Those of us who had older relatives who taught us were lucky. Aunt Bett was sort of the 'medicine woman' there in the hills where I grew up. Her mother had been the same. It was particularly during WW II that she started teaching me because she had no daughters and my mom wasn't particularly interested in the medicinal aspects of plants. So even though a generation was skipped, I think in her mind Aunt Bett chose me to learn what she knew.
During that time there were few men around, they were away in the war. The women had no cars, no money, so they lived off the land and were at the mercy of the land. People helped people and made do with what they had. The plants were what they had. It was just a way of life, and until things settled down maybe 10 or more years after the war ended, they continued to live this way. So I had years of learning how to survive with only what nature provided. They were very good years for me.
