This page contains an excerpt of a memoir written by my Grandmother Lavada Sanders, who passed away in 1991. My grandmother was born in Kentucky in 1900, in the region that is is now Mammoth Cave National Park. This short piece of writing is one small window through which we can peer back to that time and place.

I had to edit this piece heavily for grammar and spelling, but to preserve the feel of her writing, I left many spelling and grammar errors intact. I think the way she writes is an important part of how she communicates how life was when she was young.

In Memory of my Childhood,
    my Father and Mother,
        and my Brothers and Sisters

I was born in 1900 in Edmonson County near Good Spring Church. We had a hard time making a livin'. We raised just about all we ate. Some times my mother would sell eggs and young chickens to buy sugar or something. My father would make ties to bring in a little money.

I can remember when me and my brother, Hurbert, would go to the woods with my father. He would help us cut down a tree, then he would mark off the tie length. We would cut them off, and he would start making ties.

In the fall, we had a lot of beans to gather. When we got them all picked, we would put a sheet or something on the floor. We'd put all those beans on it, let our friends know to come, and we would have a bean hulling. When we got them hulled, we would play games. The moon would be shining bright. We would go outside and play 'Drop the Handkerchief' or something. We had a good time then.

We would go to church and Sunday school, and also singings. I can remember my father getting out the old lantern and going with us at night when there was singing or a revival going on. I am proud I was raised up a in a Christian home.

We children didn't get much for Christmas, but we was proud of what we got. We didn't get toys like children do now. My mother would make us rag dolls to take to our playhouse. Yes, we had a playhouse. Brother Frank helped us build a chimney to it.

Sometimes our mother and father would let us have fire in the fireplace at night. They would let us take the lantern with us. We would stay in there for a while and play with our dolls. We also had a bed for our dolls. The bed was made out of wood, but we had a grass sack of shucks on the bed for our dolls to sleep on. We had flowers set in our playhouse yard. We all had a good time playing in our playhouse. Sometimes our cousins would come play with us.

In them days, we walked to school and church. We carried water up a big hill. Summertime we would carry everything to the spring that we needed to wash clothes. We washed them on a washboard.

We all had a hard time back then, but one thing we did have was love. We all loved each other.

I wonder if anyone remembers the ash hopper? My mother had one. I can remember it. It was made of wood and had a trough at the bottom. When they took the ashes out of the fireplace, they would put them in the hopper and cover them up. In the spring, they would take the cover off so it could rain in it. The lye would run out of the trough and into a jar. My mother would take the lye and make soap out of it to wash clothes with.

My mother made hominy out the ashes she got out of the fireplace. We canned apples, peaches, and tomatoes, and we also dried apples and peaches. I have saw her string green beans. She would string them on a string, then hang them around the kitchen stove to dry. They was called "shucks beans."

My mother would get her a tin barrel and fix apples. She would slice the apples into a basket. Then she would put a few fire coals into the barrel and put sulphur on them. She would run a stick through her basket handle, hang it over the barrel, and smoke her apples. When they got smoked, she would put them in a stone jar for winter. They was pretty good fried. She would also pickle beans and put them into a stone jar.

My mother raised geese to make feather beds and pillows. When she started to pick the feathers off them, she put the goose head under her arm to hold it. I would hold the head to keep the goose from biting her. Sometimes she would put on a corset to keep them from biting her.

We had our cows and plenty of milk and butter. We raised sweet potatoes. I have saw my mother get a big skillet, set it on the hearth, get some fire out of the fireplace, set her skillet on it, put a lid on it, put fire coals on top, and bake sweet potatoes. She also baked bread in it.

We would raise our corn for bread. When we got about out of bread, my father would go carry corn to the house. He would bring the washing tub in and fill the tub with corn. We all would set around it and shell corn. Sometimes there would be a red ear of corn in it. We all wanted the red corn to shell.

We also raised cotton. My mother would cord cotton and make bats to go in her quilts. She also corded wool and made rolls. Then, she would spin it into yarn. We would knit our stockin's. (That's what we would call them.) When we got them finished, she would color them with walnut hulls. They would be brown. That was what we would wear to church or anywhere we went.

I went to Maple Spring to school. If I remember right, Edger Sanders was my first teacher. We carried our dinner in a tin bucket. We walked through rain and snow. We played 'jumping the rope.' (I should have said 'grapevine.') The boys would get out in them old fields, and play 'fox and hound.' Sometimes my brother would come home with his clothes torn pretty bad with sawbrier. My mother sent the teacher word to hurry and catch that fox, because her boys was getting their clothes torn off.

Them was good days back then. Everybody loved each other. If somebody got sick or in a hard place, the neighbors would come in and help out. They would walk for miles to set up with the sick. Back then nobody had money to go to a hospital.

I am glad I was brought up in them days. I am not ashamed of being raised up poor. I had good parents. They loved us and we loved them. They loved all children. On Sunday evening, our yard would be full of children. They all called my father Uncle Bill.

Some time young boys and girls would come to see us at night. We would play blind fold for awhile. Then we would get the song books out and sing gospel song. My father would say, "you all sing 'Waiting for the Boatman.'" He liked that song.

There are not as many people over on that side of the river now as when I lived there. I still love that side of the river as if it was then. The so called 'flat-head nation'--that's where I grew up in a big log house.

When I was going to school and a revival started at Good Spring, the teacher at noon would take the children to church to school. They also did that over here where my children went to school. If I am not mistaken, Mrs. Iva Tarter was the teacher. There was children saved at school. Now they want to take prayer out of school.

After the park took the land over there, we moved on this side of the river around Cedar Spring. I would get cards from my mother and father. At the bottom of the card it would say, "Live humble, children." Your Ma and Pa.