walk back then. Just being with your friends & having fun made the trip seem short. I doubt if I could do it now!

 

  Courting.......Now that's always a fond memory! When my sister & I were old enough to have a boyfriend, they had to come to our house to court & only on the week-end, too!!!! Back then, they usually didn't have a car, so they walked. We would sit on the front porch swing or in the glider. Of course there was no way we were ever alone with three younger brothers! They were always there!!!! My baby sister, Nadine,  was born the year before I
got married, so she was too young to be a pest. lol My *youngest brother, Randy, was almost five when my future husband, Arvil, & I started"sparking". Arvil made a real buddy out of him. Then, from there on out, Randy sat between us when he came to visit! lol After all, Arvil did say that he was his Buddy!
(* Note...Randy was my youngest brother at that time. My baby brother, Ernie, came along after I was married!!! )

I hope you enjoyed reading just a few of my many memories. Hopefully, I didn't bore you too much. Just click on the "Next" button to read about some Winter Memories!

Page Created October 26, 2000