ShowMama

I grew up on a farm in Central Texas. I have one sister and one brother, but they're a lot older than me, so I was pretty much like an only child. And there weren't any close neighbors. I would spend my days roaming the fields and pastures, barefooted of course. I'd catch crawfish, pick wildflowers, investigate creekbeds, collect pretty rocks, you name it. Our cats and dogs were my companions. My mother said she would look out the window and see me disappear over a hill with three dogs and a number of cats in single file right behind me. I played in the dirt too, all the time. My kids laugh when I tell them my favorite toy as a child was dirt! Ahh, those were the days of simple times and freedom to explore.

ShowMama

I also have fond memories of our community's Friday night baseball games every summer. We played at a lighted baseball diamond at a school that was no longer being used. The electric company would turn on the lights just for three months and a collection would be taken up every week to help pay for the lights. My mother also sold cold drinks to help pay for the electricity.

Anyone could play baseball...from age 6 to 99! We'd just pick two captains and they would divide up the players. The big guys would go easy on the little kids, but not on each other. More than once we'd have to go into an adjacent cornfield to look for the ball after a homerun hit. By the time I was 14 or so, I could hit pretty good and remember the satisfaction I felt when the bigger guys would back up as I came up to bat.

For those kids who didn't want to play, there was an old set of swings and a merry-go-round. Most of the adults would bring lawn chairs and watch us play and visit with neighbors.

That old school has long since been torn down and now the land where the baseball diamond and school were is cultivated fields. I miss those old days, but have many many great memories of our baseball games.

harrishs

I grew up in SW Iowa and attended a country school for 7 years before having to go to "town school" One of my favorite memories is of the Christmas program. Setting up a stage, curtains and practicing. The whole neighborhood attended even if they didn't have kids in school......We all had parts and enjoyed the attention we got----as well as the brown paper sack with an orange or apple and some hard candies at the end of the evening. Good ole' Douglas #9---Mount Zion in Audubon co.

gramajo

I have so many memories, I don't know where to start....hiding under grandma's round dining room table at Thanksgiving listening to the adults, watching my 2 years younger brother eating grandma's dog's food out of the can, going to other grandma's cousins' farm in MI for a week or two in the summer
(I was raised in Chicago), my mom's cousin's house with a huge finished attic where all of us kids would play, trip up Pike's Peak with dad driving & mom saying "Jack, slow down", crossing a river in PA on vacation saying to my mom "Johnny's turning green (yep, Johnny got sick & barfed all over the back seat) :D, trips to my cousins in MN & their summer cottage, donkey baseball games & summer concerts at the village square in MN (remember I was a city girl, this was all new to me :-D ).

Hmm, I may have to send this question to my daughters to see what they say--that'd be interesting :lol:

lillybeck

Well the first thing is that I did not know we were poor.lol. I have so many memories because some of our family was always together/ one of my favorites is churning butter. We thought we were playing and had to laugh when we realized what fun we had.

alwayslearning

That was the thing! We didn't know we were poor, either. Until I was in third grade we lived in a rented home in an alley. I remember being able to stay up later on Friday nights to watch I Remember Mama. My dad would make popcorn. Sometimes, I managed to stay up later because I would watch the Friday Night Fights with him. I remember playing outside with just our imaginations!

madamekelly

The week after my sixteenth birthday, my father came to get me after school, to take me to get my driving permit. As we walked down the hall to my locker, a friend came running up to say "Hey! Kelly, your dad is in the office looking for you." I blinked, and answered "This IS my dad." She stopped, flustered and replied "Oh I thought he was your boyfriend." Dad just laughed, I was speechless. Must have been the black leather coats we were wearing, or the helmets we were carryin. Not many girls fathers picked them up from school on a motor cycle, back then. (1972)

madamekelly

I remember once each summer, we would have a giant family picnic, (Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, Grandparents, etc) at the foot of St. Helen's (the volcano). Swift Creek stopped existing on May 18th. We never had another one. Sigh....Happy memories.

Rhonda

do you by any chance have any pictures of the Mount Zion school? I am hunting for pics of that School for my mom's autobiography she is doing for the family.

quiltmau

I remember my grandmother and how she always took care of me. I remember the fur babies and how she taught me to take care of them. She taught me that disabilities were not excuses to get out of work and most disabilities were in the eye of the person watching not the person with them. She taught me to cook, dirt was not bad, an people are on the most part, good. She was a very special woman and I miss her. She has been gone since 1961