Darlene Hill - Seeing Life in the 1940s & 50s through the eyes of a Nebraska Child

Copyright 2017 Darlene Hill

All rights reserved

First Edition

PAGE PUBLISHING, INC.

New York, NY

First originally published by Page Publishing, Inc. 2017

ISBN 978-1-64082-937-4 (Paperback)

ISBN 978-1-64082-938-1 (Digital)

Printed in the United States of America

Chapter 1

When I Was Born

I was born at home in Spalding, Nebraska, which is in Greeley County. I was delivered by Dr. Giever with the help of Gram Bartlett, an older lady that lived down the street from us. On this fine day of October 27, 1941, I was a lot of baby weighing in at twelve pounds. My mom was Margaret Naomi (Noonan) Marshall, and my dad was Roy Kenneth Marshall. When I got here I had a big brother, Roy Michael, who was ten years old, and a big sister, Margaret Jeannine, who was nine years old.

My mom told me that my daddy wasnt too happy when she got pregnant with me. Now at my age I know where he was coming from as he was forty-nine years old when I was born. Im sure I wouldnt want to start another set of kids at that age.

I do know that Mom was happy to have me and my sister had prayed for a little sister for many years, so she was overjoyed. As far as my brother, I dont think he was too excited about babies.

Even though I was a cute littleor should I say bigbaby, they all had to get pretty tired of me as they say I had a bad case of colic for some time. I guess Mom, Mike, and Nean took turns walking the floor with me. Daddy by this time had gotten over being upset about me and wanted so badly to hold me but my family said until I was six months old I wouldnt have a thing to do with him. I guess it was my way of getting even for him not wanting me at first. But you know, after we got that worked out, no one ever loved each other more than us.

Chapter 2

About the House I Grew Up In

W e lived in a three-bedroom house. It was the shape of a barn with a big porch that wrapped around the south and east side. There were two bedrooms and a bath upstairs. Yes, we had an inside bath, and most who lived in town had them. However, the farm folks still had the outhouse.

The south room was Mikes, which he later shared with Don. Ill tell you about him later. The north room was Neans, which she shared with me. Just so you know, Nean was what I called my sister and still do.

The main floor had one bedroom, which was Moms and Dads, and it had one long narrow closet. Mom kept a curtain hanging in its doorway as it had no door.

Our kitchen had been built on the north side of the house, and it was about twelve feet wide and ten feet deep. There was one window on the west side, and it looked to be a regular window lying down and the window would slide open.

In our kitchen we had a wood-burning stove. Mom did all her baking and cooking on it, and it also helped heat the house in the winter. We used corncobs Dad got from a nearby farmer to start the stove. As I got older, it was my job to bring Mom in a basket of cobs to start her stove. Nean told about one time I was sent out to get cobs and when I didnt come back for a long time, Mom came out to check on me and I was counting every cob as I put them in the basket. Mom got a picture of that.

Since I mentioned pictures Im going to take time here to tell you about pictures back then. To get a picture you had to own a camera, and we didnt have phones that you could take pictures with. The camera was a box shape that you had to buy film for so you could take a picture. You would load it into your camera and snap a picture, but if you didnt turn the film it would take another picture on top of the one you took, ruining both of them. The film had around twelve pictures you could take on a roll. Also to take a picture inside you had to use a flashbulb. Now flashbulbs came in a box of twelve I think. Anyway, you would have to have an attachment on your camera to put the bulb into. When you snapped a picture, a bright light would flash, which made enough light for you to get a good picture inside. With these cameras you never knew what your picture was going to look like until you sent the film into a company that would print them for you. Anyway, you will find a lot of the old pictures were taken outside because it was a lot cheaper than buying flashbulbs.

I think that my grandparents must have had some money as we have lots of snapshots of my mom and her brother when they were quite young. Most families only have pictures that some guy would take as he was traveling through the area, as they couldnt afford a camera. Mom took lots of pictures, which we all cherish today.

Well, back to the kitchen. Off the kitchen was a laundry room. Someone had enclosed part of the wraparound porch. It had a north window and an east window and an outside door. It worked really well in the summer, but in the winter with no heat, it was a cold place to work.

The dining room housed my moms buffet and our round oak table that had leaves to extend it, probably sixteen to eighteen feet long. It was opened up many times when I was growing up. Mom loved to cook and bake, and back then families got together a lot more often.

Off the dining room was a pantry that held groceries, extra dishes, and large cooking pots and pans plus other odds and ends like the ironing board and iron. Dad made Moms ironing board, and to prove how strong it was, he did a handstand on the very end of it.

Our living room was a pretty large room, with a big bay window on the south wall where Mom with her green thumb kept her flowers. When I was young, the north wall in the living room was open into the bedroom and had a curtain hanging for privacy. In later years, Dad put a wall in there. The east wall had an open stairway that turned at ceiling height and went on to the second floor. At the top were three doors. The north was our bedroom, the south was the boys, and straight in was the bathroom.

Also there was a big piano on the west wall of the living room. No one knew how to play, but Mom enjoyed trying. Sometimes someone would come that could play and we would all sing along and have a good old time.

Chapter 3

About Our Yard

O ur yard was quite big, but it was all hills. You would go east or north in our yard and it was uphill. You go west or south and it was downhill to the sidewalk and then downhill from the sidewalks to the street. It was a real pain to mow. Most of the yard was pretty much weeds, but we had to keep them mowed too. At that time there were no mowers with engines, as you pushed them a blade would turn and cut the grass. There were two large lilac bushes on the east side of the porch going up the little hill to the clothesline. That is where we buried all of our pets that died.

I have to stop here and tell you about the possums. Well, Mike or Dad brought them home because they had no parents. There were two of them, and they still had their eyes closed as they were just a few days old. Well, Mom washed up one of my dolls baby bottles and warmed milk for them, and it was Dons and my job to keep them fed. Well, things went well for a few days, but one day we went to feed them and they were rolled into a ball and wouldnt respond to nothing so we figured that they were dead and we buried them in our pet cemetery. To this day we arent sure if they were dead or just playing possum.