Thurman, you are right, by today's standards most of us of a "certain age group" would be placed in other households for doing some of those things! I remember riding on the running board of our old Ford out in the fields when I was 3 yrs old. Remember it because dad stopped and I went sliding up over the hood of the car (somehow missing the hood ornament which would have "gutted" me) and landing on the ground in front of the car. Knocked the breath out of myself I have to admit I would never have let any of my kids ride on a running board when they were 3, even with a big brother trying to hold them on (as my brother was assigned to do, he was 5 and obviously failed). Also remember my dad using my mom to get the cows back into the corral they had broken out of...the "boss cow" didn't like my mother and well, lets just say one of the fondest memories of my mother is the picture in my mind, of her turning the corner into the driveway at full speed in a 1930s house dress & apron with a herd of cows galloping along behind her and dad bringing up the rear. We kids were not allowed outside during this event so have never been sure what mom did when she got to the corral. And she would always give dad a "look" when I would bring it up. Dad would change the subject. My dad and uncle also used one of my cousins to get a BIG old sow back into her pen. My cousin in all innocence told them "sure she could run real fast" So as she ran through the gate with the sow behind her (the sow was a mean thing) one of them reached down and plucked her up and the other closed the gate behind her. She was a city cousin, they couldn't convince my brothers or me to be bait for the sow. The Uncle was not her dad by the way, his daughter was a farm kid also and knew better. Thanks for getting me to think of a different era, Thurman. Louella -----Original Message----- From: Thurmon E. King [mailto:thurmonking@juno.com] Sent: Saturday, May 17, 2003 6:35 PM To: SACKETT-L@rootsweb.com Subject: [SACKETT-L] Tales from my childhood It Could Have Been Worse In recent days I have seen several TV programs which involved parents being charged with child endangerment. Depending upon the nature of the charges ... Some parents had their children taken away from them and placed in foster care ... And in some instances the parent(s) were jailed. And as I remember my childhood; I can only imagine what would have happened to our family if some of today's laws were on the books when I was growing up. I think of a couple of accidents that happened (when lived in the house where the brahma bulls were turned loose in the pasture) which involved cutting wood ... I was only 4-5 years old, so I wasn't the one cutting the wood. (:^:D The first one was when Dad had a team of horses pulling a sled when he went out into the wooded area to get wood for the cook stove and heater in the house. On the way out from the house he had his axe and a cross-cut saw on the sled. His cross-cut saw was about 5 - 6 feet long and had a handle on each end so that two people could work together and cut a large tree. Because the empty sled would bounce too much for the tools to stay on it; Dad had "holders" on the sled to keep them in place. The "holder" for the cross-cut saw held it along the side of the sled with the teeth pointing up. Yep, you guessed it ... I was running along side of the sled when I tripped. As I fell I thrust my hand out to catch me as I fell. Of course, my hand came down on two of the teeth on the saw cutting two deep gashes in my left hand near my wrist. I still have two cresent shaped scars from that. Another accident happened when Dad was cutting the wood into pieces short enough to fit into the stove. He was using his axe. As one cuts across the grain of a branch of a tree with a sharp axe, the sharp chips of wood fly out in different directions. As Dad would cut a piece of wood off, I would pick it up and put it into a stack. As I was bending over to pick up a piece that Dad had just cut off ... He came down with the axe and a chip of wood struck my face just below my left eye but far enough down that it hit the bone rather than hitting the eye. This injury resulted in more than a scar. It injured one of the nerves that controls the eye and resulted in me being slightly cross-eyed ... Especially when I turn my eyes to either side, the left eye wanders up giving me double vision. To eliminate the double vision, I usually close the left eye and this has led to me being accused of winking at people. .... Hmm ... How is that for an excuse?? One more accident happened in the summer of 1935 after we had moved to the place where Dad was share cropping. The crop was corn and we were thinning and weeding the crop. Being summer time us kids were going barefooted. Dad had just sharpened my hoe and I made a "miss-lick" and hit the top of my foot. Mother said that as I ran toward her, blood from a severed artery squirted above my head. They put my foot in kerosene, to stop the bleeding, and then wrapped it and took me into Marietta to the doctor. I most definitely remember the doctor sewing it up (three stitches) without the benefit of an anesthetic. I was held by some adults. I remember trying to kick, while screaming and crying at top volume. The doctor said that he wished I'd be quiet. I said something about being quiet if they would just let me go. He said they'd let me go if I would be still and be quiet. I said: "OK." They let me go and he started to work ... I almost kicked him over .. So once again I was held. After he had finished, he said: "Look at all that blood on my shirt ... You're going to have to wash it for me." I told him: "Wash it yourself." Later I'll tell of some that could have happened ... But didn't ==== SACKETT Mailing List ==== To Subscribe to the digest, SACKETT-D, address your email to: sackett-d-request@rootsweb.com and type: SUBSCRIBE. Remember to unsubscribe yourself from sackett-l or you will get multiple copies! ============================== To join Ancestry.com and access our 1.2 billion online genealogy records, go to: http://www.ancestry.com/rd/redir.asp?targetid=571&sourceid=1237

When we had our storytelling time during our last reunion some of us "younger" folks (40 somethings) remarked that social services would surely be called in if we tried any of that stuff! I love the stories & have been forwarding them on my Dad, who also grew up in OK & West Texas in the 1930's to early 40's. Cindy