Humble me Lord

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Would like to hear stories of things you did when you were young. Like things that people don't do anymore. It's amazing how time flies and things of the past just fade away and are replaced with the new. I will start off.
When I was young, on my grandpa's farm in central Missouri, there was kind of a hole in the ground we were warned to stay away from. When I asked about it, my grandma showed me old black and white pictures of horses pulling big chunks of ice up from the pond. They would saw these pieces with hand saws and store these chunks in the ground so they would have refrigeration for the following summer. The huge ice tongs were still hanging in a building on the farm. Sadly I never got to see that done.
Anybody else have any stories like these?
 

HTacianas

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Would like to hear stories of things you did when you were young. Like things that people don't do anymore. It's amazing how time flies and things of the past just fade away and are replaced with the new. I will start off.
When I was young, on my grandpa's farm in central Missouri, there was kind of a hole in the ground we were warned to stay away from. When I asked about it, my grandma showed me old black and white pictures of horses pulling big chunks of ice up from the pond. They would saw these pieces with hand saws and store these chunks in the ground so they would have refrigeration for the following summer. The huge ice tongs were still hanging in a building on the farm. Sadly I never got to see that done.
Anybody else have any stories like these?

My grandparents had fourteen children. They raised all of them in a house with no electricity and no running water. I remember visiting them once and the REA had come through and wired their house for electricity so we didn't have to use kerosene lanterns while we were there.

Did i mention that my grandpa was a farmer and plowed with mules? My father lied about his age to join the army to get away from it.
 
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joyshirley

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I have a story about my father's Dad. My Grandpa's mother had passed away, so Grandpa and his younger brother were sent by train to an aunt's, who had agreed with their father to take the boys to work on her farm. Well, my Grandpa didn't want to work on a farm so he got off the train when it came into a port city, headed to the port and sat down on the huge wharf. A sailor came along and when he heard my Grandpa was looking for work, he took him on board his ship and so began my Grandpa's career in the merchant navy. My Grandpa was only 14 years old.
 
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Humble me Lord

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Thanks guys, I love stories like these.

My brother-in-law grew up in a 13 child family in the Ozark Mountains of southern Missouri. The two room shack they grew up in was still standing when I saw it about 15 years ago. The house had no insulation in the walls, and the cracks on the outside shell were covered with old metal tobacco tins that had been hammered flat. The house had no running water or electricity, and his mom and dad didn't move into town until the early 1970's. He told me that there was a spring that flowed from the hillside, down from the house, where a bathtub had been fashioned out of mud and rock. With that many kids, they got to each have a bath on a 4 day rotation. Most of the food they got was either grown in the garden or gathered from the surrounding woods.
And we think we have it tough.....haha
 
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Rescued One

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When I was five, my mother, 2 siblings and I flew on a plane from Frankfurt, Germany, to Idlewild Airport. Then we took a train to Florida. When I saw my grandmother, she was NOT what I expected! The grandmothers in storybooks were fat, had white hair, and sat in rocking chairs knitting. Oh, dear, my grandma was thin and brown-haired! I had looked forward to seeing her, but that woman made me feel very shy. Grandma was born in 1907.

I'll never forget her washing machine that she had on the back porch:

BENDIX WASHER 1945.jpg


And we could walk to the beach from her house.
 
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Rescued One

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I read comics, played with my paper dolls, my Ginny doll, and learned to embroider (my mother taught me). Funny thing --- my mother didn't embroider anything for the house, but someone must have taught her how to do it.

Comics from Childhood 1.jpg Betsy McCall Oct 58.jpg Doll Vogue Strung Ginny__Margie Number 28_ 1952_Minty.JPG Embroidery Lazy Daisy.jpg
Embroidery First Stitches.jpg (These are the first stitches that I learned.)

I also climbed trees and pulled weeds(Mother's idea, not mine).
 
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nChrist

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We played outside most of the time with all kinds of games like baseball and football. Inside, we played Monopoly and Sorry.
 
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~Anastasia~

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Anyone play "Farm?" Hours could be spent tending to the little animals

View attachment 244936
I was given my first farm set when I was about 5 years old - a nice Marx set. Doll houses and such quickly took a back seat. I began collecting farm animals and making my own accessories (I used twigs and dug out plugs of clay to make a base to fashion my own trees, etc.). I eventually had over 1000 animals with names (that didn't include generic-looking ones). My grandpa built me a table whose top was a 4x8 sheet of plywood and I used it to keep a farm spread in one corner of my bedroom.
 
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~Anastasia~

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I also used to play jacks and hopscotch, and played with a top. I had a tiny pet turtle (illegal to sell them now because apparently some kids put them in their mouths!). We would find nests of wildlife when fields were cleared and raise them. I used to walk miles to visit people in the country. Played in the creek. The roadside had small "cliffs" that I used to carve out landscapes and take some of my farm set goats, etc. to be mountain goats for the day. Build toad houses from mud.

I've lived on farms, in woods, in houses with no plumbing, in houses where heating and cooking were done in stoves and fireplaces that burned coal or wood. Pumped water. Used to have a regular outhouse and an old 3-seater.

Played with paper dolls. Had those little dancing jointed figures on a trapeze that would collapse and wiggle when squeezed. And the poppers that could be pressed down and when the suction cup released the spring made them fly through the air.

We grew up with tethered phone cords (sometimes party lines), home movies on reel to reel, music on 8-tracks, recorded songs off the radio with a cassette recorder held near the speaker. Three tv channels that went off the air late in the evening. Playground equipment was very high and not particularly safe - you had to use common sense to keep from getting maimed or killed.

It was definitely a simpler time. And kind of magical in my memories.
 
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creslaw

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Anyone play "Farm?" Hours could be spent tending to the little animals
I am enjoying playing 'Farm' with my grandchildren (aged 5 & 8) ... the 5 year old is convinced every decent farm should have gorillas.
 
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~Anastasia~

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I am enjoying playing 'Farm' with my grandchildren (aged 5 & 8) ... the 5 year old is convinced every decent farm should have gorillas.
Haha I was torn about my zoo animals. Sometimes my farms had a zoo annex. Sometimes just a favorite animal or two.

And then other times I would incorporate. I had some small polar bears that would pass for sheep tucked within a large flock.

I had a wolf that was almost always a dog.
 
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rebornfree

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Anyone play "Farm?" Hours could be spent tending to the little animals

View attachment 244936
Yes, I did. :)
Also jacks, yoyo, hoola hoop, pick-up-sticks, etc. Kids today, and over the last 40 years, don't know what they're missing with their sophisticated toys. I remember playing hopscotch, skipping and hide and seek.

My grandmother didn't use an electric iron but heated one on the range. One of my aunts had a "safe" instead of a fridge and an old lady I knew still had a ceiling gaslight in the 1960s. My mother had a twin-tub washing machine and a mangle.
 
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Rescued One

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I was given my first farm set when I was about 5 years old - a nice Marx set. Doll houses and such quickly took a back seat. I began collecting farm animals and making my own accessories (I used twigs and dug out plugs of clay to make a base to fashion my own trees, etc.). I eventually had over 1000 animals with names (that didn't include generic-looking ones). My grandpa built me a table whose top was a 4x8 sheet of plywood and I used it to keep a farm spread in one corner of my bedroom.

I begged and begged and begged for a farm set. I was determined! I finally got one when I was twelve.
 
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~Anastasia~

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I begged and begged and begged for a farm set. I was determined! I finally got one when I was twelve.
Awwww .... deprivation. :( I'm glad you finally got one. Around that age I started only using mine to build dioramas.
 
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