All good, Folks, but I need to add a few. Some which may not have been available to folks that didn't live in small agricultural communities. I grew up in Cimarron County in the Panhandle.
Pickup tailgates that were fastened closed or flat back with a chain that had a hook on the end.
Being only about two or three blocks from the railroad tracks and the stockyards, thus exploring through a bunch of cattle and sheep cars sitting on the side-spurs. Walking the tracks like a tightrope for about an hour. Getting an education of sorts by a girl named Terry at said places. (No clarifications on the education, but I was probably about 8 to 10 years old.)
Our community even had the distinct opportunity to have a train wreck and the clean-up process took at least a month. I must have watched the entire process.
Walking to the lumber yard and lying on the lumber up in the racks. It was a good place to cool off and take a nap since there was a roof and room for air to flow through. (And, up in the Panhandle, there was almost always a wind, or at least a breeze.)
A BB-gun shot into a stack of cinder blocks at said lumber yard that ricocheted back and broke one of the lenses of my glasses. (Yeah, I know......dumb.)
Blizzard in 1957 that piled up snowdrifts to the height of the eaves of houses.
Along came the age of driving and lowering the air pressure in one's car tires and "balancing" on the rails of the railroad and driving for miles and then turn around at a crossing. For your information, the lowered air pressure allowed the tires to literally keep one on the rails and one could drive for miles without touching the steering wheel.
Bushwhacking one's friends as they took their sweethearts out into the country for some "necking."
"Necking."
Then, there was the normal agricultural things like driving the tractors (with no cabs) in the fields, riding horses and driving cattle to a new pasture, swimming in the stock tank, and getting fresh water from the discharge pipe from the windmill and using a cup made from an old tin can.
And last, but not least, fresh fried chicken after church on Sunday.
Pickup tailgates that were fastened closed or flat back with a chain that had a hook on the end.
Being only about two or three blocks from the railroad tracks and the stockyards, thus exploring through a bunch of cattle and sheep cars sitting on the side-spurs. Walking the tracks like a tightrope for about an hour. Getting an education of sorts by a girl named Terry at said places. (No clarifications on the education, but I was probably about 8 to 10 years old.)
Our community even had the distinct opportunity to have a train wreck and the clean-up process took at least a month. I must have watched the entire process.
Walking to the lumber yard and lying on the lumber up in the racks. It was a good place to cool off and take a nap since there was a roof and room for air to flow through. (And, up in the Panhandle, there was almost always a wind, or at least a breeze.)
A BB-gun shot into a stack of cinder blocks at said lumber yard that ricocheted back and broke one of the lenses of my glasses. (Yeah, I know......dumb.)
Blizzard in 1957 that piled up snowdrifts to the height of the eaves of houses.
Along came the age of driving and lowering the air pressure in one's car tires and "balancing" on the rails of the railroad and driving for miles and then turn around at a crossing. For your information, the lowered air pressure allowed the tires to literally keep one on the rails and one could drive for miles without touching the steering wheel.
Bushwhacking one's friends as they took their sweethearts out into the country for some "necking."
"Necking."
Then, there was the normal agricultural things like driving the tractors (with no cabs) in the fields, riding horses and driving cattle to a new pasture, swimming in the stock tank, and getting fresh water from the discharge pipe from the windmill and using a cup made from an old tin can.
And last, but not least, fresh fried chicken after church on Sunday.
