Before Radio – New Fridge

We didn’t have a radio till I was about 9…Got our first TV after I got  married at 17.  We got electricity in my area in  1947 or 8….Our minds were much clearer and ‘cleaner’ then, and one  rarely heard of meanness…NO mass killings, rapes, child molesting that  we knew of. Folks visited more back then and passed on the neighborhood  news at quilting bee’s, First Monday around the Courthouse Square,  etc…And some had battery powered radios…Daddy used to hitchhike, ride the bus or drive his team to his hometown 20 miles away sometimes on Mule Day, and he could visit with his family and pick up all sorts of news of  the world. He also swapped work with neighbors and heard news that way. Traveling salesmen were common..Watkins, Jewel Tea, etc…plus the  Peddler Man..

We had books at school, nothing but the Bible at home…which nobody but  Mom read. Sometimes she would get magazines and I remember her reading  an interesting story to Daddy after we’d gone to bed. I knew not to let  them know I was awake or they’d have fussed  at me or maybe spanked me, so I lay there in bed quiet as a mouse and listened to the story  unfold…She’d read till her throat got sore then do another segment the  next night after all was quiet. I don’t know why she didn’t read to the  entire family, but maybe she and Daddy needed a quiet time alone away  from all us goomers. When I was about 10 she subscribed to the Nashville Banner newspaper and I went from reading the comics to reading most of  the paper.

We lived in a really big log house at this time..[I was about 7]…Two  big rooms with a dogtrot hall between and a lean to kitchen…Mom and dad would sit by the fireplace, lamp light helped out by the fire as it  snapped and crackled….There was two big iron bedsteads in that room  across from the fire place and us girls slept in one, Mom and Dad in the  other, usually with a baby in there with them so they could keep it  warm. The older boys slept across the hall in an unheated room..I  remember so well laying there on that feather bed, while Mama read the  story of a man lost in a wintery wilderness…..Oh no ! He fell through  the ice in a stream and was about to freeze to death.. Talk about  riveting ! The man found a cabin and broke into it and found food and  firewood so he was saved. Mom never did know that I was listening…faras I know. She loved to read…one time she said she got as hungry for  something to read at times as she got for food.. Our entire family  turned into read a holics. Course Daddy had to whip me more than once  to get me to learn to read, and I DID hide my books a few times…..[I  know now I had attention deficit, still do…but it hadn’t been invented  at that time…] Then they had to whip me to make me do my chores instead of reading….Jeannie T

We went on a rare visit to my Dad’s parents when I was a child…They had the most amazing thing , called Electricity! There were light bulbs hanging down on cords in the middle of the room, and when the string was pulled they gave so much light it just about blinded you. In the kitchen was a big white box set up on legs, called a ‘fridge’. After dinner the grownups went out to set in the cool shade of the Big Catalpha tree, and we decided we’d look around a bit in the now empty house…Ah, the FRIDGE. Opened the door and stood there enjoying the nice cold air seeping into the room…UH OH! THAT SUCKER STOPPED RUNNING! Now what?….Ah !Theres a button that says ‘push to start.” Just what we need…..We took turns pushing that butter and praying…all the time having one of the culprits peeking around the door to check on the adults. I mean, if Aunt Pearl even suspected we had broke her fridge…….Nothing on this earth could have saved us from that big laughing woman.. We pushed that button, prayed, sweated….and NOTHING HAPPENED! We looked at each other, carefully closed that door and ran out of that kitchen like our shimmies were on fire!  Now came the hardest part…waiting around all afternoon for Aunt Pearl to find out we had broke her ‘fridge’….Waited, and waited , and waited. Then it was time to go home and I just couldn’t leave without checking that fridge…Would you believe that sucker was running just fine ? That sure ruined a trip to Mammy and Papa’s ….