Remember when

A View Of Columbus Through Rose-Colored Glasses

This column is dedicated to acknowledging examples of positives that express the community spirit of Columbus – our town.

How old are you? Do you remember when milk came in bottles? Did your family have a milkman who delivered fresh milk – did he happen to walk with a “lean” to the right or left? (depending on which side he carried the heavy containers of milk bottles).

Are you old enough to have watched Mom do the family wash using a ringer clothes washer? Maybe she even had to heat water over a “camp fire” and thus she had to carry the water by buckets to the wash tub. Maybe you remember that wash day was at least half a day and Mom may have dreaded that day because of the tough process. Perhaps you recall the stick that was used to pump the clothes up and down and flush the water through the dirty clothes.

Did any one of you have a radio that ran on a battery, have a telephone that was on a party line, or how about a clothes line outside with wooden clothes pins? I doubt that any of you are old enough to remember studying by the light of a kerosene lantern. I sort of hate to stick this in – did you ever use a slop jar in the winter? I hope that you never had to iron a starched white shirt with an iron that had to be heated on the wood stove.

With our summer heat, it’s really pleasing to open the refrigerator and fill the glass with ice cubes. There was a time when ranch folks like my family had ice only if the ice man delivered it. He brought big ice blocks weighing at least 25 pounds. It just so happened that our old dog, Butch, didn’t like the iceman and bit a hunk out of his rear one day. Nether Butch nor the iceman ever forgot the incident and someone had to run interference every time they met.

As long as I’m writing about painful incidents, I have to tell about the day I stuck my tiny three year old finger in the wheel of Aunt Lois’s treadle sewing machine. Cousin Wesley, a teenager, was turning the wheel so fast it whittled my finger. I know it was a pain level 10. The adults were not sure whether it deserved a trip to the doctor or not. They decided to treat it with a rag soaked in kerosene. Today, I have a deformed finger to remind me of my afternoon of pain. I’m fairly certain that same treatment was used on “Silver” when he ran through the barbed wire fence.

Today, when we buy bottled water, I can recall the years when West Texas had no rain. Most of our water was hauled in with big tanks, but it never did taste “right”. These sorts of incidents helped make us all survivors.

I have to mention that there were days without seeing visitors. “Funny books” or comic books were read many times over and often times traded with friends. I’m sure you recall the days before television. Our reading material was highly treasured. Most TVs were black & white. The universal favorite was “Lucy”. At that time, we were still using crank telephones. I’m sure you remember that most people were on party lines - Oh what fun to “listen in”!!

Now it’s time for you to fill in the blanks.

When did you get your first ball point pen?

What was your hourly wage on your first job?

Did your family have a “Brownie” camera?

Did your family use a canvas water bag hung on the front bumper when crossing the desert?

Do you remember how much postage stamps were?

Do you remember your S&H Green Stamps?

Do you remember the first Walmart you saw?

Let’s end this with “You’ve come a long way, Baby”.