So much to say

and so little time to relay all the information in my head. I do not want you all to wonder what I did as a child and how the world was different.
My family and your dads family came from the Saline River bottoms, Quachita river bottoms, Delta area, cotton fields and back woods of Arkansas. My Dad farmed and hunted his own game. He could make a rabbit trap or shoot a deer or squirrel for our dinner. We raised our own chickens, so we had fresh eggs. My Mama canned and froze all the vegetables we grew, and made sure we always had plenty to eat. We picked huckleberries and blackberries, in the woods, we found old abandoned house places and would pick apples and pears or persimmons. Mama made all our own jelly and jam, with one exception, Rex Jelly, looked like jello and was not bad. We bought it in half gallon jars.
We bought 4 foot sticks of bologna, and mama cut it up, wrapped it in freezer paper and we had bologna when we wanted it.
During the summer months we could be spotted , (all 9 of us) trapsing off through the woods with fishing pole in hand. Mine was always a cane pole with a simple line and hook attached. actually that is what we all had. I am sure my Moms was better, after all she was raised on the river and loved to fish. After Daddy died, it was a way for her to get out, I can still recall the first fishing trip we made that summer of 1957. That one was to our old camping spot on the quachita river. It was Called Open Banks. My uncles always came along or showed up the next day or so, We always took my Grandpa and Grandma. Grandpa loved going fishing and My Mom always made sure he got to go.
So as you see, we never went without food. My Mama had been hungry many times as a child and she was determined her children would never go hungry or cold.
Yes our lives were so different then yours, We learned so much of life by living it, We did not sit inside, We had no computers or games to play with. We made our games. We roamed the woods, We played in the dirt, we had to work in the garden, we had to draw our own water from a well, We washed clothes on a wringer washer and dried them on a clothesline. Our baths were in a number 3 galvanized tub. Our dishes were all washed by hand. All this until I was 11 years old.
When my Daddy died we bought a houe with running water, inside bathroom and Mama had a real washer. We still hung clothes on the line but it was not a big chore. I still shared a room with my sisters but the beds were bigger and the room was definitelty bigger. Mama bought the girls a new bedroom suit. The first I had ever seen, The dresser had 12 drawers and the bed was a bookcase headboard. My clothes now had a specific place to go. So life changed for me when I was 11 but I still remember the times of my life.