Introduction
My name is Paul Corbin, and this is my first attempt to create a Blog. I have a feeling that I am getting into something that is somewhat above my expertise in the use of the computer, as I did not start using the computer until I was 85 years of age Anyway, I am going to give it a try, and I will start out by telling you a few things about myself.
I was born in South Bollinger County Mo. in 1914, and after reading some history, I discovered that my birth was not the only notable event to occur that year, as Joe DiMaggio, Joe Lewis, Danny Thomas, Jane Wyman, and Dorothy Lamour were also born in 1914. The Panama Canal was opened that year; Edgar Rice Burroughs published "Tarzan Of The Apes," and the first red and green traffic light was put in operation in 1914.
World War 1 had its beginning in 1914, and I was old enough to remember seeing the soldier boys march down the cobble-stone streets of Cape Girardeau after helping to win that war, so I have lived through two World Wars, and witnessed the transition from the horse and buggy to the automobile and space travel, all the way to putting a man on the moon, and landing a craft on the planet Mars.
I heard the first feeble voice of radio, and watched as it spread instant communication to all parts of the world and outer space. I witnessed the arrival of the miracle, "Television", and watched with awe its first pictures, which were just about like looking through a dirty window to the outside on a cloudy day, where children were playing in a snowstorm.
I watched the flickering pictures of the silent movies, where captions were flashed on the screen to outline the dialogue of the actors.
When I was growing up out on the farm, our family income was about $300.00 to $500.00 per year. We had no electricity, so our only lights were the kerosene lamp or lantern, which gave off just a little more light than a glass jar filled with fireflies. We had no refrigeration, so any food left from the noon-day meal was simply covered with a table cloth, and come supper time, a few more beans were added to the pot and supper was ready. I guess salmonella had not been invented at that time.
We carried our water from a pitcher pump in the back yard. We didn't have a bathtub and didn't take a bath very often. Our washing machine was Mom and her corrigated wash board, and our clothes dryer was that slender wire, stretched between two posts in the back yard. The only time we had frozen food was when the fire went out in the "King Heater" in January.
In driver's education the first thing we learned was "Gee and Haw." Any discussion concerning the "Race Issue" meant a couple were arguing about who had the fastest horse. When anyone mentioned "The Pill," we knew they were referring to "Carter's little liver pills." Having a weapon in school meant that some boy was carrying a slingshot in his hip pocket.
We didn't have a lot of modern conveniences back then. We did everything the hard way, but we still found time to visit our neighbor and help any of them that were in need. Today we are producing many things to make life easier, things that will last for fifty years but will become obsolete in six months. We have so many time-saving devices that we have to spend most of our time taking care of them, and we need someone to help us carry them around.
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