Farm Life of the Past: June 2008

Monday, June 30, 2008

Kids

This is Charles (standing) with a brother and his 2 younger sisters.

( Around mid 1940s)







Junie

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Sunday, June 29, 2008

A Gaggle of Geese



(This is a story that was first printed July , 2006 at 'Junie's Place' blogspot)




...This is a story that goes WAY back...



A Gaggle of Geese


In the year of 1898, in the area of Waco Tennessee, lived a farm family of a father, mother, two boys and a little sister! The boys were about ages 8 years and 6 years. The sister, little more than a toddler at this time.


The family had recently moved back to Tennessee from Texas, to this farm. The boys, even at this young age, were expected to help out with the things that had to be done around the homeplace.


They had a gaggle of geese that the father needed to have driven to the town to be sold! The brothers, Elwood and Boyd, were given the job of ‘driving’ the geese to market to be sold! The driving of the gaggle of geese was accomplished by a boy on each side, with a long stick, moving them along and keeping them together as a flock. (gaggle)


On the way to the town, ( which was a distance of a couple of miles or more) the boys passed by another farmhouse. The farm lady was very friendly and engaged the boys in a conversation, asking if they were hungry! Of course they said yes, that they were hungry! Farm boys didn’t often turn down good grub when offered! She fixed, for each of them, a big plate of butter and molasses!


They ate the sweet and tasty mixture with great gusto! (As the geese grazed the roadside…) Each boy finished every bit on his plate, ending by licking the plate clean! On returning the empty plates to the lady they thanked her for her kindness and told her that the plates wouldn’t need to be washed - that they had already cleaned them!! :)


As the two little boys left to complete their assigned task of driving the geese to town,

I can well imagine the big smile on the kind farm lady’s face, as she watched them leave!


Can’t you? :)



Note: Boyd was my husband’s (Charles) father!


This is a picture of Boyd with James Elizabeth, holding their first grandchild.

(Photo 1948)















June Kellum

July, 2006



(some comments at original post)


Junie

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Siblings


Two big brothers and a little sister:

Charles was the youngest boy of 4 boys, and 3rd youngest child in a total of 10 children!
He is the little boy on the right in this picture. ( About age 4, I believe)



Junie

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Saturday, June 28, 2008

The Bowl Cut

I will start with this story...They will be in no particular order .




The Bowl Cut


In the late 40s, short and neat haircuts for boys were the thing! This was the accepted and desired hair cut for all boys of that day. The hair was parted on either side or the middle, and combed up and back to the sides and held neatly in place with ‘Rose’ hair oil! This aromatic oil was used by one and all - farm boys and city boys alike! Sometimes, OVERUSED, to the point of running down behind ears and down necks…under shirt collars!

Keeping a neat haircut could be a problem, with money in short supply as it usually was,
in this farming family.

Luckily, (or maybe not) the older brother of the family had acquired a hand-operated hair clipper. With three younger brothers in the family, he had ample material to practice his hair cutting. But one needed to catch the older brother in a receptive mood, to be assured of getting the desired haircut! On some occasions that clipper seemed to be pulling the hair out by the roots, rather than cutting it! This, perhaps, depending on the older brother’s mood at the time of the clipping!!

Ed, being a young teen, and wanting to look his best, had been pestering his brother for a haircut for awhile-with his hair becoming more straggly and unkempt with each passing day! The Rose hair oil was fighting a losing battle in keeping all that hair in place!
Finally, the haircut was agreed to and it got under way!


The young Ed was captured there, under his brother’s hands, being very still, so as not to invite the pulling from the clipper…not realizing at first what kind of haircut his brother was giving him!

The finished haircut looked as if a bowl had been placed on the boy’s head, with the scalp shaved close, up to the distance a bowl, placed on top of the head, might have covered! The rest of the hair was cut straight, with no tapering; being left to hang straight down all around the head!

:) It would take awhile for that hair to grow out!
(But as Charles has been known to say,” Country Boys Can Survive!”)

Yes!
This haircut was similar- but more drastic- to the haircuts ‘THE BEATLES’ would make famous, some 15 + years later! :)

Charles Edward never WAS a Beatles fan! ☺


Junie

( some comments at original post _ Junie's Place-May 7, 2006)
May7, 2006

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OK-Here we go!

OK


The purpose of this new blog is to have all my husband's stories together. ..mainly of interest for the family!

In the near future I will be transferring posts previously posted at 'Junie's Place,' about his adventures as a farm kid in Alabama...I hope also that we will be able to add some new stories!

Y'all come back later!

Junie

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Welcome!

Here I am trying to get a blog going for my husband's farm stories!


I'm confused but I'll figure it all out!


LOL! Well! I WILL! Just watch me!


Junie