Time, Generations, and Change

My mother will turn 80 soon, something I’m struggling to comprehend as I don’t see her as being older.  We’ve spent a lot of time reminiscing about people she knew over the years, things she’s experienced. My hometown has remained relatively the same, changes happen at a slower pace. Glimpses of the past can still be seen around many towns and farms.

The stories she tells are of her childhood raising her older sibling’s children, working on the family homestead farm. They lived in an uninsulated 3 bedroom cape style farmhouse; you could see outside between the walls and the floor in places. Their home had wood heat with a wood burning kitchen stove to keep the house warm. My mother slept on the second floor, she remembers icicles hanging from the roofing nails above her bed.

When my mother was a child, farm work was still done with horses. The loose hay was loaded with pitchforks and brought in from the fields. A simple, horse powered, pulley system operated a grappling hook that gathered the hay and pulled it into the barn. Farming was hard work, a farmer could earn a living and feed his family with less than twenty cattle.

She often talks about summer kitchens like the one her family home had. Summer kitchens were often large open spaces used to process foods and produce. During the long cold winter, meats and other goods were stored cabinets build for this purpose. The woodshed attached to the summer kitchen, the outhouse attached to the woodshed. In the winter it was a long cold walk to the outhouse, at night bedpans were used.

farm history generations
Image via Mentalfloss.com and their story on early snow removal. Click image to open their article titled, “Scenes From the History of Snow Removal.” Notice the summer kitchen between the house on the right and barn on the left.

She walked a half hour to school on narrow roads overhung with trees. In winter, they brought runner sleds to make her return trip faster. At the time the roads were perfect for runner sleds as they were rolled after a snow storm.

Her clothes were made from colorfully printed grain bags. The kids from town picked on her for being so ordinary as to wear grain sack dresses vs. their store bought dresses.

She was one of the first in the family born in the hospital. Her siblings were born at home, the family doctor made home deliveries. The Great Depression had just ended; she grew up when times were difficult for many families.

She followed her siblings to the Hartford, Cn area just after graduating high school, there were no jobs back home. Within ten years she’d find herself back on family land to raise her family in a newly built home. By the time she was in her 30’s, telephones became the norm; television wouldn’t be in every living room until her 40’s.

I’ve often thought about how much change has happened in the world during her lifetime. It seems so long ago that electricity, plumbing, telephones, cars, and other basic life needs were invented or normalized. Now with technology we video chat with each other, use the internet to research ideas, email letters, and send Facebook birthday greetings.

 

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2 thoughts on “Time, Generations, and Change”

    1. Life has changed so much, for the better. The thought hit me that there are two generations with no knowledge of hardship for the masses. Where you didn’t know when you’d eat next and simple things like; beds, pillows, heat, water, sanitation just weren’t available. Kids didn’t lose their minds because they didn’t have the lastest smartphone.
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