Raised on taters and lard

A recent post about silos, over on the Hillbilly Savants blog, made me start thinking about the way things “used to be,” well at least for this Knoxville boy.

Growing up poor had its benefits. You didn’t have to worry about where you were going to spend your money, because you didn’t have any! You also didn’t have the cumbersome task of going to the grocery store and trying to figure out what foods you were going to purchase, because you raised your own.

My kids have no idea what it is like to roll out of bed as the rooster is crowing and head out to the garden to hill taters, hoe corn, weed tomatoes, etc… They would probably die if they spent their Christmas vacation butchering hogs, skinning rabbits, and making lard, instead of playing video games. Or spend most of their summer vacation hauling hay, shoveling manure, picking beans, and digging taters, instead of, well…playing video games. But that was my life way back then. I didn’t ever question it. I never even knew there was another way of life.

Last Sunday I spent 4 hours at my parents house going through boxes of old pictures. In total there were 6 big plastic tubs full, I only made it through 3 of them. I picked out about 100 or so that I took home to scan. They sure do bring back fond memories.

The first 2 pics below are of my papaw, Lorn Chesney, plowing the garden with his horse "Clyde." The other 2 are of my dad picking squash and fertilizing the garden.