Mom and Pop and the eleven of us lived in a 4-room cinder block house. Our house looked like all the other houses because they were company houses. The company or coal mine owned the houses, and the stores and we knew we belonged to them. Everyone knew everyone else. We never lived anywhere else but in a mining camp or ‘the blocks,’ as everyone called it.
One of the enticing draws to the pond was the rope swings. Daddy had designed and welded a huge swingset and had it concreted in the bank of the pond. He then built an open shed with a tin roof close to the swingset.
I will never forget the day Helen told me she was going to elope. Helen was at Oneonta Teacher’s College at the time – In her third year. I guess I broke down and cried when I heard the news. He was parked up the road waiting for her. Helen packed a bag and off she went.
After 21 years of marriage, I discovered a new way of keeping alive the spark of love. A little while ago I had started to go out with another woman. It was really my wife’s idea.
“I know that you love her,” she said one day, taking me by surprise.
“But I love YOU,” I protested.
By Franklin T. Wike, Jr.
The next time you're washing your hands and complain because the water
temperature isn't just how you like it, think about how things used to be.
Here are some facts about the 1500s and the origin of certain sayings.
Carrying a bouquet when getting married.
Most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in May and still smelled pretty good by June. However, they were starting to smell so brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the body odor.
As we get ready for another new year and I prepare to tear down the old calendars, in order to make enough room so that I can put up new ones, I could not help but wonder why we have 31 days in certain months while others only have 30 days. Then there is the question of February, where we only have 28 days – unless it is a leap yea.
I simply cannot imagine a New Year’s Day without black-eyed peas! If you want to have good luck for the whole coming year – “ya gotta eat at least one!” I can year my mother telling my children about this required behavior. Now that the Legacy has made me think about things that I do…..I have to laugh.
Denny
from Indiana
When I was growing up, things were different then they are now. During the ‘30s and even into the 40’s times were tough for lots of people, until the war was over.
I always dreaded going to her musty old house full of Yakima Indian relics because she would squeeze my cheek with a gnarled fist of “iron” and request I sing her a special solo —“Oh Come All Ye Faithful.” I was the singer in our family and Bertha Davis said about the only two things worth a “hill-of-beans” in this world was a good Hereford bull and my boy-soprano voice singing that carol.
By Polly Mazariegos nee Wagaman
When I was very young, I remember how excited I was to spend either Thanksgiving and/or Christmas at Nanny's house. We called our grandparents Nanny and Pappy. Nanny was Emma Wike nee Feaster and Pappy was Charles Wike.