This morning I was asking my wife, Shouna, how often her mother went to the store when growing up. They lived in a small town, El Reno, Oklahoma, where the store was about 1 mile from their house so they went often and in fact Shouna said her mom did not make a grocery list because it was so convenient. But at our house it was a big deal to go to the grocery store, Dehl's Foodliner, in Shidler which was 12 miles South of Grainola and we lived 4 miles from Grainola. Small point but we could cut two miles off the trip by taking a gravel road by the Custer's house and it was only 14 miles total one way with four miles of gravel roads to the grocery store. That was a mouthful.
In Grainola Ruby's Store was about 12 feet wide and 40 or 50 feet long but it had a garage attached for tire repair or oil changes or anything else that was needed. Goldie's was a big store and it was probably 40 feet by 60 feet, just guessing as it could have been 60 by 80, with an area in the back where Goldie made coffee and breakfast with tables for talking and eating at. This area was especially cool because it had a pot bellied stove that burned coal and warmed the store and all the farmers would wind up there on bad weather days for a short break. The reason it was always a short break is when the weather is bad farmers do not get a day off but rather that is the day they fix things (repair equipment for you city folk). If you ever thought there was nothing to do you were not thinking. There were times when we even cleaned the junk piles and swept the dirt floors in the barns. I even remember cleaning up the trash dump. One last thing about Goldie's store, it had a wooden porch not cement and it was covered with benches on the front porch and it had an out-house if you needed to go to the restroom.
Now that I think about it I bet no one even thought about what you do with trash in the country. So for an excursion from the title of this story here is what we did with trash. First off we did not have near as much trash because we recycled as much as possible. We had milk bottles made of glass and the milk came from the MILK BARN which was where we milked the cows. After we stopped having a dairy we had one old cow named Jersey that lived about 18 years and she raised our family and friends plus 24 calves, two sets of twins and some grafted ones (adopted). All our fruit and vegetables were put up (canned, see the old story) in Ball jars (glass). We had NO plastic! Now that I think about it if all the environmentalist would stop drinking water from a plastic bottle we might save the earth. Left overs were either eaten at the next meal or fed to the dogs and cats or pigs or thrown into the garbage pile which was by the gas tanks in a dry creek bed. On occasion we would burn everything and all the egg shells and plate scrapings the animals did not eat would essentially be composted or eaten by wild animals. What a novel and new age kind of thinking? RECYCLING! I guess it was some farmer who figured that out. I guess we could put it all in plastic containers to sit along side the road for a big truck that burns hydrocarbons to come along to haul it to some land fill that is regulated by some environmentalist who can generate thousands of pieces of paper to comply with laws to protect the environment because we now recycle very little and we put everything in plastic bottles and bags that NEVER decompose while all the environmentalist drink out of plastic bottles which they throw away to put in those plastic containers along side the road that are so pretty to look at. Just a little tongue in cheek. OK, I do know that in towns it is not so easy to get rid of the trash but in THE OLD DAYS folks had a 55 gallon drum in the backyard where they burned their trash.
Oh well, I guess I will write about Gardening 101 in another story.
What do you learn in the Osage?
In Grainola Ruby's Store was about 12 feet wide and 40 or 50 feet long but it had a garage attached for tire repair or oil changes or anything else that was needed. Goldie's was a big store and it was probably 40 feet by 60 feet, just guessing as it could have been 60 by 80, with an area in the back where Goldie made coffee and breakfast with tables for talking and eating at. This area was especially cool because it had a pot bellied stove that burned coal and warmed the store and all the farmers would wind up there on bad weather days for a short break. The reason it was always a short break is when the weather is bad farmers do not get a day off but rather that is the day they fix things (repair equipment for you city folk). If you ever thought there was nothing to do you were not thinking. There were times when we even cleaned the junk piles and swept the dirt floors in the barns. I even remember cleaning up the trash dump. One last thing about Goldie's store, it had a wooden porch not cement and it was covered with benches on the front porch and it had an out-house if you needed to go to the restroom.
Now that I think about it I bet no one even thought about what you do with trash in the country. So for an excursion from the title of this story here is what we did with trash. First off we did not have near as much trash because we recycled as much as possible. We had milk bottles made of glass and the milk came from the MILK BARN which was where we milked the cows. After we stopped having a dairy we had one old cow named Jersey that lived about 18 years and she raised our family and friends plus 24 calves, two sets of twins and some grafted ones (adopted). All our fruit and vegetables were put up (canned, see the old story) in Ball jars (glass). We had NO plastic! Now that I think about it if all the environmentalist would stop drinking water from a plastic bottle we might save the earth. Left overs were either eaten at the next meal or fed to the dogs and cats or pigs or thrown into the garbage pile which was by the gas tanks in a dry creek bed. On occasion we would burn everything and all the egg shells and plate scrapings the animals did not eat would essentially be composted or eaten by wild animals. What a novel and new age kind of thinking? RECYCLING! I guess it was some farmer who figured that out. I guess we could put it all in plastic containers to sit along side the road for a big truck that burns hydrocarbons to come along to haul it to some land fill that is regulated by some environmentalist who can generate thousands of pieces of paper to comply with laws to protect the environment because we now recycle very little and we put everything in plastic bottles and bags that NEVER decompose while all the environmentalist drink out of plastic bottles which they throw away to put in those plastic containers along side the road that are so pretty to look at. Just a little tongue in cheek. OK, I do know that in towns it is not so easy to get rid of the trash but in THE OLD DAYS folks had a 55 gallon drum in the backyard where they burned their trash.
Oh well, I guess I will write about Gardening 101 in another story.
What do you learn in the Osage?
- how to recycle
- how to take care of God's creation
- how to respect other people's rights
- everyone gets to have an opinion and mine is not the only one
Thanks for your time,
gary@thepioneerman.com
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