Remembering 1950

Coker, Alabama

Weather: low 69 degrees, high 84 degrees, partly cloudy in the morning, cloudy with light showers in the afternoon

After I took my morning walk, we stayed at home the rest of the day. All the work getting everything ready for the yard sale and then doing the yard sale for two days left me tired. Since it looked like we were going to have unsettled weather for most of the day, we decided we would not look for anything to do, other than rest. We have several things we want to get accomplished at Terri's house next week, and felt we should take this opportunity to rest.

As I mentioned last week, I wrote a short story of some memories of my childhood for Terri to place on her facebook page. She thinks I should share it with everyone, so here goes.

Remembering 1950

In 1950, my family and I were living in north Florida near the Georgia state line. At that time, there were five of us kids along with my mother and father. Janie and Keith had not been born yet. I was seven years old, and had just started first grade, going to school in Hilliard by bus. Kindergarten and pre-school were not available. I learned my ABCs and how to print and count at home.

We lived in a house that was located near the local grocery store. The store was not like the marvels of marketing that we take for granted today. It did not have any refrigeration except for a small meat counter. The items in the meat counter did not have the number of choices that we take for granted today, and consisted mostly of big rolls of cheese, bologna, and hog head cheese. Hardly anything was sold in cans, with most items being weighed from bulk and packaged in a paper bag.

There was no air conditioning in houses or businesses. Ceiling fans were used for cooling, along with hand fans or a folded piece of newspaper. We did not have an indoor bathroom, instead using a one-hole privy placed over a hole in the ground. Sometimes, going to the toilet was a real adventure, with fighting the wasps and other bugs that would gather there. Even worse was stepping in and coming face to face with a snake.

The kids took baths in a washtub, and the water was usually cold. Washing clothes was done by hand, because we did not have a clothes washer. Laundry was dried on a clothesline. We had a wood cook stove, which meant that someone had to cut the wood, bring it in the house, and start a fire before anything could be cooked. In the winter, the stove helped warm the house. In the summer, the stove made the house unbearably hot, and it must have been torture for my mother to cook because of the heat.

Water was obtained from a pump that we had to prime every time we needed it. There was no running water, such as the vast majority of houses have today. If water was needed for washing clothes, the pump was primed. Then, water was pumped into a bucket and taken to a washtub as many times as needed until there was enough to do the washing. When rinsing was done, the whole process was repeated. Washing clothes took most of a day.

If clothes needed to be ironed, we had some irons that were placed on a hot stove to heat up. When the irons were hot, the clothes would be ironed until the iron cooled off, and the irons would be heated again. Ironing was another chore that took a lot of time. We didn’t have permanent press clothes in those days.

We did not have a television, and did not even know that there was such a thing. That also meant we didn’t have computers or computer games. We did have a radio, and it was a treat to listen to the old serial programs. It seems my mother was a fan of one of the old programs, and named me after one of the lead actors. Saturday nights were spent listening to The Grand Ole Opry out of Nashville, and I can remember falling asleep many times to the sounds of bluegrass and country music. I still love that music.

One Saturday afternoon that fall, I was turning the dial on the radio to see what I could find. I happened to tune into a football game between the University of Florida and, if my memory is correct, Auburn University. Otis Boggs was the announcer for Florida, and he had a way of describing the action that electrified me. I didn’t even know what football was. His descriptions were so vivid that I felt like I was at the game. The teams moved up and down the field, with neither being able to take a decisive lead. Florida kicked a field goal at the end to win the game. Can you imagine the thrill I felt? Imagination obviously had a lot to do with what I felt, but I can still remember the descriptions by Otis Boggs of the action on the field.

From that point on, I was a Gator fan and followed their success or lack of success over the years. For many years, the mantra that Gator fans used was “Wait until next year”, because Gator football was not very good. However, over the last 30 years or so, Gator football has become one of the powerhouses of college football, and I still love to watch and listen to their games as much as I enjoyed the first game I heard. Go, Gators!

More later, be safe.

Today's Town - Lake City, Florida: Florida’s Crossroads

Not all who wander are lost.