showing your age...

[mruffruff]

I remember, too. Maybe too much!

We had an outhouse when I was about 7. It got real cold in the upper Michigan winters and smelly in the summer, so we didn't spend much time out there. Baths were Saturday night in the kitchen. Mom hauled the water from the pump next door on a wagon and heated it on the wood stove.

My brother & I were sent out to scour the edge of the roadway to collect bottles to turn in at the nearby store so the parents could afford cigarettes.

Dad had a shop where he fiddled with electronics. We had an oscilloscope to watch before there was a TV station in our area. Later, he repaired other people's TVs and finally got one of our own. All of the programs looked like they were being done in snowstorms.

We didn't have a phone for a long time. When we finally got one, it was a party line. We only had three numbers, no exchange.

Mom & Dad built the house I grew up in. The neighbors brought their dray horses over and pulled the logs from the woods so they could be stripped and slotted to fit. I remember using a two handled knife to strip the bark off the pine trees. Lard was the only thing that got the sap off your hands.

The big city of Marquette was 5 miles away. The school bus stopped right in front so I didn't have to walk "uphill both ways". Mom spoiled me in the winter by putting my socks on before I got out of bed because the wood stove wasn't hot yet. And she made me Coco-Wheats (chocolate flavored farina) in a glass so I could drink it before school. I still have a box of Coco-Wheats in my cupboard but I don't think they sell them anymore.

It was a good life, although I didn't realize it then. It certainly made me appreciate running water and central heat

[Willow Oak]

We had an outhouse when I was about 7. It got real cold in the upper Michigan winters and smelly in the summer, so we didn't spend much time out there.

I caught the tail end of the outhouse era. I've often wondered how folks in the upper regions got along during that time -- especially in the dead of winter.

I know that when I was very young there was not even an outhouse in some cases. We would go to a country church. There was a pump in front of the church if you needed a drink of water; and a path behind the church if you needed to ...

Dad had a shop where he fiddled with electronics. We had an oscilloscope to watch before there was a TV station in our area. Later, he repaired other people's TVs and finally got one of our own. All of the programs looked like they were being done in snowstorms.

I recall the man coming over and changing out the tubes in the TV. Then later on you could go to 7-11 and test your tubes there or buy new ones.

[Medusa]

I caught the tail end of the outhouse era. I've often wondered how folks in the upper regions got along during that time -- especially in the dead of winter.

I know that when I was very young there was not even an outhouse in some cases. We would go to a country church. There was a pump in front of the church if you needed a drink of water; and a path behind the church if you needed to ...



I recall the man coming over and changing out the tubes in the TV. Then later on you could go to 7-11 and test your tubes there or buy new ones.

Oh my gosh, yes! Testing tubes! I totally forgot about that.

As for outhouses, my sisters grew up resenting me because by the time I came along, we had indoor plumbing. One summer when I was a teenager, Dad took us (mom, one of my friends and me) to a cabin in the woods for a "vacation". (Groan.) I asked him if the bathroom was inside and he said "yes" so I figured all was ok. When we got there, I looked for the bathroom and said "Ok, where is it?" He said "Where is what?" "THE BATHROOM!" I answered. He pointed to the outhouse and I said "You lied to me! You told me it was inside!" He said "It is inside. It's inside that building right out there." My eyeballs were floating by the time we got home because I was stubborn and I think I used it only once.

[Willow Oak]

Some of you may or may not have such a recollection of running hot water into your kitchen sink, filling it with dirty dishes, and then scrubbing said dishes by hand. I say that because although I do have an automatic dish washer I have never used it.

Also, this summer will complete four years since I bought Willow Oak. The clothes-line poles and line are still intact behind the house. I have never used the clothes-line here -- I use an electric dryer, of course -- but well do I recall the days of watching my mother hang the clothes out back to dry.

[Randi]

Medusa, your post bring back memories.... a half an hour before I had to get up, my dad lit up the stove (that took petroleum, and I believe coal when I was real little), and put my clothes in front of it. I have always hated getting up early, so every trick counted.

When I grew up, there was no hot water coming out of the tap, no, we had to boil a keddle of water if we wanted it hot! Sometime in the 70ties, my parents got a gas heater above the sink - what a luxury!

WO, I still don't have a dishwasher, I wash up by hand - and it's really not that hard, unless you have dinnerguests. I would much prefer a washing machine, but then, I have the laundrette everyone in the building use down in the cellar 2 min away. You really should try air drying your clothes, it's so much better!

[Medusa]

I used to hang my clothes outdoors to dry but now there are so many bugs and mosquitoes flying around and they seem to light on my wet clothes so I don't do it any more. Yuck!

[pomtzu]

I was fortunate to not have known the joys of an outhouse, thank goodness.

And I remember Dad testing tubes in those then modern day early electronics, and he didn't take them to 7-11 to do it, since convenience stores weren't even in existence.

Does anyone still use an iron? I remember that Mom ironed everything including sheets, pillowcases, handkerchiefs, etc., and it took her hours every week. I won't even buy anything anymore if it requires ironing, altho I do own an iron - just in case. It's around here somewhere.

Hang out clothes? - not me. I don't even have a clothesline any more. A lot of these new housing subdivisions don't even allow them.

I remember that the folks had an icebox before a refrigerator. The iceman came a couple of times a week to deliver blocks of ice for it. In the summer it was a big treat for all the kids to run up to his truck since he would give us big chunks of ice to suck on. It sure didn't take much to make kids happy way back then, and we were never bored since there was always something to do outside!

[finn's mom]

I remember 8 tracks. My dad had one in his pickup. We had an old Curtis Mathis floor model tv with the knob for channels. I kept it until the late 90s.

I line dry a lot of things, sometimes indoors, sometimes outdoors.

I don't do a lot of dishes by hand, that's one chore that I can't stand.

My husband irons a lot of his clothes for work.

I make tea with a tea kettle that whistles. I love that thing.

We have an Airline radio that is from World War II. We need to fix it, but it even says on the front "When civil defense sirens sound, do not use telephone, turn radio to 640 or 1240."

[mruffruff]

I don't iron much anymore, but I learned how early. We had an old flat iron that had two inserts. The handle clamped over one when it was hot while the other waited on the wood stove. They were shaped like pointy ovals and weighed a lot for a kid of 7, 8 or 9.

We always hung our clothes outside. Mom had a washboard and had to do all of the laundry by hand. She had a wringer that clamped on the side of her washtub. Later, when we got electricity, she got a wringer type washer. She was pretty happy with that.

I remember my sister's diapers coming in from the clothesline in January stiff with ice and standing in the sink to thaw.

And this was in 1955!