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From: "Nancy Cluff Siders" <>
Subject: RE: [SACKETT-L] Tales From My Childhood
Date: Sun, 27 Apr 2003 11:12:22 -0600
In-Reply-To: <49C33368.396A3069.5302A526@netscape.net>


Thurmon and all,

Now your Yuma, AZ connection is showing through! I never knew you lived in
Roswell/Artesia area! It's always a Dust Bowl here. We had bad 62 mph
winds recently that blew the animal cover from our chimney. Bent it hell
west and crooked! ;) Still haven't got it fixed/replaced. Not too
worried. The fireplace insert prevents anything from coming into the house.
I'd hate to get something trapped though.

I love your "Tales From My Childhood"! They remind me so much of growing up
on the farm in southern Ahia (Ohio). If you haven't started adding them to
a web page, I'd be happy to add them to SACKETT-L.

Being born in 1942, I didn't experience US' 1929 Depression directly. But I
always refer to my Mother as a Depression Mom. My parents were married in
1927. My oldest brother was born in 1929; sister in 1936. Mother would
insist that we eat our apples clear to the core but don't eat the seeds! So
in raising our three children, when they'd start to throw away an apple that
had lots more substance left, I would say: "Grandma Cluff would not be
pleased. Please eat some more on it but don't eat the seeds!" ;) I
haven't heard that phrase used on one of our grandchildren but I imagine it
will be sometime soon. I have heard them use one of her favorites when
attempting to get them ready to leave the house. "Get your shoes on, Lucy!"
Apparently, this was from a song or story. I've run into others who parents
said that one liner.

I'm planning to watch the CBS Hallmark Hall of Fame's presentation tonight;
9/8c. Must be 7 MST. Check local time! It's John Grisham's "A Painted
House". I thought it was about the Depression but there is a 1949 Ford in
the advertisement in the Sunday Magazine. It's definitely about farm folks.
Reads: "Deperate times, hard truths, unexpected dangers. One extraordinary
summer will change a young boy nd his family... forever." Has anyone read
the book yet...?

I agree that children growing up today are missing a lot, not having grown
up without all the pleasures. It's a whole other world and we weren't poor
in the greater sense. :)


Later...Nancy


Later...Nancy
Nancy Cluff Siders
List Admin
LIFE: Live. Love. Learn. Leave a legacy. ~Dr. Stephen R. Covey




-----Original Message-----
From: Thurmon King [mailto:]
Sent: Saturday, April 26, 2003 11:15 AM
To:
Subject: Re: [SACKETT-L] Tales From My Childhood


Jim:

I believe that most of us who grew up during the depression never really
thought of ourselves as being poor. Probably due to the fact that our
parents didn't tell us that we were poor, and there were those who lived
around us who were worse off than we were.

I also believe that many of the younger generations living today have no
concept of what the depression was really like. So, most of the experiences
I am sharing are to show what life was like in the period between my first
memories in early 1933 (when I was about 2 1/2 to 3 years old) and when we
moved to Yuma, AZ in 1941. I'm also working on putting together some of the
things I remember from the stories I heard my parents tell about their
childhood in the southwestern part of AR prior to their marriage in 1926.

Between early 1933 and Sept, 1941 we lived in 10 different locations and I
changed schools 6 times. Added to that, I was kept out of school for the
1938-1939 school year to work in the fields and to cut wood. [Nancy should
be interested in this because my Dad, Uncle Glenn, Donal, and I made it to
Roswell and Artesia, NM in Sep-Oct, 1938 before heading back to Marietta.]

And speaking of the "houses" we lived in ... I use the term "house" VERY
loosely. Most of them were two and three room shacks. Through part of
winter of 1938-1939 to the fall of 1939 our family of 7 lived in a 10'x20'
tent and the last "house" we lived in before departing for Arizona, was a
14'x20' log cabin with a dirt floor.

The first house we lived in after arriving in Yuma was the first place I
remembered us living in where we had electric lights and running water in
the house.

Thurmon


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