Days of heat and hoppers

The drought of the 30s were the hardest of times, as if the Great Depression was not enough. Along came dust storms, blistering hot weather day after day, lack of rainfall, and hordes of hungry grasshoppers, chinch bugs, and fleas. Nothing could get rid of fleas, it seemed.

Few people living in the country had electricity until the late '30s so we depended on dug wells and cisterns and rain barrels for water. We didn’t have running water except sometimes when mom would say to a kid "Run down and fetch a pail of water right quick."

Crops, gardens, and fruit trees produced very little, if anything, at times, either from lack of rain plus the hot drying winds or the grasshoppers and various other kinds of bugs. Livestock suffered greatly. Some years the corn and grain crops failed completely. I can remember one year when I was still at home that the corn crops were just nubbins.

When a swarm of grasshoppers came they looked like a dark cloud. All we could hope for was that they would fly on. When they landed they ate everything you could imagine. Gardens and crops, all of the leaves off the fruit trees, edible plants and weeds. I remember one incident when we had planned to pick the green beans next day even though they were quite small. In an ordinary season we would have let them get larger. We washed the canning jars and had everything organized. With breakfast over and dishes washed we headed for the garden. You guessed it: The hoppers had eaten every last bean and all of the leaves and had flown on. I suspect they came back later for another feast of some kind.

Chinch bugs worked mostly on grain crops I think. Farmers spread creosol around the edges of their fields so the bugs got in it and died before they got into the wheat or whatever.

Fleas, I've heard, thrive in hot, dry weather. However, I suspect they can stand anything as they were hard to get rid of and hopped on people as well as animals. If they bit, they left a big red bump that itched like the dickens. That was most miserable, especially when they were everywhere outside and in and were hard to catch. How disgusting!

The dust storms were awful, but as we all know, not as bad here as in Oklahoma and Arkansas. At times, when the sky would darken, we'd wonder if it was a rain cloud or a dust storm coming. The dust sifted into houses and settled onto everything. If it came a sprinkle, cars would get muddy and have to be washed, but only if there was enough water. If not we'd just wash the windshield and back window.

I remember grasshoppers so thick on the roads that cars slipped and slid around, old hens scratching a little place in the dust and spreading their wings out to keep cool, hanging wet sheets over windows if there was a breeze (surprising how that cooled the room some and how the sheets turned reddish from the Oklahoma dust). Those were the days when you wiped the sweat off your brow and used hand fans at church, theaters, and funerals. Everyone, men and women, carried handkerchiefs! Thank goodness for Kleenex and paper towels and so on these days.

Do old barns go to heaven?

The Round Barn was built around 1909 or 1910. The idea came about when the silo, which had been there for many years, started to lean and was to the point that it would have to be fixed or torn down. It was going to be a huge task and expensive either way. Fixing it seemed the better idea, but Dad was in a quandary as to how to go about it. Then the thought came that perhaps he could build a barn around the silo.

One of the neighbors who lived close to Star of the West schoolhouse was a carpenter as well as a farmer. He seemed just the man to talk to. It was agreed that they would draw up the plan. I do not know how long they were in getting it finished, but it turned out to be "the talk of the town”!

The barn was located a short distance south of the house. Starting along the west side, then right and around to the east, then on around toward the north and back to the west I will tell as plain as possible the location of various compartments or whatever barns have—stalls, mangers, and whatnot.

A single sliding door on the west was where horses could go through to the three stalls: Two horses to a stall plus grain boxes and the mangers. Harnesses, bridles, saddles, and such hung along the outside walls; hooks for curry combs and whatever else.

Going on around toward the south was an opening large enough for a team and wagon as the opening to the silo faced the south. Along the south wall were cow stanchions and feed bunks, then a double sliding door large enough for a team and wagon to pass thru.

As we keep going 'round, next was a crib and next to it was the oats (or grain) bin; next was a holding pen and there was a sliding door into it. It was north and a little west.

Starting back to the crib and ending at the last horse manger which was on the southwest was an entry way and that is where you walked to feed the animals in the holding pen and/ or the horses their grain and hay. The haymow went about three fourths of the way around the barn, and hay was carried by a hayfork hooked to a rope and pully. The hay was pulled to the haymow by one horse (usually some of the younger boys had that job). When the hayfork was ready to carry the hay up to the haymow, the person manning it would yell “Ready!”, and then, as soon as it got to the spot where it was to drop, that person yelled “Whoa!” and pulled the rope.

When the barn was finished and the time came to paint it my brother, Howard, told this story: The first preacher he remembered had a spiffy horse and buggy and also two teenage sons who put the first coat of red paint on. Howard heard the man tell dad he was going to tell the preacher’s boys to spill lots of paint, so he kept a close watch to see if they spilled any.

I remember that I liked the smell of silage when it was ready to throw down to the cows. Also, after the silo was empty, we kids climbed down into it and played games, listening to our echoes and looking up through the cupola. There were lots of pigeons cooing in there. He barn had a horse weathervane. I have lots of memories of the old Round Barn, all of them good.

Someone once asked: "Do old barns go to heaven?”

I wonder! Well, not really, but like old soldiers...they fade away!

Boyfriends

His first name was Carl and he drove a Star car. I don't know whether it was his or his folks, but that didn't matter. He had sorta been trying to get me to "go with him". I wasn’t very fond of him, but I knew that he had a Star. One day he asked me if I would ride to school with him the next morning, so I thought I could. I thought it would be kinda neat to ride in "his" Star car. I suppose he was my high school feller for a little while (I think that was my junior or senior year).

Before that I had met a boy to whom I'd been introduced by a neighbor girl and her boyfriend. The two boys were neighbors but didn't go to the same school that we did. One Sunday afternoon during summer vacation (before my senior year) the three of them just drove in our driveway. I was helping pick boysenberries and had on a straw hat and old everyday clothes and was feeling embarrassed when Willie walked up to where we were and I introduced him to the family. He asked (I believe he was looking at my dad more than me) if I'd like to go with them to a movie. After dad found out where and the name of it and what time we'd be back, I said "Yes, I would like to see the movie.” I guess that took care of Carl.

Later Willie and another neighbor guy of his, L.B., and his girlfriend and I double dated. L.B. had an Essex with a rumble seat which was kinda neat. That ended up with L.B. and his girlfriend breaking up and his brother Art and "Magazine" and myself going out together to a movie or whatever. There used to be what was called Kelso Park in Grant City which was a nice place to go for entertainment.

After I graduated from high school and went to Gards Business College in St. Jo, Dorys and I renewed our friendship from Sheridan High days. She introduced me to a fellow who knew her boyfriend. I've forgotten his name! But he got me a huge chocolate Easter egg filled with little chocolates. I met him where he went to church and I happened to be there with another girl. Thinking back that reminds me of the old song "My Old Flame". I can't even think of his name, but it’s funny, now and then, how my thoughts go back and back again, to my old flame (which he wasn't, but I remember the chocolates!).

It was shortly after that when Leota Gibson and I became new friends at Gards. She was dating Lee, who later became her husband. He had a friend Frank who had a little Model A Roadster. Leota told me about this fellow and thought it would be nice for me to meet him, so that fellow later became my husband and we two couples became and remained life-long friends.

I liked that boyfriend even better than I liked his little Ford Roadster.

I saw a girl do the shimmy!

I was in my teens from 1927 thru 1933. The Great Depression happened during most of my teenage years. Nevertheless, there were many Fun Times.

I turned 13 in November before starting to high school the following September. I had a wonderful person, Miss Lavonne, as my 8th grade teacher. I actually enjoyed being an 8th grader! She had me help do special things such as help teach the little kids songs or memorize poems. She "let" me help her grade papers; to me, that was Fun!

When I graduated from 8th grade she offered to help me get into college at Maryville after I graduated from high school if I chose to go there. She kept in contact with me off and on and sent me a graduation present.

During the summer before school started I got acquainted with Maxine, who would be starting to high school also. We "ran around" together and had many fun times going horseback riding, getting together on weekends, going to the free movies in Sheridan, and flirting with the boys, of course. She and her mother lived with her grandparents. They had a large house, and I always looked forward to going there. Her mom would serve us our meal at the dining room table. After I was married Maxine came to visit us. Mary was just learning to talk and called her Magazine!

Every summer the Sheridan Picnic was a big event with a merry-go-round, loop-the-loop, music and programs in the bandstand, and all the rest. We kids would hoe the cockle-burrs, butter-print, pigweeds, and thistles out of the pastures to earn money to spend at the fair. I remember once that Janice and I went to a side show (which we were not supposed to do) and saw a girl do the shimmy!  I think dad found it out by the grapevine and no doubt and gave us a little lecture.

Back then, many people drove a team of horses or rode horse-back to town. The hitching posts were around the south and west sides of the park and the watering tank was at the NE side. Going to town on Saturday nights, taking the cream and eggs to sell, getting the groceries, seeing friends and neighbors, window shopping/looking, free movies, getting an ice-cream cone for 5 cents: All these things were "fun".

The window shopping included the telephone office, the produce store, Pete Stingley’s General store that sold everything from shoe strings to barrels of beans; next was the cafe, hardware store, Parman’s grocery, post office, opera house, hotel, jewelry store. Then further on where we didn't go was the lumber yard and the railroad station. I should have mentioned the Hhat shop, which I passed by when I walked to school and LOVED to window shop there. During some of my teen years I liked rollerskating, ice skating, horseback riding, and going to movies.

After graduating from high school the last of May, 1932, I attended Gards Business College and worked a while at the American Red Cross and Quaker Oats. At age nineteen years and five months I married, so I hadn't grown up until the following November at age 20.

If I have any more to say it is this: At least wait till after your teens to get married. It's o.k. to marry that guy or gal, but its o.k.'er to wait a while!!!!!

Rubber pants, buttonhooks, rick-rack, and bell bottoms

What did I wear when I was young? I think I should start this by coming up with the way we were dressed from the beginning (when we were born.) In those days the first thing a baby wore, after he or she was bathed, was a diaper made of birds-eye cotton material. Often the material was bought by the yard and hemmed on the sewing machine. The baby was then dressed in an undershirt with a band around the tummy to cover the umbilical cord; a kimono, usually made of flannel. Next the baby was wrapped in a blanket that was folded up like an envelope. Finally, the baby was given to mama.

Boys and girls were dressed almost alike except the way the diaper was worn.  Boys had blue trimmings and girls, pink. When girls were dressed to go someplace, they wore very long underskirts and dresses. I am not sure at what point the boys were dressed in boy clothes, maybe four to six months. They wore little booties to keep their little toes warm and then, on down the line, socks and soft-soled shoes were okay until they began to want to stand, then semi hard-soles until they learned to take steps and were ready for hard soles.

Back up to the diaper stage: Babies always wore rubber pants over the diaper, for obvious reasons!  When babies had to go; they went. After potty training was over, boys and girls dressed differently. We girls had pretty little dresses, slips and bloomers; boys wore shirts and pants and suits.

By the time I started to school we girls always wore dresses, long stockings held up by supporters (a sort of "harness" put on over the shoulder and fastened to the top of the stockings). Dresses came below the knees. Shoes had shoelaces by then, I believe, but I can remember buttoning my shoes with a buttonhook at some point in time. We had muffs to put our hands in plus mittens and scarves and hoods that came down over our ears. When it was muddy, we wore overshoes with buckles; 2 or 4 or even 6! We had coats of various materials. Mine were hand-me-downs quite often through the years; I just took it in stride as they were new to me.

I should mention long-legged underwear that we had to wear in winter. How I hated to have to wear them as the long stockings underneath made our legs look kinda lumpy. So when the weather started warming toward the last of April I (we) would roll our underwear legs up above our knees and pull the stockings up (by this time we were wearing garters instead of supporters) and suffer for "beauty’s sake” until we almost reached home, then go through the process of re-dressing so mom or dad wouldn’t catch on to what we'd done. Think of that: Was that silly or what?!

I should mention the types of materials that our clothing was made of. For women and girls dresses: Cotton, gingham, voile, rayon, wool, silk, chiffon, velvet. For trimming: Rick-rack, binding trim, ribbon, lace, etc. Our shoes changed styles from high top to slippers, pumps, high heels. Patent leather was popular at one time.

The men and boys wore, for everyday, mostly blue bib overalls, blue chambray shirts and shoes with leather laces. Some wore white shirts and dress pants. At one time bell bottom pants were in style when Chauncey was in high school. He liked to go with the flow, so he got a pair. As soon as he got home he went straight to his room and changed into everyday clothes.

Dad wore celluloid collars for a long time. I think someone in the family still has his collar box! I recall a dress that he bought mom to surprise her. It was light brown and was trimmed with little beads. I think it was silk. We did our own "dry" cleaning, but I'm not sure what we used. Could it have been gasoline?

Howard used to pay we little kids a few pennies to polish his shoes. Janice gave me some of her hand me downs.

I remodeled clothes a lot so it wouldn't look like I was wearing the same things too long.

When I left home to go to business school mom took me to Pete Stingley's general store and bought me two new dresses and a few things.

I saw a Kodak picture of Raymond in his first long pants looking so darned proud. Alice always liked to look nice and still does, but she had to do without too. We had to hand wash some of our clothes after school so we'd have clean ones for the next day.