Comment by Danny on
Farmer Smith and Modern Farming
The date of the photo is in the early
'50's. According to the bumper, it's a Model A, instead of a T.
" I know well the story above. I think on it a good bit, too, from time to time.
My
grandpa share-cropped cotton, corn and produce with his own mules;
traded butter, eggs, milk, and produce with the rolling store for the
things they couldn't grow/make, used a well/spring to keep things cooled
( til the ice wagons started running out where they lived ), raised
hogs and butchered and smoked them, up until my daddy was 14 and all but
two of the kids had married and left home, when he gave up and moved
the rest of them to town, where he went to work at a veneer mill.
He
then bought a cut-down Model-T Ford, that had 2 wooden boxes for seats
and a flatbed for the body ( I have a picture of it ), and paid a man to
teach my daddy's older brother to drive, so my uncle could drive my
grandpa to work, my granny to the store, or wherever needed..
It was the only car my grandpa ever owned, and he never drove it. Nor did my granny, either.
They both died in the 1980's, in their 80's, still having never driven a vehicle.
Daddy said that grandpa never was the same, health-wise, after he moved them off the farm.
I almost forgot; they didn't have an indoor toilet until they were in their 60's.
I know the difference between the slop jar, and the slop bucket, myself. :)
Grandpa was down to just raising 3
hogs a year, when they moved off the farm. He would cure and smoke two
for family, and whoever helped him with the killing would divide the
other one. They would either let him cure and smoke it along with his,
or take it with them when
they were through."
