I was five years old before there was a television in our neighborhood. I was in grade school before we had a black and white set in our home in Lewisville, North Carolina, just west of Winston-Salem. It was a very different time. Unlike the children of today, we were free-range children, showing up at mealtimes and in time to fall exhausted into bed on summer evenings.
Houses did not have central air conditioning. We had awnings on windows to keep our houses from getting so hot. In the summer we were hardly in the house, we were outside playing. We lived on a dirt road which the county sprayed with used oil in the summer to keep the dust down. They also sprayed for mosquitoes regularly. I am not sure what they used but it could have been DDT.
There were no supermarkets or even restaurants in our little town. There was a lunch counter, a couple of general stores, a couple of gas stations, a post office, a dry cleaner, a furniture store, a fire station, a hardware store, lots of churches, our school, a mill, a barber shop, and my mother's beauty shop.
We had a rotary phone but managed to be on a private line instead of a party line. Doctor Hampton made house calls. We walked to school or rode our bikes. After school, we played pick-up football or baseball. We built forts in the woods and dammed whatever creeks we could find. Getting to go fishing in a farm pond was a huge treat.
There was a bus service from Winston-Salem but we got rid of our trash by burning it in a barrel. Sodas were a nickel until they moved them from water cooled boxes to machines outside of gas stations. Then they went to a dime. My first memories of going to the local general store are of going to a counter and handing them a list which they filled. It wasn't long before they opened the aisles and everything went to self-service except the cold cuts and meat counter. The gas stations had teenage guys or men who came out, pumped your gas, cleaned your windows, and checked your oil.
Before the television, we got our news from a morning and evening newspaper that was delivered each day.
We had a gravel driveway and were proud to have it. Our car did not have air conditioning but did have a standard transmission which was three on the tree. Our grill was a little round one and cooking on it was pretty special.
Churches had revival services in packed tents and when people died the bodies were placed in homes for visitation. There were softball games at night during the summer at the school. It cost twenty-five cents to get inside the fence. It was the entertainment for summer nights except for chasing fireflies and playing capture the flag.
We spent Sunday summer afternoons at our relatives, often eating homemade ice cream or watermelon under the shade trees. In the winter we played tag or sometimes played cards.
They were only a few drive-in restaurants with real carhops. If you went to movie anywhere besides the city, you went to a drive-in theater. The first restaurant I remember was the Dinette in East Bend, NC.
The big city of Winston-Salem had a magical Sears Roebuck store. The city also had movie theaters and a K&W restaurant. The first fast food restaurant on our side of Winston-Salem was a Burger King. It arrived about the same time that the first shopping center with a supermarket was built. The Krispy Kreme might have gotten there first.
We had relatives who heated with coal and others who had an oil stove with a mica window for their main heat. One relative only had an outhouse and no indoor plumbing.
Most roads were two lanes and when you went on a long trip to beach, you packed your meals to eat along the way. I learned early to navigate with paper maps and watch at night for lights shining on the power lines so mother would know to dim her lights.
I remember when things were very different.