GROWING UP "POOR"

Born during the Great Depression, I had all that I NEEDED, but none of the "creature comforts" which children today consider their "right". But I had all the love that a Mom, Dad, Brother, and extended family of Grandparents, Aunts and Uncles and Cousins freely shared.

Grandma and Papa, as well as Aunt Rhumell and Uncle Johnny, lived within walking distance and it only took a matter of minutes to reach them (if Mama said it was okay to go). My cousin Barbara and I were slightly less than 2 years apart in age, and grew up to be very close....Our mothers were sisters and our fathers were brothers, so we were almost like sisters! We were playmates and played first at one house and then the other (preserved both mothers' nerves).
There were times, though, when Mama wouldn't let me go to Barbara's and Aunt Rhumell wouldn't let Barbara come to my house, but both mothers would let us play "at the top of the hill" where both of them could keep an eye on us!

Now, each of us had our own "playhouse" at our homes, but we also had one at the top of that hill! Let me correct the picture that may be forming in your mind of a literal "playhouse" with walls and a door and a roof overhead. That was not the case for us. Our playhouse was a cleared space in the underbrush, outlined with rocks, leaving open spaces to designate a doorway. Our furniture consisted of whatever we could find to improvise for beds, tables, chairs, etc. Usually, this would be rocks as the base, with a scrap board for a bed or tabletop, and smaller rocks as chairs. Our dishes were pieces of broken dishes, or occasionally, that white glass insert from the top of an old zinc lid for canning jars! I know that most of you, in your wildest imagination, cannot begin to know what I'm talking about.

The floors of our playhouse were dirt, and our "brooms" were bunches of twigs (with leaves) tied together, with which we kept our floors swept clean. Our "children" were assorted dolls each of us had received for birthdays or Christmas.

We always had transportation....each had her own tricycle (usually our "big" present at Christmas). We made many excursions to the "grocery store" and return with our make believe groceries to put in our make believe refrigerator. We were thrilled when our mothers gave us empty boxes or jars with labels which we could add to our "cabinets".

Sometimes we took excursions into "town" to shop for clothes....which we fashioned out of leaves, held together by their stems. Speaking of clothes, most of our real playclothes were fashioned from printed chicken feed sacks, lovingly sewn into articles of clothing by our mothers.

Easter was always special. We usually met with the extended family at Grandma's for a truly scrumptuous meal...and then the grownups hid the Easter eggs for us kids to find. I remember one Easter, which just happened to fall in late March that year, Uncle Elmo hid one of the eggs in a clump of bushes in the cow pasture, and we never did find that egg until all the snow melted a month or so later!

From the time I was about 4 years old I can remember learning Bible verses and joining with the other Sunday School kids in performing at Sunday School Conventions, quoting scripture and acting in little skits depicting the Bible stories we'd been learning.

And I'll never forget my first few days in school. Everyone carried their lunches at that time....there was no cafeteria, and no one had "hot" food. I remember crying some mornings as Mama packed my lunch because I had to take ham biscuits for lunch...and all my "town" friends had peanut butter and jelly! Even then, children didn't realize just how blessed they were.

I loved school from the very first day (even if I did have to eat ham biscuits!), and soaked up learning like a sponge. It just came easy for me....I suspect because I had parents who loved to read, and they read to me a lot! Some school memories will forever live in my memory. One of those is the day Miss Hutchens (my first grade teacher) was scolding those in the class who had not put their names on their papers the previous day. That day she said if anyone left their name off their paper that day she was going to spank them. At recess about ten of us got together and agreed to all leave our names off our papers that day, thinking she wouldn't spank so many of us. Boy, did we have a surprise coming. As we lined up to go outside for lunch, she spanked all ten of us!

Can you imagine that! Our teacher actually spanked us...and nobody screamed "child abuse".
And that was only the first spanking our disobedience earned us....we got spanked again by our parents when we got home. But, we learned early that misbehavior got us punished....and not just by being placed in "time out".

We were so fortunate to have parents who loved us with "tough" love, knowing that we must learn early to obey those in authority over us....even when they were wrong.

More to come.......