Lynn's Memories
Lynn Shares Her Memories of Growing Up
Dad moved to the farm near Nevada, Iowa, early in the
Depression. We had no money and we all worked.
Mom was a pretty good cook but when Dad was there we always had to have meat and potatoes-nothing like spaghetti, etc. I often wonder how mom knew so much when her mom died when she was 5.
Mom raised chicken, ducks, turkeys, guineas, and geese. She and I dressed them for people in town who bought them and we ate them also. I did not like that job-especially picking off the pin feathers!!
She made bread every day and we had it for breakfast-and all day.
Dad raised pigs, and steers. He had cows and they were milked by hand at that time. Dad sold grain seed.
Mom and I spent a good bit of time in the summer canning food for the winter, including meat. Later there were freezer lockers but not that early.
Dad had a thrashing machine and thrashed for people who fed them and Mom often helped cook that food. I carried water to those who were working.
I brought in the cobs and coal for cooking and heating, fed the chickens, gathered the eggs I never had candy from the store and about the only time I had candy was at Christmas when mom made peanut brittle-her gift to almost everyone, and as I said that she never used sugar for cookies and cake, etc because of sugar rationing and her saving it for these things.
I had no brothers or sisters but didn't really miss them because I was busy and my cousin Wayne lived with us-10 years older than I but I idolized him.
We had a round tub that we took baths in. No electricity until I was in 8th-maybe 9th grade and so no running water-had to pump it and that was not fun in the winter.
I wore clothes that the neighbor girl out grew and I still remember how I waited-longed for her to outgrow a coat that I loved and I did finally get it.
We always had dogs and they were almost all dogs that people had thrown out and somehow they found our house. My favorite was a German shepherd and he lived until I was in 8th or 9th grade. Once when I was little I had wandered into a corn field and did not know how to get out so I told the dog to go home and followed him.
When I graduated from high school I applied for nursing school-they turned me down because I was only 17 (thank God- would have been a horrible nurse) and then I found myself in Omaha with my Aunt going to a junior college there. - the first push to being a teacher.
Next when I was about to graduate from college in dietetics a counselor suggested I go an extra semester for education courses and when I finished them there was a small school who needed an teacher in Jan-I took it.
After four years I joined the army and met Edie at Walter Reed.
Love
Lynn
PS
They did not buy much from the grocery and I remember one day dad had gone to the grocery and came home and told mom-You are going to have to be more careful-I cannot afford to spend a dollar a week for groceries
Mom was a pretty good cook but when Dad was there we always had to have meat and potatoes-nothing like spaghetti, etc. I often wonder how mom knew so much when her mom died when she was 5.
Mom raised chicken, ducks, turkeys, guineas, and geese. She and I dressed them for people in town who bought them and we ate them also. I did not like that job-especially picking off the pin feathers!!
She made bread every day and we had it for breakfast-and all day.
Dad raised pigs, and steers. He had cows and they were milked by hand at that time. Dad sold grain seed.
Mom and I spent a good bit of time in the summer canning food for the winter, including meat. Later there were freezer lockers but not that early.
Dad had a thrashing machine and thrashed for people who fed them and Mom often helped cook that food. I carried water to those who were working.
I brought in the cobs and coal for cooking and heating, fed the chickens, gathered the eggs I never had candy from the store and about the only time I had candy was at Christmas when mom made peanut brittle-her gift to almost everyone, and as I said that she never used sugar for cookies and cake, etc because of sugar rationing and her saving it for these things.
I had no brothers or sisters but didn't really miss them because I was busy and my cousin Wayne lived with us-10 years older than I but I idolized him.
We had a round tub that we took baths in. No electricity until I was in 8th-maybe 9th grade and so no running water-had to pump it and that was not fun in the winter.
I wore clothes that the neighbor girl out grew and I still remember how I waited-longed for her to outgrow a coat that I loved and I did finally get it.
We always had dogs and they were almost all dogs that people had thrown out and somehow they found our house. My favorite was a German shepherd and he lived until I was in 8th or 9th grade. Once when I was little I had wandered into a corn field and did not know how to get out so I told the dog to go home and followed him.
When I graduated from high school I applied for nursing school-they turned me down because I was only 17 (thank God- would have been a horrible nurse) and then I found myself in Omaha with my Aunt going to a junior college there. - the first push to being a teacher.
Next when I was about to graduate from college in dietetics a counselor suggested I go an extra semester for education courses and when I finished them there was a small school who needed an teacher in Jan-I took it.
After four years I joined the army and met Edie at Walter Reed.
Love
Lynn
PS
They did not buy much from the grocery and I remember one day dad had gone to the grocery and came home and told mom-You are going to have to be more careful-I cannot afford to spend a dollar a week for groceries
