1. I was born in New Holland PA
2. My father was a schoolteacher in New Holland and sold apples during the summer on the street because it was The Great Depression.
3. My mother was alone when I was born and she saved my life by unwinding the cord from my neck.
4. I nearly died from pneumonia at age 1.
5. My parents moved to Tampa Florida where we lived until I was about 8.
6. A very strange couple lived on the other side of our hibiscus hedge.
7. The sun heated our water on the roof, very cheap and handy.
8. The strange couple from the other side of the hedge came over and stole our hot water when we left the house. They lived in a shack and had no hot water. (Correction: They did but it came from our house.)
9. This man made up a song about my brother and me. It went like this, “Oh, Anne and Bill, they went aridin’ ridin’ ridin’, the wheel came off and they went aslidin’ slidin’ slidin’, ump dum a doodle dum a day.”
10. We could absolutely never go barefooted outside while we lived in Florida.
11. Milk was considered something to wet our cereal, not to drink.
12. My father was known to use road kill to supplement the family diet.
13. My grandparents came to visit one time and Grandma raved about the soup. “But I can’t quite place the meat.” My father told her it was turtle soup and she put her spoon down and refused to take another bite.
14. My parents took in a terminally ill elderly lady and I asked her how soon she was going to die. I wanted my room back.
15. German submarines chased a banana boat into the Tampa harbor one day and they had to give away all the bananas. Dad brought home a lot of them.
16. My father liked to experiment with food
17. Once we had an excess of carrots, so he made carrot ice cream. I don’t recommend it.
18. When we went on a trip, we had to stop every couple hundred miles and repair one of the tires. Every family carried a tube patching kit with them when they left home.
19. I stood up in the back when we traveled, and quarreled with my brothers. No one had heard of seat belts. Windows were wide open and we always needed to comb our hair when we stopped.
20. We always packed a lunch and a big Thermos of water when we traveled.
21. If we ever questioned anything, the answer was “Because I said so.”
22. For Christmas we each got one present.
23. My mother made wonderful cakes and pies. She made them from scratch and always beat the cakes 300 times by hand.
24. Once my mother’s pressure cooker got plugged and exploded and we had chicken all over the kitchen ceiling.
25. If we got too noisy in the car, my father would pull over and threaten to put us out and make us walk a while.
26. Mother had a wringer washer and once her arm got caught in the wringer and it pulled it through up to her elbow.
Etc. If anyone thinks he/she has it hard now, I can tell you about The Great Depression and also about food and gasoline stamps during World War II.
Etc. When we moved to Virginia we lived a mile from the James River and I could hear bombs dropping in the water as the pilots practiced bombing during World War II. I was always afraid they would miss the river and hit us.
Etc. Etc. I wrote several songs at age 7 but have never written any since then. I let my children write the songs now.
Etc. Etc. Etc. I wore dresses made of feed sacks to high school.
Etc. Etc. Etc. Etc. I worked as a maid when I was 12 or 13.
anne's blog 
Grandma, I love reading all of these little tidbits about you!
I love, love, love this. xxooxx
so many things i never knew!
Anne dear, some of your memories are a little off. The strange people in back didn’t steal hot water. They merely used the faucet on the side of our house which was only cold water. Dad told me that the former pastor had given them permission to get their water there. I remember that the turtle stew incident was a Bible school teacher, I remember when it happened but a similar incident with Grandma may also have happened. The ship that was chased into the Tampa harbor was carrying PINEAPPLES, not bananas. The government allowed extra sugar rations for those who wanted to can them. I think they sold for $.50 a bushel. We were permitted to eat as much as we wanted! Your memory of the bananas is half right. The pier where the banana boats unloaded was just a few blocks from the Ybor City church and since bananas are shipped very green to prevent bruising they would have very little use for any that ripened on the trip from central America so Dad was able to buy the occasional stalk of bananas that ripened too early for $.50. That would amount to 50 or 60 or more bananas. We had our fill of bananas, fried, on cereal, shared with neighbor kids, b. bread, cake. Mom was very creative! During the depression which you were a bit young to remember, Dad took Johnny and me on his fishing trips in farm pastures and pedaled the trout that he caught door to door. I wasn’t aware that he ever sold apples but he may have.