My mothers' father was the first to have a car and a television in their area. I had many relatives who lived in the country with out houses. Everyone did have electricity. Quite few in the mountains had only radios. I have known one family with 5 sons who lived up a mountain with no electricity or plumbing. And this was only 30 years ago. My grandmother had her bathroom on the back porch as it was added before I was born. I helped use a wringer washing machine but it was electric. I remember the first electric sewing machine before that we should a treadle machine and our first color tv. My uncle was a traveling pastor and parishioners invited us to Sunday dinner. Ny friend told me they bought toilet paper as a special tribute cause the preacher was coming. Otherwise they used catalogs. This wasn't all poverty it was just the times. I am very interested inothers memories and if/how they vary from one part of the country/world compared to the south.
2007-08-29 14:06:09 · 14 answers · asked by Southern Comfort 6 in Society & Culture ➔ Cultures & Groups ➔ Senior Citizens
I wish I still had it to send to you: I received a paper that told life 100 years ago. 1907 was the date and it told only a tiny portion of the people had plumbing or indoor tiolets.
Few had electricity and everyone had cool oil lamps.
They raised most of what they ate. It was a long paper but it was such an eye opener. Things we never think about.
There tiolet paper was corn cobs. A bucket of Ashes was in the out house and you put down a scoop to cover the poop it said.It was the original lye. When it was pretty ranchy a new hole was dug several feet away from the original hole.
Then the old mule drug the out house over the new hole.
Filled in the old hole with dirt. wonder what they planted over that?
2007-08-29 14:14:29 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 4⤊ 0⤋
When my parents bought this house I was three years old. It was just a shell of frames with tarpaper cover for the first floor, but the basement was finished with a kitchen and small livingroom and one bedroom. A big old potbellied stove provided the heat in the "furnace room". All our water came from a well. And the necessary was a shed in the back garden.
When my father and his brothers finished off the main floor, they also built a deluxe outhouse out back that had two stalls--one indoors for the ladies (that indoor space also doubled as the tool shed) and one outside (and unhappily facing north) for the men.
When my father and his brothers and my mother's brothers built the second storey on the house, my father also installed indoor bathrooms on both the main floor and the second floor. So we went from a double stalled outhouse to a two bathroom family in one memorable summer when I was 12 years old. We also switched to city water that year (digging the necessary trenches to bring in city sewage and water disrupted the underground spring that fed the well).
The neighbours had indoor bathrooms with full plumbing (although on septic tank systems) from the beginning, but they all switched over to city sewers that year as well.
2007-08-29 16:24:57 · answer #2 · answered by Susie Q 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I grew up on a rural farm in Northern Minnesota. We had an outhouse, and did not get indoor plumbing until we moved to a suburban city in Washington state in 1959. At that time, we also purchased our first black and white television. I am very familiar with the wringer washing machine, and in fact got my arm caught in it at about age 5 I think. My granny used a washboard and refused to have it replaced with a wringer washer. We carried water in the house from a well with a pump, heated it for doing dishes, washing and bathing, etc. We carried the used water outside and dumped it several yards behind the house. We raised almost all of our own food, and only shopped at the grocery store about once a month for staple items, like sugar, coffee, flour, etc. We played a lot of board games, played cards, talked, visited neighors, played softball, croquet, walked together, rode bicycles, etc. for entertainment. As a young child, I remember working on the farm most of the time, helping with the haying, threshing, feeding and caring for the animals, cooking, planting, weeding, and harvesting in the garden, canning, picking berries, cleaning, etc. We had a treadle sewing machine, and crank up phones. I remember when we got our first dial phone with 8 people on the party line. That was a very exciting day, and I remember it well. I will be 63 next month.
2007-08-29 15:03:55 · answer #3 · answered by shevans 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I believe my grandparents probably had indoor plumbing, but they died before I was born.
I do remember my Mom visiting her relatives in East Texas and it was my first experience with an outhouse. Her house was separated by a breezeway. It was very old and unpainted. I would not use the outhouse at all. I was terrified something would bite me from that hole down there. I feel sure I embarrassed my mother.
My father came from a wealthy family and my mother grew up in a house that had a dirt floor.
2007-08-29 14:12:40 · answer #4 · answered by makeitright 6 · 2⤊ 0⤋
My parents used to go in to town in the 50's and look at the TV in the window of the appliance store, not sure when they got indoor plumbing but they didn't have it when they were kids, in fact my grandfather accidentaly knocked over the outhouse with a tractor when my mom was in it.
2007-08-29 14:12:08 · answer #5 · answered by Tommy H 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I have no idea what kind of car my grandparents had, but it seems to me they always had indoor plumbing. At least they did as far back as I can remember. My grandmother on my mom's side was raised on an Indian reservation, so I'm not real sure when she had it first.
2007-08-30 01:09:20 · answer #6 · answered by Lady G 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I grew up in England, in the '50's, in a little village. We all had electricity, but most didn't have indoor plumbing. We must have been the "right side of the tracks", since we did have indoor plumbing, and my Dad had one of the few cars in town. He was an electrician, and he built our first television from scratch, using an issue of "Popular Mechanics" to help him. It was the only one in town ! One of my first memories, it must have been 1953, the Queen was crowned and it was shown on the TV. Everyone in town came over to our place to see the rather fuzzy pictures of the crowning. Good old memories !
My Dad died 8 years ago, and he had a big-screen TV, a video recorder and a CD player. He loved all his electrical "toys".
2007-08-29 14:31:33 · answer #7 · answered by Stella 6 · 3⤊ 0⤋
My parents were the first generation to have indoor plumbing (I'm 52; they're 79 and 82). They lived in northeast Texas. They were, of course, the first to have electricity.
2007-08-29 14:32:00 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
my grandparents are from Tennessee and i remember as a child visiting them in Tennessee and getting to go to the out house,i think it was great.they didnt get indoor plumbing until the late 60s.i also remember drawing water f rom their well and the water was so good and cold.they owned the only store within 20 miles and i remember helping granny make bologna sandwiches for the bean pickers who came to get a sandwhich and a cold drink.grandma petty is still with us but papa died 10 years ago.aw the great old memories
2007-08-29 14:15:31 · answer #9 · answered by alcaholicdemon 7 · 3⤊ 0⤋
I remember in the 1940s we lived in Arkansas and the outhouse was about a football field away from the house.
I was born in a modelT ford on the way to the doctors house cause the town wasn't big enough to have a hospital.
We used to listen to radio shows before TV we even listened to wrestling on the radio can you imagine that.
2007-08-29 14:12:50 · answer #10 · answered by ya-who 5 · 2⤊ 0⤋