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Janie’s Corner
CHILDHOOD MEMORIES…As I listen to the rehearsals for “Smoke on the Mountain Homecoming” it brings such good memories of old…times spent with my Grandparents and going to an old Baptist Church…I miss the old “Spirituals”. My first memories of childhood are with my grandparents growing up in rural Lebanon, Tennessee on Horn Springs Road, an old dirt road at the time with many curves and bumps until you went around a large curve and could see the white house on the right on top of a hill. It was peaceful just to see that home on the hill. Now over 28 years after my grandparents moved, the old home has been refurbished to the old log home that granddaddy brought grandmother home to on a horse and buggy. Lebanon has changed so much…I remember my Granddaddy chewing tobacco and twittering with wood in front of the old courthouse on the square.
We didn’t have fast food when I was growing up; we had slow food that Grandma would cook from sun-up until sun-down…breakfast, dinner, and supper were served at home. My Grandparents day started at 4am. Granddaddy would go out to milk and feed the animals. Grandmother would start breakfast and also the rest of the meals for the day. They had hired hands to milk and work the land so she cooked for over 20 people for each meal. We all would sit down together at the large wooden kitchen table, and if I didn’t like what she put on my plate, I was allowed to sit there until I did like it. We also were not allowed to leave the table without permission.
My Grandfather always wore coveralls and Grandma wore a house dress made out of flour sacks…she also made our clothes from the same. She always wore a sun-bonnet in the garden and a dress and hat for Church or going to town on Saturday to deliver eggs. Grandma drove an old Chevy but Granddaddy never drove a car. He had two mules he hitched behind a wagon.
My Grandparents never traveled out of the country or had a credit card nor set foot on a golf course. Many years later they had something called a revolving charge card…or the lay-away plan they used at Sears & Roebuck…now Sears. We always had a large Sears & Roebuck catalog to dream of what other people had. My Grandparents only had rockers around the fireplace to set…the only piece of modern furniture was bought when my Grandmother was in an auto accident at 82…she finally came home after three months in the hospital to a lazy boy recliner.
Years later I had a bicycle that weighed probably 50 pounds, and only had one speed, (slow). We didn’t have a television in our house until I was ten. It was, of course, black and white, and the station went off the air at midnight, after playing the national anthem and it came back on the air at about 6 a.m., and there was usually a locally produced news and farm show on featuring local people.
I never had a telephone in my room…The only phone in the house was in the living room and it was on a party line. Before you could dial, you had to listen and make sure someone else was not already using the line. You got a funny ring when it was your home phone calling. (As a child it was always fun to listen in on the party line) All newspapers were delivered by paper boys. Pizzas were not delivered to our home but milk was. Kids mowed lawns, picked fruit and vegetables, took care of the animals, helped clean and cook when necessary…it was part of being a family. The front porch was our entertainment…outdoors was our life.
I also remember wringer washing machines with two rinsing tubs we had in the basement to wash clothes and then hung them outside to dry…even in the winter time…the clothes would freeze dry. Mom used an old Coke bottle with a stopper with holes…this always sat on the end of the ironing board to ‘sprinkle’ clothes with because we didn’t have steam irons. Looking back I don’t understand how my Mom completed all the things she did in one day. The house was always spotless; dinner was always on the stove, and there were homemade cookies while we studied. She gardened and canned in the summer and also made most of our clothes.
I remember once in a great while my parents would go out on Saturday night…they gave us four girl’s 10 cents to go to the corner store to buy candy…you could get a whole bag full for that price…wax Coke-shaped bottles with colored sugar water and candy cigarettes or a big daddy sucker that would last for a week. We would put our bubble gum on the bread box in the kitchen so we could get it the next day or place it on our bed post. I think that is where the song came from in the 50’s (does your chewing gum loose it’s flavor on the bed post over night…if your Mama said don’t chew it did you swallow it in spite). Maybe you can remember the rest of the words?
I also remember newsreels before the movie, coffee shops or diners with tableside juke boxes, TV test patterns that came on at night after the last show and were there until TV shows started again in the morning. We had only 3 channels. I remember Howdy Doody, The Honeymooners, Ed Sullivan Show, (the first time I saw Elvis and the Beetles years later) but Red Skelton was my favorite. We had 45 RPM records, S & H green-stamps (Mama saved them for Christmas gifts), each girl got one gift and one of Dad’s old socks with nuts and fruit, metal ice trays with levers to release the ice, roller skate rings, cork popguns, Studebakers and drive-ins. There were no movie ratings because all movies were responsibly produced for everyone to enjoy viewing, without profanity or violence or most anything offensive. My first movie was “Rawhide”… cartoons at the beginning.
I remember as a teenager we had a house with heaters mounted on the inside of the fire wall and one on the floor. I remember one cold morning standing too close and my coat was burned. When we lived in Michigan my Mom had to go downstairs to the basement each morning to put coal in the furnace before we got up.
I remember driving my first car and using hand signals for turns…head light dimmer switches were on the floor. My first car I purchased was a 1954 Ford I bought for $200 and traded it two years later in 1966 for $500 toward a 1964 Ford Fairlane with twin tail pipes/four on the floor…red and white. Cost me $71.95 a month. My first apartment on Acklen Avenue was $75.00 a month. Pink plastic curtains from Ben Franklin and slanted walls that I had to duck to get in the bathroom. Money was tight because I was also attending Belmont College. I would not drive the car to work at Green Hills Office Building because I didn’t want to get it dirty. I walked. I worked at Bakers Shoe Store downtown on Friday and Saturday…took the bus. I sometimes wondered why I bought the car. Sometimes I miss the old days…Set back in your easy chair during one of these lazy days of summer and look back…WHAT DO YOU REMEMBER?
Now we are living in 2010 and you have 15 phone numbers to reach your family of three. You e-mail the person who works at the desk next to you. Your reason for not staying in touch with friends and family is that they don’t have e-mail addresses. You pull up in your own driveway and use your cell phone to see if anyone is home to help you carry in the groceries. Every commercial on television has a web site at the bottom of the screen. Leaving the house without your cell phone, which you didn’t even have the first 50 years of your life, is now a cause for panic and you turn around to go and get it. And that texting thing…well I am still working on that. You get up in the morning and go on line before getting your coffee…which is on a timer to start prior to you getting up. Has coming into the 21st century really helped us?
Sometimes we act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements of life, when all that we need to make us really happy is something to be enthusiastic about. Go forth into the busy world and love it. Interest yourself in life, mingle kindly with its joys and sorrows, try what you can do for others rather than what you can make them do for you. Always remember where you came from…
Saint Theresa’s Prayer…May today there be peace within. May you trust God that you are exactly where you are meant to be. May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of faith. May you use those gifts that you have received, and pass on the love that has been given to you. May you be confident knowing you are a child of God. Let this presence settle into your bones, and allow your soul the freedom to sing, dance, praise and love. It is there for each and every one of us.
All of our military personnel, where ever they may be, please support all of the troops defending our Country. And God bless our Military who are protecting our Country for our freedom. Thanks, to them, and their sacrifices we can celebrate each day as Americans. We must never forget who gets the credit for the freedoms we have, of which we should be eternally grateful. Enjoy your freedom and God Bless Our Troops – Say a prayer for our servicemen. Of all the gifts you could give a U.S. Soldier, Prayer is the very best one. Remember our Leaders they need our prayers. May God bless each of you today and always…
Love, Janie
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