Our mode of transportation was a old grey mare and a buggy. Or just walk. My Dad never owned a car. I was the first one in our family to own a car. It was a 1930 model A ford, My Dad did drive it just a little, I think mostly the pasture to milk the cows. It was a good little car, one thing different to start it you must use a crank, for the battery had a dead cell, and why buy a battery when there was a crank. A battery would cost money the crank was stuck in a hole at the bottom of the radiator and twist it until the engine fired up. I remember my daughter Linda Gail, she was the curious type and smart too! She said Daddy, did the use to have to wind a car up?
Of course there was the airplane , we hardly ever got to see one and we would run out if we heard one , it was a two winged plane with a little engine and propeller on its front. A piper cub. Back then bus and train travel was very common.
The difference is now most folks have at least two cars. And all they have to do is step in and twist the key! Our cars have air conditioners and heaters on them. And a common mode of travel these days is air. Now we all know about that. Most of us have traveled by air a lot, train and for that matter bus is just about gone.
In the old times our food came from the garden, a can that we had canned, fruit or beans that we had dried. We raised hogs and killed them and cured the meat. We put potatoes in a hole and kept them for a cold winter day and dug a hole and with our hand reached in and got them out to use.
We milked cows and drank the milk for supper with milk and bread. And churned milk for butter and had buttermilk. I did quite a bit of milking but My Dad was much better than I was, he was faster and seemed to get more milk, I guess the cows just got tired of fooling with me and didn’t let the milk down good. I did mess around some, one thing I had a big black cat, he loved to come milk with me because I would squirt the milk toward him and he would lap it in the air. Mom and Dad didn’t like me doing this. But I loved the old cat and he depended on me! Of course he was a outside cat, they all was in those days. They was for the most mart self supporting, for around the barn there was lots of mice.
Pets were much different in those days, I said pets but really they were not pets, they was a necessity. Dogs would kill snakes , We had two dogs once, A black one called Bounce and a Brown one called Brownie. They would work together when they was killing a snake, One would take it in his mouth and shake it violently for a while and then the other one would grab it and they would pull it apart, and in pieces. They was good dogs to chase rabbits and it would always go in a long circle, so if you would stay put you could hear the dogs running it and they would bring old mister rabbit in range so one could kill him. But one day Dewey Partin borrowed a dog, 'Old Nig ger', and he was chasing a rabbit, well Dewey shot and killed our dog. He really felt bad about that. He just kept feeling sorry for that happening, It was sure enough a accident!
Dogs were natured different then. They knew they was a dog and never was allowed in the house. I never heard of one killing a child or eating a persons face off. Now that old family pet that you think loves your child so much, it is a very common thing to hear of a child or baby being killed with the family pet. Because they are pets now, and think they have all rights. And I say most people let them stay in the house.
Our house was not just a place to live, it was a home of love and companionship, a place where we ate together, each family member had their place at the table and each one filled that place, and sat around the fireplace and talked, maybe popped popcorn and talked til bedtime then we all went to bed and the oil lamp was blown out, for we needed to conserve oil and we would be getting up early the next morning to get about our chores and then get ready for school.
It just doesn’t seem that families live with that kind of togetherness now days. For the most part TV has helped to bring about a change of living and has destroyed a lot of communication among family members. Now each member does their own thing at their own time. And not together as a family.
Of course I don’t expect what I have said will change the world. After all I am just an old man and I reckon I am out of time with the world. Maybe some time you will see it differently too.
John Ray Partin
