Memories! Many of you have similar childhood experiences to mine. Growing up in a tiny rural town had its charm, and problems. My Grandpa ran the General Store and if I would put a candy bar on the counter he would smile and say "Yah" and I didn't have to pay. When he retired the new owner was a very mean and spiteful man so I never went near his store. Our one room school meant about a mile walk and quicker if we cut through the field, but not when the bull was nearby. Girls were not prized and men who fathered only girls were not esteemed. Girls were told to keep quiet, never do better in school than the boys, and never have "high falutin" ideas. Our minister was against girls having any higher education of college or training. So of course I couldn't wait to leave and see the rest of the world! I remember 4-H county fair competitions, Sunday School recitations, canning fruits and veggies on the hot summer days, cutting corn out of the beans, feeding the stock, hunting eggs, finding kittens in the barn loft, choosing fabric feed sacks for dresses, planting, weeding and harvesting from a big garden. For games we jumped rope, ran races, climbed trees, made dolls from hollyhock flowers, made mud pies, and in winter skated on the farm ponds. We didn't have skates just slid around with our boots. Keeping the wood box filled, and dusting were two chores I didn't like. But ironing and cooking I did like. Of course we had a bully. He lived at the end of the one road through town and caused all kinds of problems. Luckily we had Grandparents nearby to help. When our little school closed and we had to ride the bus over an hour each way to high school in the big town we were overwhelmed. But just at first. Most of us adapted well and some went on to college. I remember playing "Annie, Annie Over", "Mother May I", "Freeze Tag", "Hide and Seek", and boys played softball. Roads were graded and oiled each summer, dusty and stinky! In winter Dad wore ice creepers on his boots. Power would go out often and everyone had wood stoves and fireplaces to keep warm and cook. Our phone was a party line and everyone listed in. One woman had her phone next to her ticking clock so we always knew when she was there. Our minister told us he would not let Santa Clause come to our house if we messed up our Christmas speech, so we really knew it! Think I wrote before how he substituted raw colored eggs for boiled ones in our Easter egg hunt and they broke all over our new clothes. He thought it was funny, we didn't. Our school had 22 kids in grades 1-8. My class was the biggest ever with 5. I was the only girl. We had very few girls in the county. The first graders sat next to the eighth graders (both of them) and they helped us learn to read and write. Anyone else remember Dick, Jane, Puff and Spot? Some years we didn't have some grades as no child was that age. The bully I mentioned was held back twice until he got bigger. We had outhouses and a tornado shelter dug out underground with a concrete top.
We used our ink wells to put spring flowers in and had box socials at school where people prepared pies and other treats packed in a box and it was auctioned off to raise money for the school. Some boxes were marked by girls hoping their boyfriends would buy them. The school had a stove in the middle for heat, cloak rooms, water bucket, stage and desks bolted to the floor with seats that folded up. I learned to sew on Grandmas treadle machine and still have it and it still works. I know I'm rambling but thought just keep popping into my head. When we tell kids today what our life was like they think it was "Little House on the Prairie" and it almost was!