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From: *paula* <>
Subject: Re: [SOUTHERN-CHAT] sharecropping/Outhouses
Date: Tue, 20 Oct 2009 13:27:17 +0000 (UTC)
In-Reply-To: <1717028767.74141256044933107.JavaMail.root@sz0094a.westchester.pa.mail.comcast.net>


I was five years old before knowing indoor plumbing....and that was in 1953. My gramma Ruth didn't get plumbing in the farmhouse until years after that. Her husband (after grampa died) thought it was "nasty" go to the potty inside the house....so he never used the inside facilities. I can remember how cold it was in the winter to make that long walk to the pottyhouse.... brrrrrrr.... plus we only had "wipin' paper", aka: newspaper. At gramma's, when it was warm outside, after I went to the pottyhouse, I would sneak to the horse's watering trough and wash up as much as possible. I did feel bad for the horses having to drink the water from the trough where I had been dunkin' my buttlocks!

paulette somewhere in Indiana - p.s. I fell in that trough more than once...haahahaha
hugs and smoochies...
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jen LaBonte" <>
To:
Sent: Tuesday, October 20, 2009 2:11:34 AM GMT -05:00 Colombia
Subject: Re: [SOUTHERN-CHAT] sharecropping

Jeannie T,

Those had to be long & tiring days for both your parents. I don't think
many of us realize all that went into farming years ago.

My parents were born & grew up in IA. Most of my relatives lived in IA &
most of them were on farms. However, their farms had much more than your
parent's farm did. I also had relatives who had a farm in IL..when we went
to visit them, I got the honor of using the outhouse. I know that they
finally put my Aunt Helen in a nursing home when she got into her 90's. She
was still living on the same farm in IL..by herself. Still no indoor
plumbing. Probably used a honey bucket. I know we were all concerned about
her getting up in the night & going outside to the outhouse. Being as old
as she was, we were always concerned that she might fall & no one would know
about it for days. She was way out in the country & there were no homes for
miles.

~J in AZ



----- Original Message -----
From: <>
To: <>
Sent: Monday, October 19, 2009 8:57 PM
Subject: Re: [SOUTHERN-CHAT] sharecropping


> When Daddy grew cotton he broke up the ground in the Spring..one row at a
> time..Then he disked it, harrowed it, and planted it one row at a time.
> He probably 'busted the middles' out one time to keep down the grass,
> then scraped each side of the rows so we didn't have so much hoeing to
> do. We came along and hoed out weeds, grass, wild potato vines, and extra
> plants...This was pulled out in the middle to wilt in the hot sun and
> later Dad would come back and till it in...one row at a time...This had
> to be repeated more than once per field...I figured out how many miles
> Daddy had to walk each time he worked that cotton out and it was mind
> boggling...Mama said they raised cotton when they first got married and
> by the time she got it hoed it would be time to start over
> again....picking cotton was the same....By the time she got through
> picking it the cotton bolls on the other side had opened up....
>
> Can you imagine ? She would have drawed up a bucket or two of water,
> brought in stove wood if she'd forgot the night before, and build a fire
> in the range...Had to have biscuits every morning, and whatever bacon or
> sausage they had on hand...eggs gathered in the hen house the night
> before...After she cooked breakfast and cleaned up the kitchen, moved
> the beans in the old iron kittle on the back of the stove, and maybe
> milked a cow and slopped a hog, fed chickens, etc...she'd head for the
> field EVERY DAY.....On towards noon she would head wearily home to make
> the corn bread and finish up the dinner...Save enough beans and cornbread
> for supper so she could stay in the field longer...They worked from'
> can't see to can't see'...and that's just raising cotton...They also
> raised corn, a big truck garden for canning hundreds of quarts of food
> on an old wood stove in a kitchen with no fan or air conditioner other
> than an open window and a screen door....Maybe a peanut patch and some
> watermelons.....
>
> Oh yes, those were the good old days...Unheated bedrooms, bathing in a
> pan of water, going to church on Sunday and visiting more than we do
> today, even if we had to go in a wagon....God was still worshipped by
> all, { Or kept it quiet so folks wouldn't shun them } teachers were
> respected right up at the top, and elders were respected for knowledge
> gained not in regular schools but in the school of hard knocks
> .......Jeannie T
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> On Mon, 19 Oct 2009 13:59:06 +0000 (UTC) *paula*
> <> writes:
>> JeanneT., I sure do admire your dad. Farming is so very difficult and
> especially back in "the day" without all the fancy equipment we have
> available now. If anyone would think it's easy, just try growing anything
> at all....with only help from Mother Nature and your own self.... it
> ain't easy!! Sorry to hear your dad passed young.
>> ~~~: (
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