I talked with an old friend this week, a man I’ve known for over 40 years. He’s old too. In our conversation we got sidetracked to the good old days and what we had to do.
We ate things that we would not dare eat today, like dry salt pork. It was mostly salt. And, we ate gravy made without milk. Just flour, water and the grease from frying the salt pork. Yummy. Then, there was the little house out behind the house. No indoor plumbing. I remember that if the back of the outhouse was turned toward the north, it was an absolute cure for an upset stomach in the winter time.
Bathing, which was not daily, was a metal tub in the room that had the heating stove - wood burning stove with a pipe that ran up to a chimney or just outside. The water was heated on the stove or the top of the cooking stove which usually burned kerosene. And, it was a family bath - everyone bathed in same water. If you were last, you bathed in cold dirty water.
Food was often provided by whatever you could hunt or catch. I’ve eaten squirrels, rabbits, a turtle, and of course fish and crawfish. Doesn’t sound yummy? It wasn’t. However the fried chicken was great. After you killed the chicken, plucked all the feathers out and then held it over a fire to singe the fine hair that remained.
We wore hand-me-downs without regard to whether it fit or not. Shoes, didn’t have to be in style, just close to fitting properly.
We rarely had any money, but that was okay because we didn’t know anybody that any money.
Yes, those were the good old days - NOT. But, the focus was on surviving and people. There was always a helping hand when you needed help.
Today, it is doubtful that most people would survive under those conditions. Just imagine, no air-conditioning, or fast food drive thru.
Makes me wonder what the young people today will have to say about the good old days.
"Like, we had to, like, wait sometimes, like for a whole day before our on-line order was, like, delivered.
PMO
©2017
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