KEEPING CLEAN Etc. Back in the Day

You have lived a full life and seen many things. Modern kids do not even know the hardships you went through. I know "poor" kids nowadays and the parents still have everything like cars, air conditioning, running water, abundance of food. smartphones, adequate clothing, and the kids even have smartphones. Hardly poor by your childhood era standards.
How much better was his childhood compared to kids 50 years before? 100 years before? It's good to make each generation better.....not worse!

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You nailed it. Had to grab a flashlight
and go check it out. There is a little remnant of the top handle left above the hole. It has some really short legs on it, can't imagine building a fire underneath it. Maybe the handles were used to hang it above the fire? Maybe it was used for cooking and Mama Ange repurposed it for the wash pot after it broke? There is definitely a water ring stain right up to the hole that's visible in the pics. Thanks for the insight... now I know a little more of the story. :)

Yes, I think there was a metal loop like a bucket handle that went through the rings on the side, which is why they were oriented vertically. If they were handles they would have been horizontal. The small legs just keep it from rocking on every little pebble.

Nice family heirloom. I'd season it, and use it for gumbo. Although knowing it's were my ancestors washed their skivvies might mentally ruin the gumbo. LOL!
 
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How much better was his childhood compared to kids 50 years before? 100 years before? It's good to make each generation better.....not worse!

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Honestly I believe living a simpler life is much better than the technology ridden life kids lead today. Kids are fat, spoiled, rotten, out of shape, have zero inclination or ability to take care of themselves. Kids back then were fit, resourceful and could fend for themselves. Food was more natural and healthy for you instead of processed **** filled with chemicals.

So other than medical advancements, are we really better off today? I say no.
 
i wish i had gramma's kitchen stove. it was a gas on gas.
on the left was a wood firebox. it was great in the winter, it heated the oven n the top was hot enow to boil water. all winter i played by it. on the right were gas burners. there was also gas to heat the oven, in summer.
i think this was n is, the height of technology.
nothing better is made.
 
Honestly I believe living a simpler life is much better than the technology ridden life kids lead today. Kids are fat, spoiled, rotten, out of shape, have zero inclination or ability to take care of themselves. Kids back then were fit, resourceful and could fend for themselves. Food was more natural and healthy for you instead of processed **** filled with chemicals.

So other than medical advancements, are we really better off today? I say no.

While I can see your argument and agree with some of your points, statistics would seem to disagree with your main point.

When I was born in 1962 life expectancy for a male in the US was 73 years.

Today life expectancy for a male in the US is 79 years.

So in the last 54 years life expectancy has increased over 8% - despite those issues. Not trying to be argumentative, just trying to say it isn't ALL doom and gloom....
 
by the way, guys, i was reading this old roman dude in latin class. 2,000 years ago n he was saying the exact same stuff about the younger generation as my parents said about my generation.
nothing changes.
 
You would think that in the 1960's what with most folks in Queens county NYC would have either oil or coal to heat and cook with. And in most cases that would be true. I had one elderly lady who would buy all the scrap wood I could bring on my wagon. Old thrown out furniture with just the wood, small tree limbs cut to fit her stove and furnace, old pallets also cut up and just about anything made of wood. Had a Nabisco place not far from the house and asked about the old pallets they had. Was told to take as many as I wanted. When the boss saw I was loading them in a wagon he loaded up a pickup truck drove them and me home. Next few days were spent cutting them up and removing all the nails. The lady was quite happy about using pallet wood as it was mostly oak and burned very well for cooking and heating. So at least once or twice a month pallet wood it was for her. Sometimes the Nabisco guy would drop off 20-30 at a time and I'd work at cutting them down. Hand saw only. Mostly slats and 4"x4" which kept me busy. Frank
 
I was born in 1951 in ruaral Kansas
Remember grandma making lye soap
Believe some of that soap still exists
Went to a one room country school, with out houses
Indoor toilets were installed a couple years after I started school
I drove the two miles to school in dads pick up occasionally when I was in 8th grade
Had a .22 pump gun in the gun rack over back window

Oh how much we have regresssed
 
Upon reading this thread, I had to call mom. Growing up in England, her family used three washtubs (one wash, two rinse), a washboard and a posser:



After she had me, dad got a Hoover portable through the PX. It was a small capacity machine. She said that between my diapers and dad's fatigues, laundry day was still an all day affair.

 
by the way, guys, i was reading this old roman dude in latin class. 2,000 years ago n he was saying the exact same stuff about the younger generation as my parents said about my generation.
nothing changes.

Well now, that made me go and find my old Latiin textbook and see if there was an equivalent of, "The kids these days... etc." but couldn't find anything. "Sub sole nihil novi" ("There is nothing new under the sun") is probably close, although that's just quoting Ecclesiastes, an old Jewish dude about 900 years before your old Roman dude :)

As to keeping clean, though, there is growing evidence that we're TOO obsessed with cleanliness these days, with the result that kids aren't developing the necessary resistance to bugs and infections. Nothing like the odd un-tended scratch and maybe a bit of horse poop to keep a kid healthy, I guess.
 
You have lived a full life and seen many things. Modern kids do not even know the hardships you went through. I know "poor" kids nowadays and the parents still have everything like cars, air conditioning, running water, abundance of food. smartphones, adequate clothing, and the kids even have smartphones. Hardly poor by your childhood era standards.

Don't forget we also have the fattest poor people in the world.....I'm old enough to remember when the poor were skinny....
 
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