Remembering the "Good Old Days"! (NOT!)

Yesterday, I looked over a middle grade novel I wrote not long ago, one I am still trying to sell to a publisher. It takes place during the Kennedy era. It made me think about how much things have changed since my childhood.

I admit, my family was definitely behind the times, but still... Back then, we had a ringer washing machine and no clothes drier. After running each piece of clothes through the ringer to squeeze the water out, we'd hang them on the clothes line to dry, propped up with a birch tree sapling. Dress pants had to have metal pants-stretchers pushed into them so they would dry with a nice crease down the center! Who remembers pants stretchers?

We had a black and white television. We'd run next door to Grandma's to watch color television! There were no dishwashers or microwave ovens. (How did I survive without microwave popcorn and fast baked potatoes?!) Dogs and cats lived outside only, and were only on the property if they had a job and provided something to the family. No pets! Cats caught mice and dogs hunted the food that went on our table. Yes, I have eaten racoon pot-pie, fried squirrel and baked rabbit.

My dad was very much an old school farmer who grew up during the depression and had those frugal habits. We were only allowed to take a bath and wash our hair once a week. (Eeewww!!) Even then, he came into measure the tub water, not over 2 inches in the tub. Of course, we didn't have a shower. Sometimes we had to share baths. I always hated being the second one in the tub, sliding into my twin brother's dirty bath water.

The house was dark all the time, to save electric. Bedtime was 8 p.m. sharp and you better not get caught reading a book under the covers with a flashlight. Sometimes I'd slip out of bed in the summer, kneel by my dormer windows and watch the lightning bugs coming out, and the neighborhood kids still playing kick-the-can. Occasionally, I even fell asleep there, listening to the tree frogs peep. It was the one place we could catch a cool breeze on a hot summer night in an attic room with no fans and no air conditioning.

My dad wasn't keen on book learnin'. He often said, "Get your nose out of that book and get some chores done," and "You'll never learn anything from a book!" Today, I laugh when I think of how I make my living! He also often said, "You kids'll never amount to nothin'." I'd like to think that we did, and I know, at least for me, the books I was addicted to made a big difference. They still do!