“The good old bad old days”

 

      
They were not so bad for they brought families closer and closer to God and each other.   

     As a kid I used to love to hang around the old timers on the benches at the court house.  They were always there trading knives and telling tales.  I often wondered whatever happened to them and one day it dawned on me that the baton was passed to my generation.   Now we go to the restaurants where they have heat and air conditioning with softer seats.

      This is a little removed from what I usually remember about the days gone by but I have to believe that I grew up at the best time ever to be an American.  My parents generation had to deal with WWI, WWII and the great depression when everyone adult and child had to contribute to survive.  It surely brought them closer together as family and community but made great demands.  As Tom Brokaw declared in his book they were “The greatest generation.” Of that there can be no question.

     As a child my dad lived about 3 miles east of Bardwell and hwy 62 was gravel.  The road he lived on was dirt.  He would take eggs to town on Saturday for my grandmother and trade for flour and salt, etc.  On one trip he got a ride to his turn off of hwy 62 and when he got home he reached for the change left after the purchase and it was gone. There was a hole in his pocket.  They thought maybe it was lost when he jumped from the wagon. 

     He, my grandmother and one brother along with three sisters walked a mile to hunt for the dime he had lost.  It was a hot dry summer and the dust was inches thick.  They sifted the dust and unbelievably they found the dime.

     They were farmers and were more fortunate than many in that they had three healthy hot meals every day but it was still a trying time.

     I always remember this when I, and others of my generation, complain of what we did not have.  Until WWII most families had one bread winner and the wife usually stayed at home raising kids and keeping house.  It was not until the war that the women had to go to work at the jobs the men had done traditionally.  This was especially true for the “Rosy the Riveters.”  After the war prices forced the women to remain on the job and work beside the men to provide.  In his documentary Tom Brokaw named them, “The Greatest Generation.”  This was certainly accurate for they were that.

     We had decent clothes as kids and three good meals a day but we did have to work, baby sitting, mowing, odd jobs or whatever we could to buy anything our very modest allowance would not cover.  My allowance usually was 25 cents, which covered twelve cents to get in the picture show, five cents for a coke and five cents for an ice cream at the drug store or Peggy Young Ben Franklin store or as we called it The Dime Store.   Usually instead of buying it, I would pop corn on the stove and carry it to the show in a brown paper bag. 

     I always enjoyed the ice cream at the Walker drug store located next to what is The Hickman County Times office now.  You could smell the hand dipped ice cream as you entered the door.   They had wrought tables and chairs with counter top and chair seats of beautiful white marble.  Sometimes we could even buy a fountain coke to go with our cone.

     When WWII broke out we lived on Jefferson Street and I remember how solemn my parents were listening to President Roosevelt announcing the dastardly act of the Japanese.  Soon after that my dad was in the Navy.  I remember the rationing and shortages.  One thing that stands out for me as a five year old was bubble gum.  We lived across from the William Claxton family and Ann and I were best friends.  When supplies ran to the UtoteM store, located where Hickman County Hardware is now, we would run to the store.  It would be gone usually by the time we got there but Mr. Auvil Gunter who clerked there would always have some hid and saved for the two of us.  Not only was ration stamps required for goods most items were in short supply as the war effort came first.  As small children we did not fathom what was going on but even us little kids contributed.  We would cut tops and bottoms out of tin cans and flatten the cans with the tops and bottoms inside.  We would search for old rubber and any metals.  These items would be left at the curb and a truck would pick them up to be recycled out of necessity.  Rubber was really short because of the German submarines off the east coast of North and South America making it near impossible to get raw rubber.  Most of the owners of vehicles that were lucky enough to have gas had multiple boots in the tires.  It definitely made a slow rough ride.  I remember we could not buy bicycle tires at all and after a blown tire we would replace the tube and wrap friction tape around the wheel and tire.  Believe me this made a bumpy ride.

     Something I really miss is the stern and side paddle wheelers on the river.  Also I miss the floating fish docks at the landing at Columbus.  My dad loved the river all his life and Tommie and I shared it.  We spent many hours at the ferry landing watching them.  Tom Bencini and Girt Frizzell had fish docks a few yards north of the landing and I seem to remember a smaller dock closer to the landing.

     My dad and my granddad bought from both Tom and Girt depending on which had what they wanted.  There was a box with water and live fish where you could pick the one you wanted and for a kid it was pure pleasure to watch them steak or fillet them to order right there.