Good Nite All

[Diane Amberg]

   Good night from me too. Tomorrow is fire safety day at "Safety Town" day camp, and I need to go over my notes and count out ninety coloring books, sticker badges and 911 stickers.   13, 14, 15, ...

[Janet Harrington]

Oh, Diane, what fun that will be!!!  Have a good time.

[Jo McDonald]

Back to Howard Moore....The Howard Moore that I knew was from Grenola - in the 1940's and he married a girl by the name of Ruth Barnaby from Longton.  He and his son had a dozer business - and he and Ruth are both deceased - but I do not know anything about his son.  Are they related to the Howard Moore that Rudy and Sally are talking about?

[Rudy Taylor]

It could very well be the same Howard Moore.  And, I probably was wrong about his never getting married. But in '59 he was living alone in that prairie cabin.  That's fascinating that you might actually know this cowboy who was the subject of so many cowboy stories when I was a little boy.

[Rudy Taylor]

Teresa, do all your massages last 1 1/2 hours?  I'm serious.  Sounds heavenly.

[Jo McDonald]

I am going to carry the coal oil lamp in to the bedroom - and turn the wick down and blow out the flame...
Yes, Rudy, I related to that first chapter in your book --- I lived that life, as we did not have any electricity until 1949 and I was already married and we were living at Busby in Fred's folks home , and it had butane lights, hung from the ceiling == I thought that was living pretty high on the hog - but I was scared to death of the darn things.  Much rather have the coal oil lamp, and I didn't even mind washing and drying the globe every day.  When we got our first Aladdin lamp the light was so bright, it hurt our eyes.  lol lol
one time while I was cleaning the glass globe on it, I stuck my finger through the mantel - and felt so guilty, we didn't have any extra money to buy things, and I was so ashamed of myself for causing that extra expense.
  The memories ...ohhhhh the memories.

[greatguns]

Must be two different Howard Moore's.  The one Rudy's talking about was single always.

[Rudy Taylor]

Jo, isn't it amazing how such simple moments stay with us? Older folks often think I lived through the Great Depression because I write about coal oil lamps, outhouses and no television sets. I didn't.  I was born in 1945.  But for some of us, electricity didn't come our way until the early 1950s.  A woman who works for us at Sedan didn't get electicity in her farm home until 1958 and never had indoor plumbing while she lived at home (graduated from high school i 1967).

Still, there was much more to coal oil lights than simple illumination. There was an ambience created by the light that was cast by the lamps. Remember, we usually had only one lamp per room ... if that many!  Sometimes we carried them from one bedroom to another one. 

Without the presence of electricity, it also created a "quiet" home.  We could actually hear each other speak softly to one another. We sang often.  Played simple games.

Still, I love today and wouldn't want to do without today's modern conveniences. But, yes, the memories are golden, aren't they?

[kdfrawg]

Being a city boy, we always had electricity and indoor plumbing (I was born in Omaha in 1947) although I had relatives on farms who didn't, so I got to experience that way of life, too. Still, there are things that I remember which have passed by, such as the milkman and iceman (we had an icebox for years after I was born, as opposed to a refrigerator). But the thing Rudy mentioned that I miss most is the quiet, or rather the lack of a television.

Television came along after I did and I'm afraid I never got the hang of it. There was a period of 17 years in my not-too-distant past when I was single and lived alone and did not own a television. I have never seen an episode of Cheers, Friends, or any of the other myriad "entertainment" programs. Now I watch college basketball games, in season, and the occasional "educational" program. I suppose that is yet another way in which I am a dinosaur. I like books. I like to be involved in my entertainment, rather than just being passive about it. Weird, but true.

[Rudy Taylor]

Pay attention, folks! You just read a secret that will unlock the doors to peaceful living. The boob tube has made us into non-thinking, cynical, lazy oafs.

And the wisdom came from a frog!