Do You Remember?

By Susan M. Thigpen © 1983-2012

Issue: April, 1983

The smell of a new oilcloth tablecloth on the kitchen table?

The sound of rain on a tin roof.

Cornbread broken into milk and eaten with a spoon.

Silverware stored in a glass on the table and silverware, leftovers and all covered with a cloth.

Treadle sewing machines. Did you ever pinch your fingers or toes under the treadle?

Cutting paper dolls out of a Sears catalog and making dresses for them out of an old wallpaper sample book.

Chewing a sweet gum “toothbrush.”

Stiffly starched crocheted doilies, razor straps and heating flat irons to put in your bed to keep your feet warm.

When no one would have thought of working in the kitchen without putting on an apron.

Heating water in a big black pot over a fire outside to wash clothes in.

Fried fatback, parched corn and drinking water out of a dipper.

Playing string games like cat’s cradle, crow’s foot or cup and saucer.

Playing in the hayloft or making playhouses in the woods with beds of moss.

Feather or straw mattresses?

If you do, isn’t it wonderful! (If we missed your favorites, write us and let us know what they are.)