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80 years ago

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C

cool hand

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80 years ago today I was born in the very house in which I now reside. "We" had no electricity. Did have primitive telephone service. Doctors made house calls. Electricity came along when I was 5. I really didn't understand what it was all about--we had this guy coming every day "wiring the house." (Which seemed to be THE topic of conversation at any social gathering.) On the day the power was activated my dad called me into the barn to "show me something." New lights burning all over the barn, and then the house! What an exciting time that was for our household! Farming was done mostly with horses--every local farmer had a 2-horse/mule team. My dad, with his brother on an adjoining farm had an IHC 15-30 tractor between them. The 15-30 replaced a Titan that my grandfather provided them, but never drove--(never drove a car either.) It was replaced a year after my birth with an F-20. That's the one I began with. By the time I was 15 both farms each had two tractors! My Dad had the F-20 and a brand new H. The five children all went in diverse ways to pursue other things, but the three of us that are left all eventually returned to farming to some extent. I bought the home place from my parents after living and working elsewhere for some time. I thought my Dad,at 74, too old to take care of this farm, and suddenly, here I am at 80! Wow! Wasn't it last year that I retired at 65?
 
Happy Birthday!

You sure have seen a lot of changes in your lifetime. Thanks for sharing them - neat to read.
 
Happy Birthday. Good story. You have lived through the best times our country will ever experience. Have a good day!!
 
Cool Hand,

Congratulations on your birthday and thanks for the story. Do you have grand/great grand children? I am 71 years old and, for years now, I have talked about writing down some stuff about growing up in the 40s/50s to leave for my grands/great grands. Unfortunately, the press of time hasn't allowed me to do so.

We've seen some changes in our lives, haven't we?

Tom in TN
 
I'll be 83 in Feb and I retired from the Federal Government in 1989. We tested government vehicles. Even the M1 Tank. Hal
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Happy Birthday. You are 2 yrs older than me. We didn't get electricity until I was 15 yrs old. My Dad had a new 1939 JD "B". Also had a team of horses. Milked cows, had chickens, pigs, sold cream, eggs. Never had running water until after I left home at 18 yrs. I now own the home place but don't live there, live about 3 miles away. They were the good old days. Went to a one room school house all 8 years.
 
Happy birthday. You have me by about 10 months. I was born out on the farm also but it was 120 acres dad was renting. He had a F 12 and horses. Old Dollie and Coalie. Team of blacks. I remember dad bringing the white Ivory looking decorations from the harness into the house and polishing them up. Had a red tassel on their bridles also. I don't remember not having electricity as I believe the house was new, very small, as the old house had burned down just before dad moved there. Most of the neighbors did not have electricity until late 40's, early 50's. My folks never did have running water and the old farm place out here, that I am caretaker of the building site, still does not have running water. I never had more than one class mate in my 8 years of country school and a couple years were alone. Thing is , mom and dad had seven kids and he saved enough money farming that place 11 years to put a down payment on the 80 he eventually bought. Never realy caught up after that though.
 
Happy birthday to you. You are 4 years older than me so that makes you smarter. It took a long time to find out that the old man was smarter than me. LOL We didn't get electric until 47 and then we got a milk cooler ,what a day. Before that we had a vat and put ice in to cool the milk. We had running water from a spring up on the hill ,It ran all the time We had a one room school also. And we went to town in a 35 Ford Pickup that the old man made last for ever, I don't think he ever learned to drive, He would go out of the yard with the motor going 90 miles a Hr. slipping the clutch and when he goy in the road he would go right to high gear and the old thing would buck and jump till it got going again, and the thing smoked so bad you couldn't see the old truck, just the smoke. But we lived good and life was good as it turned out.It's nice to be retired and live the good life here in Fl.
 
I'll be 81 in three weeks, on December 7th.

I was born in a hospital, but grew up on a farm where we didn't get electricity until I was 12 years old. My parents didn't get indoor plumbing until 1964, well after I'd left the nest, and that wasn't uncommon in rural Nebraska back then.

They had to add onto the house for a bathroom. By then, I was out of the Marine Corps and living on my own elsewhere. I came up with a plan on where and how they could add the bathroom onto the house. My mother didn't like the plan, said it wasn't practical, and referred to it as Gene's harebrained idea. Several weeks later my uncle, Mom's brother who was a professional carpenter and who did the work, came up with the identical plan. Coming from him Mom thought it was a great idea and they went with it.

Go figure.
 
Ah, mothers! When it comes to the house, a son, especially a farm boy, really couldn't possibly come up with anything worth considering! You have to have another acquaintance of her's to present it--then it's great!
 
Happy birthday! Great memories! My dad's dad's house where I started out had a wind generator and lead acid batteries from the early thirties, lights and a radio. We got indoor plumbing after '52. My mom's dad had a cross country transmission line nearby and they got him power in the early fifties. He didn't get indoor plumbing until about 1967, a hold out but loved it when he broke down. When I added on to our house in 1985 to expand the bathroom the tax adjuster came by and said "no tax on bathroom additions!" I guess that's a holdover from when old farmers wouldn't get indoor plumbing for their wives because their taxes would go up. That and they didn't want to crap in the building they ate in.
 
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