I loved your message, please feel free to contribute any memories you care to send. I expect you have a wealth of warm family thoughts. You have stretched our thinking concerning our forefathers daily life. Please continue to be yourself. Truly Jo Ann in Mo. ----- Original Message ----- From: "Loretta Kelldorf" <pandv@tyler.net> To: <VA-SOUTHSIDE-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Sunday, May 13, 2001 8:09 AM Subject: [VA-SOUTHSIDE-L] Finding a Mate > When I was a kid, our ranch was ten miles from the nearest village. It took forty-five minutes to ride the ten miles on horseback. It was no problem for the horse. We could go to the post office, do the day's errands and that horse could still make it home in time to get his feed. You must understand that there is a difference in a horse's ability to travel if he is a fit animal in good shape versus a kid's pony or a horse that only gets ridden for recreation. Many horses also have gaits other than walk, trot, or gallop. Some of those gaits are very comfortable for riding and make good travel time. And I assure you, no matter how tired a horse is, if you head him home to that feed bag, you would be amazed how fast a tired horse can travel! I have fond memories of riding my tired horse home at sundown after a full day or riding range looking for lost cattle and/or repairing fences. It always amazed me how good we both felt when it was time to go to the corral! > > Romance can be very inspiring to a young man, or even an old one for that matter, and I am sure it would be sufficient fuel to enable him to row home if he went by water. > > Bear in mind how fit people and animals were then. Laboring on a farm or farm trades kept a person very fit. Even if they traveled by foot, a young man could go several miles in time to court his girl for a couple of hours and still get home in time to work the next day. When I was nine years old a boy in my class walked three miles after school to bring a box of candy to me for Valentine's day and I assure you he got home for supper that evening. Now, it is important to keep in mind that the young man wanted to have plenty of time for the courting after he got there, so is it likely that he stayed within a ten mile radius; although, a genealogy lecture I went to once proposed the theory that most men married someone who lived with a three mile radius of them. If you consider the size of the homesteads in Va, not many of them were greater than 640 acres which is a square mile. You can see by that, that a three mile radius would give you a number of neighbors from w! > hich to choose a mate. > > Loretta in Texas > > > ==== VA-SOUTHSIDE Mailing List ==== > The USGenWeb Project http://www.usgenweb.org > > > ============================== > Create a FREE family website at MyFamily.com! > http://www.myfamily.com/banner.asp?ID=RWLIST2 > >