More Memories of Growing Up in the 40s
I was born in the Texas panhandle, out where there is not too much to look at besides tumble weeds and dirt. There is probably more now than when I was little. I remember my mom talking about the dust bowl and having to wear a bandana over her mouth because the dirt was coming in, between the cracks of the house. I was a baby and of course don't remember that, but I know my folks had to endure a lot back then. I do remember growing up and having a phone that hung on the wall. You had to hold the ear piece to your ear and talk into the phone part. We had a party line for awhile which meant there were about three other people who could pick up their phones and hear what we were saying and vice versa. Just imagine hearing someone breathing or sneezing that wasn't who you were talking to. If you were calling someone, you had to tell the operator what number you wanted her to dial. Funny the things you remember, but our phone number was 407. My town was small and you knew just about everyone. We had no television until I was about 11 or 12, so we played outdoors a lot, rode bikes and did family things. I remember listening to the radio in the evenings. I liked "Mr Keane, Tracer of Lost Persons" and "Inner Sanctum". I would lay on the floor in front of the radio and draw while I listened. We often sat on a fence at the corner and counted out-of-town license plates that went by. Can you imagine your kids today with that for entertainment? You know we were really lucky though, we never worried about locking our doors or riding our bikes after dark. We could trick or treat and never worry about someone putting pins in our candy. The elections coming up remind me of elections when I was young. The whole family would go downtown and sit in front of the newspaper office and they would post the election results on a board in the window. Candidates had to depend on their party lines being heard in person or in the newspaper. I guess sometimes they probably were on the radio but I don't remember. They sure didn't spend much money running for President.
posted by Grannyann at
4:53 PM
1 Comments:
Hi Ann, I keep coming back to read your great posts. When my children were young and we lived way out in the country on a farm, we were on a 10 party line. We heard 4 other rings besides our own. It seemed the phone was ringing all the time. You could never get the phone when you needed it. Children today don't know how to entertain themselves like we did.
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