WAY BACK WHEN - - - -

[Gray Mule]

STURT:  Just had to hear this song again.  Google it.  Ernest Tubb sings it!

I remembered some of the words.

[Gray Mule]

Started 1st grade on my birthday.  Then, you had to be 6 to go to school.  I was 6 that day.  Ended up being the youngest boy when I graduated.  Girl came in from out of town.  Her father was military and she was younger than me by a year. She already had enough credits to come into the 11th grade so I was second youngest.

I never played school sports.  Was an bean pole and very small boned.  Also, by then I had too much farm work to do at home.  My dad's health was bad and the hard work was mine to do.  Got my driver's license in the fall of my 11th grade.  

Never really had a girl friend until i met my future wife.  She had just passed her 16th birthday and I was almost 24.  First date, July 5th.  Married August 5th.  Lasted 56 years until cancer took her.

 

[sturt]

23 hours ago, Gray Mule said:

STURT:  Just had to hear this song again.  Google it.  Ernest Tubb sings it!

I remembered some of the words.

hehe.... I'll have to look for that one.

[Gray Mule]

2 hours ago, sturt said:

hehe.... I'll have to look for that one.

Please do.  I had my daughter listen and she said Sturt now has a new love song for his wife...

Original was a country hit in 1946, just after WW2.  I hadn't heard it or thought about it until now.  After listening to it again, now I can't get it out of my mind.

Listen and let me know what you think.  Google "My Filipino Baby."

[sturt]

@Gray Mule, found this...

 

https://www.lyricsbox.com/mac-wiseman-filipino-baby-lyrics-qfxm418.html

[Jdawgflow]

What are some fun stories you have about rural mail carrying?  My Papaw did the same job for over 20 years and he had some neat stories and very devoted and kind people on his route. He often got food and desserts which I especially loved to sample as a small child.

[sturt]

@Gray Mule, my wife couldn't tell if the lyric was "doll" faced or "dog" faced. Turns out the lyric is "dark" faced.... hehe.

[Gray Mule]

Learning a new route.  I noticed the door of the mailbox was open.  When I was putting the mail in the box, a small bird flew in my face.  With a knowing grin, the regular carrier said, "Oh, I forgot to tell you.  There is a bird nesting in that box."

Summer resident.  Had a dog that was trained to fetch the mail.  Met me every day.  Dog's name was Susie.  That winter I got a post card.  I appreciate how good you were to Susie.  She passed away a few days ago.  This was sad news to me.  Then, I had to explain to my wife when she asked, "Who is Susie?"

Around Christmas, always have patrons sharing cookies and candies.  Yummy!

[Gray Mule]

1 minute ago, sturt said:

@Gray Mule, my wife couldn't tell if the lyric was "doll" faced or "dog" faced. Turns out the lyric is "dark" faced.... hehe.

Hope she likes the idea of her being your loving Filipino baby!!

[Gray Mule]

December 7, 1941.  I was 5 when the US entered WW2.  But, the war had been going on for some time.  Germany on our east coast and Japan on our west coast.  Therefore, I could not remember any time in my life that a great war was not being fought.

After we entered the war, no new cars were available.  I couldn't remember any new cars Then.  Imagine the excitement when one of the senior boys brought his dad's new 1946 Ford to school to show it off!  A boy, 10 years old, gets to see his first new car!  Wow!

Before that, it was announced that the war was over and we had won.  The large, outside bell at the high school building rang and rang.  That was probably my happiest day in school.  Ever.  Our high school was the only on in the county but there were 5 other grammar schools.  Now, there is just the one school.

[sturt]

@Gray Mule , shared your Susie story as a post to my Facebook friends the other day, and fwiw, it was a hit... they loved that.

[Gray Mule]

As a child during WW2, we learned to save everything because you couldn't go to the store and buy a replacement.  You made do with what you had.

Perhaps you might think that recycle is a new, modern idea.  Nope.  The great idea that someone had was to gather up all the scrap metal for the war effort.  I remember finding an old, wore out plow point.  No good to plow with but a lot of good, solid metal.  

Ration books.  Lots and lots of things could only be bought with your ration book.  That's how I once got a new pair of shoes.  It wasn't supposed to happen but I'm sure ration coupons were sold and traded.  Living in the country and on a farm meant we didn't have a lot of money and what money could buy but we always had plenty of food.  

Mom and dad always had coffee with their breakfast.  As soon as I was old enough to discover what they were having I wanted coffee too.  Mom fixed me a cup of milk with enough coffee to brown the milk.  By the time I was old enough to go to school. I had a regular cup of coffee with a tad of milk.

The summer between grammar school and high school, I had my appendix removed.  The next morning they brought my breakfast.  No coffee.  "Where's my coffee?"  "You're too young to have coffee."  Really?  Having a cup of coffee with breakfast for the past 8 years and now I'm told I'm too young to drink coffee.

"I don't eat breakfast without coffee" I told the nurse.  She left me.  Mom came back before the nurse returned with my breakfast still sitting there, untouched.  Mom told her that it was OK.  I always had coffee with breakfast.  She then brought my coffee and I had breakfast.

Waking up without coffee, to me, just ain't natural!!

[Gray Mule]

Sad today.  Four years since cancer took my wife.

[sturt]

Warm thoughts to you today, Gray.

So happens that one year ago today, we lost my brother-in-law to covid.

 

[sturt]

On 3/26/2021 at 1:09 PM, Gray Mule said:

Really?  Having a cup of coffee with breakfast for the past 8 years and now I'm told I'm too young to drink coffee.

hehehehe

[Gray Mule]

Another thing that happened when I was a young, substitute rural mail carrier.  Post office called.  Come and carry your route.  This was after the mail was worked but before the carriers left.  Regular carrier had all the mail worked and it was ready to go.  Easy day!  Full pay.  Half the work.

Then, I was told why.  Seems that a disabled veteran who also had a mental problem had not received his monthly check on time.  He had called the post office.  "I know the carrier has lost my check and now I won't get it.  I've got a deer rifle and I know his car."

I was the one delivering his mail that day.  Can you imagine how I felt when I approached his box, stopped, put mail in his box and drove away?  Scary!  No.  Nothing ever happened.

[Jdawgflow]

On 5/1/2021 at 8:09 AM, Gray Mule said:

Another thing that happened when I was a young, substitute rural mail carrier.  Post office called.  Come and carry your route.  This was after the mail was worked but before the carriers left.  Regular carrier had all the mail worked and it was ready to go.  Easy day!  Full pay.  Half the work.

Then, I was told why.  Seems that a disabled veteran who also had a mental problem had not received his monthly check on time.  He had called the post office.  "I know the carrier has lost my check and now I won't get it.  I've got a deer rifle and I know his car."

I was the one delivering his mail that day.  Can you imagine how I felt when I approached his box, stopped, put mail in his box and drove away?  Scary!  No.  Nothing ever happened.

Out in the country you have to worries more about the guns than the  

[Gray Mule]

This happened before my time.  My dad had a small country store.  He sold it before I was born.  It was necessary for him to haul in everything from the wholesale houses about 25 miles away.  With a wagon and a team of mules, he loaded all the stuff he had taken in trade.  Chickens, eggs, meat were among the things he took to market.  Leaving at daylight, he journeyed there, traded what he had for store goods, camped out that night and arrived home late the next afternoon.  Two days spent and then, do it all again next week.

A long time after he started this, he missed making the trip and found that he really, really needed some things he was out of.  He threw a case of eggs and some meat in his T model Ford car.  He was amazed.  He made the round trip and got back home before dark.  The wagon never made another trip!

The car and store were both gone before I arrived.  Dad didn't have a car until I was 12 but he still had his life time drivers license that he paid 50 cents for when he first got the new T model.  Some time later the state forced him to swap his drivers license for a new one, good for four years.

 

[Gray Mule]

2 hours ago, Jdawgflow said:

Out in the country you have to worries more about the guns than the  

Nope.  Never got shot.  Did get dog bit.

Had a package too big for the mailbox.  Carried it to the front porch.  Returning to my car, small dog bit my leg.  Didn't break the skin thru my pants leg but it did really hurt.

Later on, I told the woman what had happened.  "Wasn't my dog."  I described the dog.  "Oh, that dog died" she said.  Two or three weeks later, the the lady was working her garden and the small dog was with her.  After I deposited the mail in her box, I called to her, "Hey, Rose, that dog of yours that died, you didn't bury him deep enough.  There he is."

She never looked up.  Still hasn't.  Later, I told her husband.  He roared with laughter!!

[Gray Mule]

I was a 10 year old when WW2 ended.  My goodness, how things have changed.  Even the meaning of words.  Pot was what mamma cooked beans in, not something you smoked.

People then would drink home made wine or homebrew  (Home made beer) but those who seriously drank would drink white lightning.  Home made corn likker.  No, I never drank, still don't.

We had a neighbor who quit drinking.  Bought him a gallon of the good corn and declared that this was to be used only as a medical remedy.  Later he declared, I never saw a well day as long as the jug lasted!

Our county and all surrounding counties were dry.  Our sheriff declared that all our WW2 veterans were now back home and he didn't want to deprive them so he didn't crack down on the distillers of illegal spirits.  When he went out of office and a new sheriff was elected, many of the stills were destroyed.

One old widow woman, living up the mountain, at the end of that road, had two spigots in her kitchen.  One ran the cold spring water.  The other?  White Lightning.  Ma sold a lot of corn squeezin!

Another thing that has changed so much.  Middle school.  If you were a boy you can bet you had a pocket knife on you.  A very few didn't.  I always did.  Older kids.  The boys who drove to school in the family's pickup truck probably had a rifle inside.  If a teacher spotted the gun, he probably brought out his own gun to compare.  Who had the best one and have you ever killed a deer with this one?

Strangely enough we never had knife fights and no one ever got shot at.  Disagreements were settled with fists.  I remember 2 high school boys were squared off, ready to fight.  Teacher, a WW2 veteran, stopped the fight, ordered them both to put on boxing gloves and have at it.  As a reason to really fight, he told them, I'm going to take a hickory switch to the loser.  He didn't have to.  They both fought hard....