My daddy writes these amazing stories about his life, giving all who read a glimpse of his perspective and experiences. I thought I would share another one with you.
On Technology
I was born in the mid-1930’s (1934) (my memories of the way it was then) I never saw an indoor, flushing toilet until I was eight years old. Outhouses were the standard, with either a Montgomery Ward or a Sears and Roebuck mail order catalog for toilet paper. We carried our water from a neighbor’s pump a half block away until dad hand dug a well in our front yard. Mother washed clothes in a washtub using a washboard and a bar of ivory soap. After they were washed and rinsed she would wring the water out of them by hand. They were then hung outside on the clothesline to dry. Her apron had big pockets where she carried wooden clothespins. They were gathered up and brought in after they were dry. They smelled so fresh after being blown in the breeze. Mother would sprinkle them, and roll them up to be ironed. She ironed with a very heavy, hand iron that was heated on top of the cook stove. The iron had to be reheated frequently while she was ironing. We heated our uninsulated house with a potbellied wood stove and mother cooked on a cast iron, wood burning, cook stove. Wood had to be chopped year round for one or both stoves. In the coldest part of the Minnesota winter, both stoves had to be fed wood most of the time to keep the house warm. All of the logs were cut with a hand held bucksaw into one to one-and-a half foot lengths. Then dad used an axe to chop them into smaller chunks for burning. Dad would keep his axe sharp with a spinning grindstone using foot-pedal power. The work was hard but a sharp axe reduced the work considerably. We had an icebox that kept our food from spoiling. Ice was delivered twice a week, as I remember. The iceman, in an old Model A Ford truck, delivered a one foot square block of ice to each house on his route. The block of ice was dropped into the top of the icebox and the food was kept in the bottom section. Since we had no running water in the house, we carried water in buckets to fill an elongated copper tub for our weekly baths. The water was heated on top of the stove and then the tub was placed in the middle of the room. There were five of us kids, at the time, and we all bathed in the same water. The girls bathed first and the boys waited outside until they were through, and then the boys bathed last in somewhat, dirty water. We did have electricity in our house; there were two light bulbs, one upstairs and one in the basement room. There were strings hangingdown from each light that switched on the lights. If they were not turned on before dark the strings were very difficult to find.We had a large console radio that we listened to. There were only a few programs and usually there was more static than program, but we would listen anyway. We also had one of the first RCA phonograph players of our day. We would wind it up and listen to the music recorded on large, round, black Bakelite records. The records would break or get scratched easily and then the music would include a strange sound each time it came around to the scratch. The most technical thing, that I was aware of in that era, was an automobile. My dad had an old 1924-5 Essex, which he could only start with a hand crank from the front of the car, but he could only get it to run part of the time. The only paved roads in the town we lived in were the highway running through town and the main street. The rest of the roads both in town and in the country were gravel and very dusty and bumpy. I don’t remember ever seeing wrist watches.
There may have been some, but pocket watches were very popular. The men that could afford them had nice fancy silver or gold chains that hung in front of their vests with the watch safe and secure in their vest pockets. My grandfather, Judge Emil O. Hanson, was one who wore a chain with his pocket watch in his vest pocket. I have heard the story of a patent clerk who quit his job in 1900, because he said that everything
that was going to be invented had been invented by then. In my early years, we too may have thought that most everything had been invented. After all we had a washboard, an icebox etc. What more could we ask for? There are so many wonderful appliances and other technical things that have been invented since those many years ago. In reality, it almost seems like most everything of value, that has been invented, has been invented in the three quarters of a century since I was born.
I love him so much and am so grateful when I here where he has come from. Happy Family History Friday! Love, Joy
