Growing up in an Age When People Were Poor But Happy

By Jimmie Burroughs

Authored by Jimmie Burroughs

I grew up terribly poor but didn’t know it because everyone who lived around me was poor also. There wasn’t any Television, so I was unacquainted with the way the rich lived. I didn’t know a rich person until I was grown. In 1943 my elders moved from two rooms, what had once been a grocery, into a 3 room house; I was 5 years of age at the time. It was an old farm house that had been taken into the city limits; it had the big old barn with the hay loft. The street was dust, and in the summertime when it was dry there was about a half inch of dust built up. It felt so good to stroll down the street barefooted and feel the dust squishing between my toes;

Pop paid $7 a month rent. That wasn’t bad since a day’s wages was around $5. There weren’t any utilities to pay; the house had no running water or electricity. There had been a deep well out back with a long cylinder and a rope to lower for water. There had been a shelf on the back porch for a water bucket with a dipper. Inside there was a living room, that served also as a bedroom, with a bed and a potbellied stove, and a battery powered radio where my dad listened to the Amos and Andy show and the Lone Ranger, and some of the other shows that were broadcast on radio before TV. There were also three or four cane back chairs and an oil lamp. The floors, walls and ceiling were all made from center match wooden boards. There was also badly worn linoleum on the floor with chunks missing around the edge. The best I can remember, the walls were grungy and probably had not been painted in a very long time. Mom was a good house keeper and there was never any junk scattered around. Pa kept the yard the same way.

The kitchen was furnished with a cupboard like you see in antique stores today with the flour bin and a tiny storage place for saucepans and a few groceries. There was a coal oil cooking stove that blew up on occasion and kept a giant black spot on the ceiling, and a table with 4 chairs. Oh, I sort of neglected to mention that the ice box was on the back porch where the ice man could easily keep it stocked with ice during summer months. In winter time pop had a wooden box attached to the outside of the kitchen window; the window may be raised and food stored there, lol. In the bedroom there was a bed, a side table with an oil lamp, and a chest of drawers. I recall that in winter you had to have a mound of cover at night to keep toasty; water would freeze in the bedroom. I do not think the doors had locks; if so , they weren’t used and I can’t remember ever seeing a door key. Important to mention also is that there was an outhouse within the barn; a one hole, we did have some class. There was also a Sears catalog and that wasn’t for reading.

I am sure it sounds bizarre to you the way in which we lived back then, but there couldn’t have been a more happy little boy growing up than I. I loved living there. I had the 4 giant oak trees with the toe sack, bag swing and lots of shade to play under. The house was high enough to creep under, sit right down and dig holes and make small lakes and streams with bridges and roads for tiny wooden play autos. There was a creek nearby for fishing, and the old swimming hole where I learned how to swim. And the barn, what an excellent place for corncob fights with the area children, and there was always masses of ammo. Father always kept the barn well provisioned with hay to feed the cattle he pastured on a farm merely a block down the road. The bales of hay in the loft were excellent for building a hideout. Pa always managed to make a meager living without having a regular job; he needed to be self employed. My folks as far back as I can remember were self employed.

When I was older, father would give me a quarter on Sat. to go to movies, which were always westerns: Roy Rogers, Gene Autry, or Lash Laure. There was also enough left over from the quarter for a soft drink and a bag of popcorn. I didn’t even know the word bored and still do not use it till this day.

What a different world we are living in today where youngsters just exercise their thumbs texting and set around the house eating snacks, playing computer games and complaining about being bored.

. Baths were not so frequent in those days, but infrequently the 3 washtub was set out in the summer sunshine to warm water for a bath. In the winter the water was warmed on the pot belly stove. I do not remember how frequently we washed, nevertheless it must not have been more often than once a week. I do remember mom giving me a sponge bath out of a wash pan at the end of the day before bedtime.

The one great thing I had when I was just about 12 was a new bike that dad bought me. It cost $65 and was the prettiest bike I had ever seen. $65 in those days was more than most any person earned in a whole week of work. No one in my neighborhood had a bike like that one. I’ve never been prouder of anything than I was that bike, not even my first new convertible.

Those were some of the most happy years of my life; some toys; not even a telephone and of course no TV. My pop failed to even own a vehicle till I was a teen.

Folks ate fitter in those days. During summer it was typically garden veggies, and in winter it was beans and potatoes and cornbread, and occasionally wild meat pa hunted or chicken which he raised. There had been an occasional blackberry cobbler made of wild blackberries that grew in the woods close by or from due berries that grew along the railroad tracks.

The house I noted above was less than 500 sq. feet and probably would have sold for a few hundred bucks. I don’t believe at that time in my life the sort of house I lived in would have made much difference. In reality I don’t believe it has ever made much difference. I’ve lived in small houses and large ones and cannot say it ever mattered much which it was so far as contentment goes.

Things actually have changed from those days. There is no comparison to how folks lived then and now. Recently the biggest house in the world was finished at the price of one bn. bucks. It is 27 stories tall and has 392,000 square feet of living space. LOL, that is only 784 times bigger than the house I got raised in. Ironically it is in India where one 3rd of the poorest people in the world live and starvation is epidemic. I wonder how a little boy would feel living in a place like that where he could get lost and not found for days, and no dirt to play in, or toe sack swing. Wow! It must be horrible uninteresting.

Each story should make a point. The point of this story isn’t that being poor makes somebody happy, nor does being rich make someone happy. Happiness goes beyond the material things of life. I’ve tried to investigate my very own life to figure out what made me happy in the periods of time when I was happy and what made me unhappy during certain times of my life.

My unconscious mind must have worked on it all night as it was on my mind when I awoke this A. M.. Here is what I’ve determined: I think it is first the relationships in life, and 2nd the things we do, and third the people we are around that promotes happiness or takes away from it. I read yesterday, “You are as happy as you choose to be.” I believe a better way of saying it might be, “You are as happy as the choices you make.” I choose to have a relationship with God; I chose to have a mate that I may be happy with; I choose to do things which make me happy; I choose to be with folks that I am happy to be around. The times in my life that I was unhappy were the times I was doing something that did not make me happy and was around others who appeared to make it their purpose in life to attempt to make me as unhappy as they.

Sometimes all that it needs to spoil your contentment is an arrogant and horrible boss, or a mean and unpleasant person that you must constantly have deal with. In my lifetime I have dealt with both, but not anymore. If you find yourself in that kind of circumstance, there’s just one solution and that is to move on to a new job (Preferably become your own employer as I did) or remove yourself from the presence of people who are hard folk to be around, which I did and I do. So to reiterate, much of happiness it is determined by the relationships you have, the things you do, and the people you are around.

About the author: Jimmie Burroughs is a motivational speaker and author who has been concerned in teaching Christian Private Development for over 30 years. He is a dedicated believer in Jesus Christ, and considers helping people to become their very best thru personal growth is his primary focus in life. His website contains over 600 articles on preparing yourself for success thru personal development and the things which go with private development. His writing centers on the truth instead of fluff that just tickles the ears.

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Topics: Motivation | Comments Off

Tags: Growing up happy, happy, how to be happy, Motivation, Tags: Jimmie Burroughs, where to find happiness

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