Water Pumps and Out Houses

There was a little girl I played with, she lived behind us somewhere...I only remember that her family had no running water in their house and when we played if we wanted a drink we had to go out and pump the handle till the clear cool water came out.

They also had no indoor plumbing. I hated outhouses, the bugs, the spider webs, the big hole...and sometimes the smell. When you are little though it is as if the big hole will swallow you up...my feet could touch the floor so your hands properly placed keep you balanced and safe. They had catalogs...I didn't like those either!

The funny thing is, my mom has this strong memory about that family. She said the little girl used to come to our house to play and would just stand in the yard to go to the bathroom. Mom said she had to have words with the girl's mom,... I don't remember a thing.

Daddy Talked me into Eating Dog Biscuits

My daddy thought it was funny to tell me that the dog biscuits were yummy. He convinced me by biting off big chunks himself and a telling me how really good it was. He was my daddy and I trusted him, so I said "yeah? okay" and next thing ya know I was chomping on dog biscuits too. They really weren't that good; and I think I didn't eat them again, but I wanted to be cool like my dad so for the time dog biscuits were okay.

The Ringer Washer

My momma had a ringer washer, at least for a while.. I think it was in a basement in Clifton,Va. I remember watching my mom trying to feed the clothes in between the two rollers and then turning the handles to take the clothes through and squeeze out all the water. It wasn't easy. I suppose it squeezed the water out just fine. After all that washin, or (warshin as my mom said) mom would take the clothes out back and hang them on the line. Stuff was so stiff and wrinkly.... I am sooooo glad that I have not had wringer washers or clotheslines, if I had to iron I would die. I hate it.

The train.

I have no recollection of a bedtime ritual at all; I must have been about 6,7, with a small single bed, wooden floors and in other ways simplicity. I remember so many nights getting out of bed and laying on that wooden floor, waiting to the feel or hear the train in the distance. If you laid on the floor being very still you could feel the vibrations in the house from a great distance. As the train neared the house it was so loud, and there was so much vibration. I am surprised we could function at all with the nightly hubbub, but, we did :-)

More on Clifton

I've been thinking more about Clifton, the house in Clifton was if I remember correctly, white wood with a nice sized step up porch, that vaguely seems to have been gray...I should check with momma. Anyway, I think it had a picket white fence around it as well. Next door, and I mean right next door were the train tracks; and next to that a small, crowed, somewhat dark, neighborhood store.

There was a barrel of ice filled with soft drinks in glass bottles and my mom used to send me there to get a Dr. Pepper for her. The bottles were sooo cold, you'd pull them out with water dripping off and it seemed they were nothing short of a vacation by a cool mountain stream on a hot summer day. The bottles were the old ones, with the clocks on them. That is the main thing I remember about the store.