No cars, no school buses, everywhere they went were on foot. The age that modern people would never Imagine, the place that everybody grew their own food and lived miles apart from each other. Mr.. Smith, who I visited today, had experienced all that. Large and proud family It was a warm sunny fall day when I visited Mr.. Smith at his home. We started talking about his teenage experiences, they were educational and interesting. “I was born in eastern Kentucky in the country and I have 9 brothers and sisters in my family,” he talked about his family, “my mother was a midwife.
This Is the one thing that I would always remember because you don’t hear of midwifes anymore. They were Like a doctor who went to people’s homes to help the sick and delivers babies. ” He Is so proud for his mother being a midwife. They didn’t have hospitals. Most of the deliveries of a baby were done by the mothers themselves. “One winter day I can remember going to help my mother to deliver a baby. She rode a horse through the cold water and the ice was frozen to the horse’s tail and her feet were frozen in the stirrups. She never failed to help the sick no matter what the weather was. He never et a doctor when he was young. Housework was the part-time Job When we talked about what he did at home, he told me he would have to work and do as he was told. “We were brought up to feed horses and cattle by hand we did not have a tractor or modern equipment. ” There was no electricity, they used kerosene lamp. He got up early in the mornings, lit the lamps, built the fires and then finally got up the rest of the family to start fixing breakfast. And he would go outside, feed the animals and milk the cows, too. They milked their own cows for milk to drink and to make butter and butter milk.
They would only go to the store once a month to buy flour, coffee, oats, and rice. These were the biggest table spread item they would have. “In those days you only got three meals a day and no snacks between meals and by night time you were tired and ready for bed. ” That was his dally life. One room “So, what were the schools like? ” I wondered. And the answer was: they went to school in a big one-room-building, four to five miles far from his home. They had kindergarten to 8th grade. But all classes were taught in the same big room. There were about 130 kids attending at one time.
When I went to school I would go and build a fire to heat the school room for 25 cents a month. ” He recalled. “We would have a spelling bee; we would line up and go to other schools to compete. We had to walk or ride horses for about up to 5 miles. That was the only way for transportation. ” “In 1928 was the first blacktop road from Wolf County to Jackson. Only one piece of machinery was used to build this road. I would get permission from my parents to walk about 3 mile to see this machine work. And then head back home. ” Roads were rare, he told me the first time he had seen a school bus he was about 16.
And they never traveled. For teenage fun So, what did he do in his spare time? “l could visit my relatives and friends. We would play games called Around Town Ball Game, Cat Ball Game. Two to four players tried to hit the ball, after three strikes, you were out then it was the next kids turn. We also played Rain Man, with two to six players. Other games were Ann Over, Drop The Hankie, and Drop The Handle. ” When asked about his friends. He told me everybody was his friend, they were happy and they love each other. “Do they smoke or drink then? ” I wondered again.
Mr.. Smith laughed and said, “They all smoke and chew tobacco, they even drink whiskey. ” He started dating when he was about fifteen and only dated 3 girls. In 1936, he went to 3 seas. He travel on a cattle truck to Evansville Kentucky, he had never been so far away from home in his life before. He came back and got married. Don’t even talk about sex I asked for his opinion about having sex. And the answer is unbelievable. “The first time heard about sex, I was old enough to father a child. ” He said, laughing out loud. They were taught not to talk about sex.
When the animal on the farms had babies He assn allowed to be around them until it was all over. “l was told that the animals dug up the babies from the ground. I went to feed one morning and saw a horse having a colt; I ran home and told dad something was wrong with the horse: Its guts were coming out! Then they explain to me the truth. By that time I was old enough to understand. ” knew was to work on a farm and have a family. That was his life. And he lives happily with his wife and enjoys his grandchildren and most of all serving the Lord. He is still smiling, and enjoys sitting outside and talking on a pretty day like today.
