THE FOURTH LETTER FOR THIS SERIES - The Letter "D" Prompts are: (A) Starts with the Letter "D"; (B) "Dark" (Tom's Choice); (C) A Favorite; (D) Street/Reflections; and (E) A Lagniappe.
(B.1) "Dark" This is a photo of the International Date Line taken from the back window of our plane, heading to the U.S. from Australia. Since it was night and Dark out there, you will have to imagine what it looked like.
(B.2) "Dark": Nearing Dark, twilight.
(B.3) "Dark": My previous Dark story, Dark opposite of Light (my dfn.).
My Dark Story: When I was growing up on the farm, we did not have electricity until 1938. That was the year my younger sister, Lois, was born.
Lois was trouble as soon as she was too old to be sleeping in Mom and Dad's bedroom. Our house only had two bedrooms, upstairs. At first there was one for my parents and one for me.
After Lois came she needed the bedroom that I had and so I was relegated to the front porch which was to be used as my sleeping room. Just a sleeping room. In the daytime my bed was put back as a studio couch and with the rockers and the other chairs our front porch was a place to hang out in the evenings. It was screened to keep the bugs out and also had storm windows for the winter to keep the winds out. But it still got cold out there, even so Nebraska cold that frost developed on my outer blanket
Yes, we had electricity, REA, Rural Electricity Association, from the year Lois was born on. There were two lights hanging on the back side of the porch attached to the house wall. So I had a pull chain light that I could reach by standing on the bed, i.e. the unfolded couch.
We also installed an inside bathroom that year. It had a tub, a toilet, and a sink. And a closet for my clothes with a hole from kitchen wall for a refrigerator. We still took showers out on the back porch though. Now instead of a bucket of warmed water to bath with we had a real shower hose attached to the faucet used also to fill the washing machine. We shared that part of the back porch with Mom's old Maytag machine.
Dad did not like us using the toilet in the bathroom because it meant cleaning out the cesspool more often (the sink, toilet, and tub drained into the cesspool).
Helping the cesspool, the porch shower water ran outside into the back yard through a hole in the wall at floor level. When we weren't showering we put a big round wooden plug into the hole to keep snakes out. But we couldn't run any toilet water out into the back yard.
The 'light' story part:
So we were supposed to use the outhouse (outside toilet in a little house) that we had used before. It was out behind the chicken house in the grove. If only company were to use the inside toilet and our family always used the outhouse we would probably never have to clean the cesspool out again. I don't think we did either.
The problem at night was that it was dark going out to the outhouse. I can't remember if I was afraid of the dark or just pretended to be. But at any rate I can remember convincing Lois always to walk with me at night, in the dark, out to the outhouse.
We may have had flashlights but not one to use going out there. They were saved for working in the dark or fixing things at night. I suppose that Lois also used the outhouse while we were out there. I don't remember that part..
Our OuthouseToo bad the tree fell on it. Of course no one was inside, just a whole lot of memories left there waiting.
(D) Street/Reflections: bright Sky and shades of green Foliage side and backyard Reflecting in the water (a friend's home, not ours).
(E) A Lagniappe: Mrs. Jim inspecting the lake on the end of our friend's lot. It has really nice Reflections also.
- - - -Fine print stuff:
- [Click on any picture for larger, click it again for extra large]
- I am linked with Tom of "Backwoods Travel" (Link here to click for Tom's Weekend Reviews)
- I am also linking again this week with James of "Weekend Reflections/Street Photos" (click here for his Street Folk and Reflections Photos).
... Dwarf looking Dump truck ready for a Street Drag race, what a sting of Ds! I have never been to the International Date Line. Electricity isn't the only thing that has changed since you were born. Do brown Ducks lay brown eggs? Thanks Jim for coming to the party, tzke care.
ReplyDeleteNice D post. I thoroughly enjoyed your story! I remember the outhouse days. Not much fun. I always worried there would be snakes waiting down there to bite my b... :)
ReplyDeleteCool, I never thought of getting a photo of the International Date line!
ReplyDeleteGreat poem Jim and I love the shot with the clouds and the reflections shot. Have a great week ahead
ReplyDeletea 2 hole out house, that was uptown putting on airs hillbilly, my grandmaw had one and use it until 1970
ReplyDeleteand she got indoor one. they are handy in a ice storm.
love the cloud picture. I see alot of thing in it.
have a good weekend
Ah yes the good old days weren't always so good but they built character. Very interesting post!
ReplyDeleteIn 1987 while on a navy ship I crossed the International date line and the equator at the same time.