MEMEORIES OF MY CHILDHOOD

MEMORIES OF MY CHILDHOOD

Margaret Ann “Peggy’ Kidd Powers, 1924-2013,
Remembers the late 1920's and 1930's…

I remember the coldest nights when we were young, mama would warm a brick and wrap it in old newspapers and rags and put it at our feet to try to keep us warm. The newspapers were given us by our grandmother Kidd, (Note: She was Rachel Susan Taylor Kidd, wife of James Randolph Kidd, Sr.) I would wake up in the night and already it would be So cold! There were not enough covers to keep us all warm. I remember the milk freezing on the kitchen table at night. We had a fireplace, and we would roast on one side while the other side was so cold as we would stand around it. Walking to school in the winter was a nightmare and so was school! We had to walk so far that we would almost freeze. The teacher would warm my hands by rubbing them when I was in the first grade.

At Christmas time we would always look for the package that Aunt Rosa and Uncle John would send us from Arkansas. The divinity [candy] that they made and sent to us was delicious! Bless them for helping us, we were so poor and the depression was in full swing. We would get a little cedar bush that grew in the wild and decorate it with popped corn that we had strung, and some little brass candles that clipped on the tree. The candles came from Germany, grandmother [Lindauer] had brought them with her when she came to the U.S. One Christmas some of our sweet neighbors brought us some real nice gifts and fruit. Little did they know how happy that made us kids!

Our dear brother Fred made us a little car out of an apple box. It was so cute, and it had a door with leather hinges. One Christmas he made me a little bed and mama made a quilt to go on it. On Christmas night mama would tell us to go to sleep or Santa would not leave us anything. That would just make it harder to go to sleep! I would almost smother pulling the covers up so he couldn’t see me.

We lived about a mile from the railroad track and one time the train stopped, (which it had never done before at that place) so we knew that something must be wrong. Mama and daddy said a wheel was burning and that scared me so bad that I hid under the kitchen table.

On Sundays our grandmother Kidd would ride the interurban rail out of town to within a mile of our house and daddy would pick her up there and bring her to visit us. Mama would get out the nice tablecloth that Aunt Rosa had sent us for Christmas. Grandmother dipped snuff and she would send us out to the peach tree to get a small limb to make a dip out of. That would get the snuff from the little metal can that it came into the mouth. I would watch her and the snuff looked so good, like cocoa and sugar, so I waited until she had walked away and crawled up on the table and got a big mouthful. It tasted AWFUL and I almost choked to death! That was when I was very small. I never did want to taste that bitter stuff again!

Mama was so pretty, she had a red dress when we were little and I thought she looked like an angel in it! She would get sick headaches and be so sick. I would cry my eyes out thinking she was going to die.
She got blood poisoning once and her face swelled so much that she had to go to the hospital, and I panicked thinking she was not coming home again. When she got home, she asked who had been crying so, as if she didn’t know! Prayers and Epsom salts saved her life.

Mama always made us feel loved. She worked so hard in the fields as well as in the home. On wash days she would build a fire under the old black, three-legged iron pot and heat the water. She would boil the dirtiest clothes, and then rub them on the brass rub board. The soap was made from the fat of hogs and lye. The hot wash water was not wasted as it was then used to scrub the kitchen floor and the porches. How we dreaded wash day and then the next day was the ironing day, which was just as bad or worse than wash day. The irons were so heavy and had to be heated on the stove. Sometimes they got too hot and scorched the clothes and then sometimes they would not be hot enough. There were no controls on them. In the summer it was worse as the house was so hot and the added fire made it worse!

Mama made our cotton sacks. When we were small, she took a flour sack and put a strap on it that went over the head. We got flour in 25 pound sacks at that time. The older kids got a cotton sack made out of cotton duck, which was tougher than denim. Mama made them on her Singer sewing machine. These sacks would hold up to 200 pounds of cotton. Cotton picking was a hard job, as you had to take the cotton from a boll (really a holder for the cotton) and it had stickers on it that would prick your fingers bloody. Dragging a full cotton sack was some tiresome job. After picking cotton all day, mama would go home and cook supper on a cranky kerosene stove. It was hard to get it started and then it smoked so bad. Lots of the time supper was fried potatoes and they tasted very good! Red beans (pinto) and sweet potatoes and black-eyed peas were eaten quite often too.

Mama would sing hymns even in the worst of times, "Count your Blessings" was her favorite, along with "The Old Rugged Cross”. She would tell us bible stories, thank her. I have never forgotten the stories, and I am thankful for that. We had one cow that kept us in milk and butter. I hated to churn with that big crock and dash. It was a very tiring job. When it began to look like a storm was coming, we would have to go to the cellar. It always smelled so musky and was damp. Mama kept her canned jars on the shelves, as it was always cooler there than in the house. It was like a prison, and mama and daddy warned us to watch out for snakes and scorpions. Not a very fun place to be. Mama and Daddy were so afraid of storms that it was sad, and they put a fear for them in some of us kids. I remember when the threshing machines would come and cut the wheat. We always had chickens and chicken thieves were always on the prowl. It was so scary to wake up in the night to the sound of disturbed chickens and daddy grabbing the gun to go out and see if it was people or wild animals that was looking for a chicken dinner.

At the first cool spell in the fall, daddy would kill hogs. The fat was rendered for cooking and making lye soap. There was no way to keep the meat cool, so it had to be salted. Fresh pork was a welcome thing to our vegetable diet.
I just loved to play in the cottonseed bin in the barn. The hens made nests there and would lay eggs. We always had baby chickens. Bob (brother Robert) and I would be sent to look for guinea eggs. Mama would warn us not to touch the nests or the hens would not lay there anymore. We would take a little stick and roll the eggs out of the nests.

The cornfields were a super place to play. I just loved to feel the cornsilk. Rosa and I would make playhouses under the peach trees. One of them was an Indian peach. We would take rocks and outline our house and the rooms. I just loved to go to a neighbor's house and play. Her name was Rebecca Farmer. They had a big water tank and a windmill and they raised sheep. One day I took a magazine out to the middle of the road and sat down to look at it. I became so interested in it that I did not hear a big car coming. He had to blow the horn and it scared me so bad. I got out of the road in a hurry!

We played "hide the thimble" in our old brick chimney. One day I was playing in the front yard where mama always had flowers blooming, and a big bumble bee stung me on the cheek. Mama kept the yard so clean and neat with larkspurs, tiger lilies, poppies, mint and lots of other flowers and herbs.

We would go crawfishing, or crawdadding as we called it. We would take a string and a piece of bacon to catch them with. Sometimes mama would fry the tails for us. (and sometimes she would not have the lard.) I was scared to death of turtles because they told us that if we got bit, they would not turn loose of you till it thundered! And frogs gave you warts.

Candy was such a treat, the only time we had some was at Christmas. One day at school I watched a kid eating a Hershey bar. He dropped a little square of it and I watched and waited for the bell to ring and then I planned to pick it up and eat it. But alas, it had melted when recess was over.

One of my most fun times was looking through the Sears and Roebuck catalog that Grandmother Kidd would give us. I would pretend to pick out something for all my family. Depression shopping! Rosa and I would cut paper dolls out of the catalog and make little cars for them out of shoe boxes. We made the paste out of flour and water. We would play church and brother Bob would be the preacher. This was also under the peach trees. He would tell us that Jesus was coming back soon and it would scare me silly! Now that I'm much older I look forward to His Coming again. I'm so happy that mama taught us those beautiful bible stories, and the plan of salvation. How she must have prayed for her little ones. Thank you again, Dear Lord, for Mama and Daddy.

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Nova Development Art Explosion



	MEMORIES OF MY CHILDHOOD
	Margaret Ann “Peggy’ Kidd Powers, 1924-2013, Remembers the late 1920's and 1930's… I remember the coldest nights when we were young, mama would warm a brick and wrap it in old newspapers and rags and put it at our feet to try to keep us warm. The newspapers were given us by our grandmother Kidd, (Note: She was Rachel Susan Taylor Kidd, wife of James Randolph Kidd, Sr.) I would wake up in the night and already it would be So cold! There were not enough covers to keep us all warm. I remember the milk freezing on the kitchen table at night. We had a fireplace, and we would roast on one side while the other side was so cold as we would stand around it. Walking to school in the winter was a nightmare and so was school! We had to walk so far that we would almost freeze. The teacher would warm my hands by rubbing them when I was in the first grade. At Christmas time we would always look for the package that Aunt Rosa and Uncle John would send us from Arkansas. The divinity [candy] that they made and sent to us was delicious! Bless them for helping us, we were so poor and the depression was in full swing. We would get a little cedar bush that grew in the wild and decorate it with popped corn that we had strung, and some little brass candles that clipped on the tree. The candles came from Germany, grandmother [Lindauer] had brought them with her when she came to the U.S. One Christmas some of our sweet neighbors brought us some real nice gifts and fruit. Little did they know how happy that made us kids! Our dear brother Fred made us a little car out of an apple box. It was so cute, and it had a door with leather hinges. One Christmas he made me a little bed and mama made a quilt to go on it. On Christmas night mama would tell us to go to sleep or Santa would not leave us anything. That would just make it harder to go to sleep! I would almost smother pulling the covers up so he couldn’t see me. We lived about a mile from the railroad track and one time the train stopped, (which it had never done before at that place) so we knew that something must be wrong. Mama and daddy said a wheel was burning and that scared me so bad that I hid under the kitchen table. On Sundays our grandmother Kidd would ride the interurban rail out of town to within a mile of our house and daddy would pick her up there and bring her to visit us. Mama would get out the nice tablecloth that Aunt Rosa had sent us for Christmas. Grandmother dipped snuff and she would send us out to the peach tree to get a small limb to make a dip out of. That would get the snuff from the little metal can that it came into the mouth. I would watch her and the snuff looked so good, like cocoa and sugar, so I waited until she had walked away and crawled up on the table and got a big mouthful. It tasted AWFUL and I almost choked to death! That was when I was very small. I never did want to taste that bitter stuff again! Mama was so pretty, she had a red dress when we were little and I thought she looked like an angel in it! She would get sick headaches and be so sick. I would cry my eyes out thinking she was going to die. She got blood poisoning once and her face swelled so much that she had to go to the hospital, and I panicked thinking she was not coming home again. When she got home, she asked who had been crying so, as if she didn’t know! Prayers and Epsom salts saved her life. Mama always made us feel loved. She worked so hard in the fields as well as in the home. On wash days she would build a fire under the old black, three-legged iron pot and heat the water. She would boil the dirtiest clothes, and then rub them on the brass rub board. The soap was made from the fat of hogs and lye. The hot wash water was not wasted as it was then used to scrub the kitchen floor and the porches. How we dreaded wash day and then the next day was the ironing day, which was just as bad or worse than wash day. The irons were so heavy and had to be heated on the stove. Sometimes they got too hot and scorched the clothes and then sometimes they would not be hot enough. There were no controls on them. In the summer it was worse as the house was so hot and the added fire made it worse! Mama made our cotton sacks. When we were small, she took a flour sack and put a strap on it that went over the head. We got flour in 25 pound sacks at that time. The older kids got a cotton sack made out of cotton duck, which was tougher than denim. Mama made them on her Singer sewing machine. These sacks would hold up to 200 pounds of cotton. Cotton picking was a hard job, as you had to take the cotton from a boll (really a holder for the cotton) and it had stickers on it that would prick your fingers bloody. Dragging a full cotton sack was some tiresome job. After picking cotton all day, mama would go home and cook supper on a cranky kerosene stove. It was hard to get it started and then it smoked so bad. Lots of the time supper was fried potatoes and they tasted very good! Red beans (pinto) and sweet potatoes and black-eyed peas were eaten quite often too. Mama would sing hymns even in the worst of times, "Count your Blessings" was her favorite, along with "The Old Rugged Cross”. She would tell us bible stories, thank her. I have never forgotten the stories, and I am thankful for that. We had one cow that kept us in milk and butter. I hated to churn with that big crock and dash. It was a very tiring job. When it began to look like a storm was coming, we would have to go to the cellar. It always smelled so musky and was damp. Mama kept her canned jars on the shelves, as it was always cooler there than in the house. It was like a prison, and mama and daddy warned us to watch out for snakes and scorpions. Not a very fun place to be. Mama and Daddy were so afraid of storms that it was sad, and they put a fear for them in some of us kids. I remember when the threshing machines would come and cut the wheat. We always had chickens and chicken thieves were always on the prowl. It was so scary to wake up in the night to the sound of disturbed chickens and daddy grabbing the gun to go out and see if it was people or wild animals that was looking for a chicken dinner. At the first cool spell in the fall, daddy would kill hogs. The fat was rendered for cooking and making lye soap. There was no way to keep the meat cool, so it had to be salted. Fresh pork was a welcome thing to our vegetable diet. I just loved to play in the cottonseed bin in the barn. The hens made nests there and would lay eggs. We always had baby chickens. Bob (brother Robert) and I would be sent to look for guinea eggs. Mama would warn us not to touch the nests or the hens would not lay there anymore. We would take a little stick and roll the eggs out of the nests. The cornfields were a super place to play. I just loved to feel the cornsilk. Rosa and I would make playhouses under the peach trees. One of them was an Indian peach. We would take rocks and outline our house and the rooms. I just loved to go to a neighbor's house and play. Her name was Rebecca Farmer. They had a big water tank and a windmill and they raised sheep. One day I took a magazine out to the middle of the road and sat down to look at it. I became so interested in it that I did not hear a big car coming. He had to blow the horn and it scared me so bad. I got out of the road in a hurry! We played "hide the thimble" in our old brick chimney. One day I was playing in the front yard where mama always had flowers blooming, and a big bumble bee stung me on the cheek. Mama kept the yard so clean and neat with larkspurs, tiger lilies, poppies, mint and lots of other flowers and herbs. We would go crawfishing, or crawdadding as we called it. We would take a string and a piece of bacon to catch them with. Sometimes mama would fry the tails for us. (and sometimes she would not have the lard.) I was scared to death of turtles because they told us that if we got bit, they would not turn loose of you till it thundered! And frogs gave you warts. Candy was such a treat, the only time we had some was at Christmas. One day at school I watched a kid eating a Hershey bar. He dropped a little square of it and I watched and waited for the bell to ring and then I planned to pick it up and eat it. But alas, it had melted when recess was over. One of my most fun times was looking through the Sears and Roebuck catalog that Grandmother Kidd would give us. I would pretend to pick out something for all my family. Depression shopping! Rosa and I would cut paper dolls out of the catalog and make little cars for them out of shoe boxes. We made the paste out of flour and water. We would play church and brother Bob would be the preacher. This was also under the peach trees. He would tell us that Jesus was coming back soon and it would scare me silly! Now that I'm much older I look forward to His Coming again. I'm so happy that mama taught us those beautiful bible stories, and the plan of salvation. How she must have prayed for her little ones. Thank you again, Dear Lord, for Mama and Daddy.

		To include your stories and other information in this site, Email us at Webmaster.
Comments, suggestions, additional info are always welcomed., Please contact: Webmaster