I hardly know when or where to begin, but I can relate to and appreciate the backgrounds and interests of many of you including Bonnie, Sherry, Arlyn, Lucy, Tom, Mary Ann & Leslie to name a few! I will try my best not to bore anyone to death; and I’ll try to keep it simple (and short).
Like Tom I began my formal education in a one-room school building. I began as a kindergartener with about ten other local kids going half-days. We walked to & from school on a dirt road a little more than a half mile. That was in the days of “Dick & Jane along with Spot, Puff and baby Sally”. “See Spot run. Oh look at Puff jump.” It is strange how these simple things are never forgotten! This was my only kindergarten picture unless there’s one still in a shoe box somewhere.
We farmed at that time in Jackson Country, Michigan. Crops included corn, potatoes, and onions, onions and more onions! We smelled like onions at harvest time. All work was done manually without the modern convenience of herbicides and twelve-row planters. Food came from the vegetable garden or from a Ball or Mason jar stored in the cellar. Town and grocery stores were rare weekly trips; and fried chicken came from the chicken house- not from KFC! Milk came from the milking stall out in the barn, or from little glass bottles at school. We had not heard of Pizza except the leaning one in Italy. It was to say the least a very different world and lifestyle back then. How the world has changed!
I suppose that was the beginning of my indoctrination of “green thumb-itis” back then. Somehow in the childhood years of my life the idea of growing things became ingrained into my brain as being necessary and vital. I have no other explanation. Entertainment was a free black and white movie shown on a large white sheet in the town square on Saturday nights in summer. In winters it was most likely a radio broadcast from Nashville on Saturday night. Usually everyone listened and enjoyed the pure unadulterated sounds of true country genre. This has disappeared from today’s culture totally! Among my personal favorites of today are the late Johnny and June Carter Cash, the late Merle Haggard, Loretta Lynn, the late Marty Robbins and Dolly Parton to name a few, and I want to mention Red Foley and Kitty Wells too.
I said I would keep this short. A more recent picture with another hobby.
Like Tom I began my formal education in a one-room school building. I began as a kindergartener with about ten other local kids going half-days. We walked to & from school on a dirt road a little more than a half mile. That was in the days of “Dick & Jane along with Spot, Puff and baby Sally”. “See Spot run. Oh look at Puff jump.” It is strange how these simple things are never forgotten! This was my only kindergarten picture unless there’s one still in a shoe box somewhere.
