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Faye Bertholf McCoy: CHILDHOOD IN SOUTH-CENTRAL KANSAS IN THE 1920s. Everyday life in a country home These experiences give the reader some understanding of the close-knit, inter-dependent life of that era. Families were the center of the community life. There might be more than one saddle-horse, but there was seldom more than one car—if any at all, so families went places together—or stayed home together! The front porch was the family gathering place in the summer (the house was hot!), and around the heating stove in the winter (the only place that was really warm!). While families now would think that was a bit much "together-ness", it was a necessity. Another thing that bound the family together was the necessity of many hands to accomplish the tasks that had to be done. There were enough chores for everyone, and they nearly all required daily attention—the care and feeding of the animals, the milking, the egg-gathering, pumping and carrying water for both the family and the animals, the upkeep of buildings and fences and cutting wood for the stoves. Many tasks were things that children could, and did, perform on a daily basis. Necessity taught responsibility. Country homes had no gas or electricity in the mid 1920s. We used coal or wood to heat our homes in the winter, and opened up the doors and windows to catch a breeze when the weather was hot. The kitchen range provided heat both in the winter and summer! Since there was no electricity there was an ice box--a wooden box or cupboard lined with galvanized tin, in which we placed a block of ice purchased from the ice-house in town. A pan under the box, in-line with a small drain hole, caught the water as the ice melted.
An early heating stove (left); The kitchen range (center); An icebox (right) In the house, there were many opportunities for children to help and to learn, not only skills, but cooperation with others and the joy of a task well done. There was kindling and fuel to be brought in, dishes to be washed and dried, laundry to be hung on the line, clothing to be ironed with the iron heated on the stove. In the summer there was the garden work. The whole rural and small-town living was family-oriented.
Copyright
© 1997 Faye Bertholf McCoy. "I,
Witness to History" and logo are trademarks of Wesley
Retirement Communities, Inc., d/b/a Larksfield Place. All rights reserved.
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