Back Then A time past we see no more By JR (Read 2,037 times)

[JR]

As this long hot dry summer passes and the garden season is winding down I've looked through lots of photos and pictures I've taken. Some are just in general everyday pictures and some were made while on trips riding my scooter.

I've thought about this for some time now and have wanted to put up a thread showing times past and what things were like waaaaaaay back. Some of the younger folks can only relate some of these things by what you've been told, read in history books or have seen on the tube. You got to add the computer also, in fact when I was a young fellow I never imagined ever sitting in front of a key board and talking to people all over the world the way we do now. Sure am glad I took typing in school even if it was on a old manual non-electric typewriters! Do they even make typewriters now?

First what do you see besides the good looking kid in the picture? Black and white pictures just like way back when we had black and white TVs. Yes this is me when I was 10 years old and look at that haircut! There is something else in this picture that a few might see if it was color it would be easier to see, the shirt. OK you say JR what about the shirt? I remember this shirt very well because of two things one my mother and grandmother made it by hand and it was made out of a pretty cotton hog feed sack. Yep they actually put some feed for animals in pure cotton feed sacks and they were good to use for making very comfortable clothes like dresses and shirt. The scraps that were left from cutting out the clothes were saved for quilts later.

Things were used to the fullest extent and nothing wasted ......back then. All this I can see and know from just a picture. There are very few pictures of myself and my three sisters because our house burned to the ground one winter day when I was 14 years old.

What do you see here? A scooter! My scooter! But what about the things in the background? Clothes hanging on a clothes line, yes I still use a clothes line when the weather allows and believe me when it's 100F+ it doesn't take long to dry them. Call me old fashioned, whatever but it saves electricity and I like the fresh smell from sun dried clothes. My grand kids don't like the clothes lines, one they have to help hang them up and two they say they like the soft nice smelling clothes from the dryer.

In my younger days I've helped wash clothes on a hand wash board and then rinse in a hot pot of water heated by a wood fire in giant black pots that were called wash pots. When I was a kid helping out around the house was just understood and you weren't asked twice.........back then.

We all get emails and see on the computer and occasionally still even see one of these old time giant cars around and the picture above is the 1959 Chevy Impala and the reason I remember it so well is this car is the very first new car my grandmother ever got. Back in those days the mothers were at home dads worked and just one automobile was standard for a lot of families in my area. My grandpa was a worker for the old Dierks Lumber Company later bought out by Weyerhauser and he drove his 1951 Chevy truck to work each day. Grandma either got a ride with my parents if needed or went with a neighbor that owned more than one car. She walked many times to places she went to. When my grand dad came home with that car she never forgot how hard he worked to pay for it and when she passed away she still owned just this one car. She passed in 1968 while I was in Nam and it only had 14,000 miles on it. It was .........back then.

What do you see here? This is a place in west central Arkansas and even though it's just one of the pictures I took on a trip to see some of my other grand kids in Dallas and is just now a tourist attraction it does tell a story of back then. Lot's of buildings, houses and merchant stores were built just like this and I can remember riding my horse or bicycles to the country store 5 miles from my house just for a penny piece of candy. Sometimes the store had the 2 for a penny candy, yes as hard as it is to believe for some a penny could buy something back then. This actual store building you see here was also the post office in Pine Ridge up to the early 70's I do believe. At the country store one bought everything from a pencil to feed, fresh cut meat to local farm produce, over the counter medications to gasoline. It was .......back then.

What do you see here? This is a hand written food menu and of course a menu showing the special for the day. This little store still exists in a little one of those blink your eye and you'll miss it communities in west Arkansas about a hour from here through the trails called Story Arkansas. The homemade pie is renowned and lots of bikers travel these back roads ands stop here for the pie and a fresh sandwich too. They cut the meat and cheese right in front of you and you'll not go away hungry. These places and stores are almost gone a reminder of .........back then

These were some of the things you saw on an old black and white TV and later the huge old color TV's you had to adjust and adjust the color on or everyone was green or red!

Snoopy went way back but even he has moved to the modern age and is not the same as .....back then.

This was a picture of a long ago went out of business little roadside station out on Hwy 259 in Oklahoma. This is one of the highways I take into the back way to Dallas and you can see the sign $1.59! But I can remember a time when that sign would have read $0.19 and you got your oil and tires checked along with the windshield cleaned to go with it way........back then.

JR

[Bong]

I was born in the wrong generation........ Everything old will be new again..... Just not as good!!!

[wolfhound]

JR, I suspect that I am older than you and I remember all these times and more. Thanks for this post and
for reminding folks like me that those days, in many ways, were better than these days. different morals,
different values, different behaviour. In many ways the "good old days" were just that.
Yet we are living now in what will be the good old days to some of the kids of today.

[JR]

I know Wolf and there are things that bother me about the things that are now in the past, things that will never come back, Montgomery Wards, Western Auto, Otasco, Whites Auto, Gibsons, etc. Of course we all know why a lot of these favorites are gone but here is another thing that is gone.

This was at one time a thriving little store in a community that just needed one little store and all that remains is the closed up rotting to the ground building. If you grew up here as a kid it is a reminder of what was there when you were a kid, a time when things were simple. A time when you cooked your food on a stove that might be gas or even might still be a wood cooking stove. A time when the way you kept you milk cold was a "ICE BOX" For years after electric refrigarators came out people refered to them as ice boxes.

A time when the telephone was on a party line and shared by many a simple time.

But here is another thing that bothers me deeply and it's all over this state and I'm sure many others and it's old homes like this;

The first one is not far from here up on Hwy 7 and I just barely spotted it one day on a ride on the scooter. The little driveway is just barely visible and grown up with small trees, one has to walk in to see it. It's in what is called here the Quachita National Forest. It's just a shell of a house, but once sometime back then it had a family in it, who, how long, why is it now empty? Did it belong to people with no children and when they passed on it was taken in by the state or what. In Arkansas one can after 7 years claim property and be issued a deed if no one comes forward and pays past due property taxes. Lumber companies in the Great Depression did just that claiming thousands of acres from people that could not pay the tax.

The second house is the same, old wooden windows with all the panes broke out, no electric or phone lines running to it, just out in the middle of nothing. I know homes like this is the area where I was raised that at one time had a family and kids but now are crumbling buildings or been made into barns for hay.

It makes me very sad, when I ride or drive down some of the winding highways we have here. I'm always telling my wife, that's so sad to see that house just rotting to the ground. Sometimes I take my metal detector and just pilfer around some of these old house places, occasionally find an old coin or square head nails, things of the past ,things of..... back then.

JR

[justbuggin2]

i thought i was the only one that still remenber Captain Kanagroo

[dudley]

Remember Lum And Abners radio show?
When milk was delivered?
No A/C?
When you could safely swim in local lakes?

[wolfhound]

I see a lot of that sort of thing here, JR. I remember the times before Captain Kanagroo. I remember Lum and Abners radio show, my first job in
Atlanta was running a home delivery milk route, definately remember no AC, cooking on a wood stove , no electricity to the house, 8 party phone lines
when phones came into the WNC valley tha we were living in, out houses, not ever locking house doors when you were away, and swimming in lakes
when we lived in Fl., one kid stayed on the bank while the others swam. His job was to keep an eye on the aligator on the far bank. If it went off the bank we
came out of the lake, rapidly. The first TV that I ever say had an 8" round screen. Penny bubble gum and RC colas, 12 oz for a nickel. That if you had the
penny or the nickel. I could go on and on!!!!!

[JR]

Penney! Did you say buy something with a penny? Soda pop bottles had a deposit of a penny if you were lucky! Some stores only gave 1/2 penny back and man I've road a bicycle down lots of roads gathering up bottles to turn in just for one of those RC colas you mentioned or a Nu Grape soda!

Remember this?

Nothing but a magazine now and last time I checked you could get it at Tractor Supply. I sold these and did some real work to do so, even my dad took some to his workplace to help me and oh how I wish I had saved the lady head dimes and buffalo nickles that were so common then and the wheat back pennies! I've got a few of each but they are now gone.

A time you changed your own oil at home, a time when you weren't afraid to ride with a neighbor to a ball game, you could ride in the back of an old pickup that had the bed took off in favor of a wooden flat bed to haul hay on.


A time when yes sir and yes ma'am were common practice and you said grace at the table.

A time when you went trick or treating and got things like apples, oranges, homemade popcorn balls, peanut brittle, caramel apples, cookies!

Christmas was a huge meal from all of the things that were grown and killed yourself and stored away for eating, sugar cured hams, canned vegetables, fresh fruit, wild game such as turkey, deer, squirrels, rabbits. wild hog, and duck. My father and all of my cousins, uncles and grandpa have went out many a time right before Christmas and brought in wild ducks for Christmas dinner. Even have ate goose, raccoons and bear. Not to mention a few trips to Colorado for elk.

Ice tea was served instead of all this pop you see now, no such a thing as gator aide, you drank water from a well and if you played sports took salt tablets. Cows milk and homemade butter. Oh I have churned so many times on a butter churn. Ice cream made in the old time hand crank makers and done with pond ice my dad and grandpa cut out of the pond in winter and stored in the storm cellar covered in leaves to last. You would be amazed at how long a block of ice will stay there underground covered like that.

Fishing trips that were all weekend long and bringing back wash tubs full of fish to be preserved and in later years frozen to eat on another day.

Like you said Wolf a person can go on and on about .....back then.

JR

[scootaway]

Amazing. someone once said to me it is not healthy to delf into the past but we are humans with a memory. It will be pointless to take you on a trip of the past here in South Africa but JR I can remember that Chevy Impala as we has them here too. I remember been fascinated with those funny wings at the back and running my hands underneath those wings. We had cars like the de soto, plymouth, studebaker, hudson etc. They don't exist anymore. As the song goes "those were the days my friend"

[JR]

Aug 2, 2012 11:13:59 GMT -6 scootaway said:

Amazing. someone once said to me it is not healthy to delf into the past but we are humans with a memory. It will be pointless to take you on a trip of the past here in South Africa but JR I can remember that Chevy Impala as we has them here too. I remember been fascinated with those funny wings at the back and running my hands underneath those wings. We had cars like the de soto, plymouth, studebaker, hudson etc. They don't exist anymore. As the song goes "those were the days my friend"

We had cars like the de soto, plymouth, studebaker, hudson etc.

Oh yes so did we, the De soto was IMO a disaster, Hudson just didn't appeal to people and I really hated to see the Plymouth go. My dad owned a 49 Plymouth when I was a kid.

Studebaker was a great vehicle car and truck but the problem was they were way ahead of their time and priced to high for the everyday one income household.

There is a Studebaker pickup just 8 miles from here on the side of the road for sale right now. I thinks it's a 51 and the body is solid but doesn't run. It would be a good project buy for someone to restore.

Lots of those type of autos are around here because we have one of the largest car shows in the country that last for two weeks in June up at the state park along with a big museum of antique cars. People travel from all over the country to buy, sell and trade old autos. The fixer uppers bring a pretty penny too, this truck I mentioned has a price tag of $3100 on the windshield.

It wasn't that much new in 51!

JR

[wolfhound]

I sold Grit door to door as a kid, owned a 53 Studebaker coupe, a beautiful sporty car. I still say maam and sir, grace at mealtime. My mom would smak me if
I did not show respect to those older than me, of any race or social strata. My dad worked in the post office and was working when a lot of folks were not. We may
have lived a tad better than those around us but we treated every body with respect. If I did not I knew that the ol' hickory would be applied to my legs.
Delving in the past is a good thing. Just remember that you can not change the mistakes you made then(and I made more than my share), just learn from the past
and dont repeat it. Hard enough at times for us to do and we tend to forget the old homily: Those who do not learn from the past will be doomed to repeat it again.

[tvnacman]

Yes I was taught a work ethic . This generation has none .

John

[justbuggin2]

Aug 2, 2012 19:23:46 GMT -6 tvnacman said:

Yes I was taught a work ethic . This generation has none .

John

it not just a work ethic that this genaration is missing it is the respect

[scootaway]

Funny how this work ethic is a problem is SA as well. Kids are not the same anymore. I often tell the pupils where I teach those famous words of JFK "not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country.

Talking about Studebakers, here in SA we had the Silver Hawk and the Golden Hawk, beautiful cars. Did they go by those name in the States as well?

[JR]

Sure did and one in mint condition is worth big $$$$$$.

JR