When I was but a youngster, folks were concerned about “messin’ ’round” with nature. If there was a possibility that threatening weather was approaching, the children as well as the adults were required to wash t...
When I was but a youngster, folks were concerned about “messin’ ’round” with nature. If there was a possibility that threatening weather was approaching, the children as well as the adults were required to wash their feet and lie down on the bed until the storm passed.
I’m not sure why lying in bed would help. If the storm was severe enough to wreak havoc, I personally don’t believe that a bed offered significant protection but as with all children of my time, I obeyed. I cannot remember being frightened during a thunderstorm but I still wonder if washing my feet was the answer to survival.
Children as well as many adults conserved shoe leather by going barefoot during the warm summer months. Perhaps the cleansing of the feet was more to prevent ‘messin’ up’ the bed than having anything to do with protection from the elements. In this day, washing the bed linens required more effort than to merely toss them into a machine.
If, by chance the storm was looming while work in the fields was being performed, careful scrutiny of the direction from where the clouds were approaching and the remarks were made that, “Keep on working. It’ll blow over.” Or, “Let’s get to the house. That’s the direction all our rain comes from.”
If the season had been dry and the crops had not yet matured, the rain was welcomed; but if rainstorms prevented the gathering of the harvest the results were sometimes critical.
Drought during the growing months and storms during the harvest time could possibly mean the difference between feast and famine. If the crops failed, there was a strong possibility that the family would be required to suppress their pride and rely on government dispensed “Commodities” for their subsistence.
There were, however, never-ending chores, which could be completed on rainy days that were neglected during the frenzied periods of raising and gathering the substance of life for the average family living on a small farm.
Examples are; Mending harnesses, repairing or sharpening implements, shucking and shelling corn, carrying corn to “The Mill,” (in a wagon; if an automobile was not available), and other farm duties that could be performed without exposure to the inclement weather.
It was seldom that children were asked to perform these maintenance chores due to lack of knowledge in the area of ‘making do,’ with whatever supplies were obtainable, therefore, children welcomed rainy days simply because they were then left to their own designs for entertainment.
If television, computers, video games, cellular telephones and the like had even been available for purchase during this period, they would have been acclaimed as; “Throwing away good money on something that’ll never work.”
One favorite pastime for children during this era was building roads in the soft sand under the open, elevated floor of the house (underpinning a house was considered a waste of materials; this was something only ‘Town Folks’ did.)
Empty cans were converted to automobiles that traversed the hundreds of miles of these roads. These were activities that could be perused if the weather was not too severe.
At times, the gentler sex would accompany the boys in this amusement by using stones and sticks to outline their ‘playhouses’ alongside the sandy roads. Loud shouts could be heard over the sounds of rain pounding on the tin roof if an occasional can rolled into the living room or kitchen, of these make-believe homes. This was sure to bring about admonishment from the parents in the form of; “Y’all hush that hullaballu. Ya’hear?”
Although the children were indulging in their homemade entertainment and were not underfoot, only so much of the shrieks were tolerated by the parents before the cry would be raised, “You youngun’s wash your feet and lay down on the
