My parents were still building the house we lived in when we moved in 1961.
The house had three bedrooms, each with a large bed, a cotton mattress, and metal springs.
The large living room had a sofa, a television with rabbit ears, and, in the winter, a wood heater.
In the kitchen were a large sink, a refrigerator, a stove, and a large bar for storage.
In the dining room was a large table that seated ten people.
All the floors were wooden, no flooring of any kind; most of the walls had unfinished sheet rock.
We had a set of steps leading to the basement, located between the kitchen and the hallway.
We had a very high wooden back porch with a railing and wooden steps.
Our front porch was level with the ground, and we had a wooden swing that hung from the rafters.
Dad's car was always parked in the gravel drive.
Our house sat on the side of a hill; the front side was level with the ground, and the back side was several feet above it.
The house had a flat roof, and the outside was covered with black tar paper.
The house had no inside bathroom.
We had water pumped from our outside well to our kitchen sink.
I remember watching the large machine dig deep into the ground until it found water, and then a well was placed above it.
My parents would put a large, tube-shaped bucket into the hole in the ground, which was attached with a long rope, to get water from the well.
The tube of water would then be pulled back to the top of the well, where the water was emptied into a pail that could be carried inside.
Bath time consisted of a large washtub, shared by all the children.
I remember one time when I was taking a bath, I put my bride doll in the tub with me.
All my doll's hair fell out, and I was sad.
My bride doll was beautiful; she wore a long white wedding dress with a white veil.
We could make a lot of noise at nig, ht even though our bedroom was on the opposite side of the house from our parents...
I love to make up stories to make my siblings laugh.
Sometimes we would get into trouble, because we made so much noise laughing.
We had two huge beds in our room where all the children slept, and every night it was a struggle to get the bed covers.
There was no need to put curtains on our windows because no one lived behind us, and our bedroom was very high off the ground.
On a clear night, the moonlight would shine into our bedroom.
At night, it was hard for us kids to be quiet because we could hear the owls hooting outside.
Oh my gosh! At the frogs & crickets, there were many, many frogs that we heard croaking and thousands of crickets rubbing their legs.
Ever now and then, we would hear a mountain lion; it sounded like a woman screaming.
Actually, the noise relaxed us, and we would drift off into a deep slumber.
Our neighbors owned a sawmill with mounds of sawdust we loved to climb into.
Almost everyone grew a garden, and we would buy fruit and vegetables from them.
I remember one time my sister and I went to our neighbors' to buy a watermelon, and we paid twenty-five cents.
We could choose any watermelon we wanted. We chose a big one, but we had to carry it all the way home.
We had to stop several times before we reached home.
The sweet watermelon was worth the trouble, seeing the look on our siblings' faces as they ate every slice.
Another time, my sister and I had to walk to the store, which was about a two-mile round trip.
Our family was like the old woman in the shoe, she had so many children she did not know what to do.
Our cabinets were bare, and Mom could not make the trip because she had too many children. She would look like a mother duck with all her ducklings following her.
So my sister, who was a couple of years younger than I, and I made the trip.
We took the gravel road, with its curves and up-and-down hills, to the country store for bologna and bread, which we charged to my dad's account.
My grandfather had started building a house next to our house. The outside of the house was complete. The roof on his home was arched, not flat like our house.
The inside was framed, and the rooms were divided by walls.
It had wood floors and a basement full of lumber.
My grandfather never finished the house, but we made it our playhouse and spent many hours there.
Most kids have a small playhouse, but our playhouse was a real unfinished house.
I remember once my dad brought home a trunk from Helen Keller's home, filled with books.
I picked out two of the books: one was a blue book of Grimm's Fairy Tales, and the other was a book about a boy and his hoop.
The fairy tale book contained many different short stories, such as Rapunzel, The Frog Prince, Hansel and Gretel, Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Sleeping Beauty, Rumplestiltskin, Snow White, and Rose Red.
Lynn and Glenn Kimbrough were our playmates.
One year, Lynn got a bicycle for Christmas; we never owned a bike. So when Lynn offered to let us ride her bicycle, we said yes.
Both my sister and I climbed on the bicycle with Lynn. My sister was on the handlebars, Lynn was on the seat paddling, and I was on the back fender.
Away we went, speeding down the gravel road. Lynn lost control of the bicycle, wrecked, and sent us sprawling onto the gravel road.
Luckily, no one was severely hurt, only a few scraps on the knees and elbows.
In the spring, we would pick Polk Salad, take it into town, and sell it.
