Sal's site
Editor’s Note: The following piece was written by my mom, Kassie Nudo, in 2016.
Following her Alzheimer’s diagnosis in 2011, my mom frequently found comfort in reflecting on her childhood—recounting stories of her parents, her family, and the farm where she grew up. Something prompted me to ask her to write those cherished memories down while she was still able to capture them in her own words.
We submitted her essay to Prime Life Times, a local publication “For the 50+ Lifestyle,” and they kindly published it in their October 2016 issue. They even featured the vintage photograph shown below, which captures my mom as a young girl alongside her mother, Mary Jane Kobel.
Today, my mom resides in a nearby memory-care facility, where we focus every day on providing her with the comfort, love, and quality of life she deserves. I’m proud to share her words with you here.
Memories of the 1950s
By Kassie Nudo
I was born in 1949 and grew up on a farm west of Champaign. It was an old house with no plumbing, so we kept a potty pan underneath my bed at night. Neither my grandma nor my mom wanted to go outside during the night because of bats flying out by the barn. Bad weather, bad smells, and mice and spiders made the outhouse an unpleasant place.
Later on, when our family moved to Champaign, the whole family was practically rushing to use the bathroom. I’m embarrassed to say this, but I remember having trouble with the toilet seat and needing someone to hold on to me because I couldn’t get balanced. I was young and this was brand new!
We didn’t have electricity in that farmhouse, so obviously that meant no television or radio or laptop computers or iPads or iPhones or amenities like a garbage disposal.
We boiled water in big pots on a very old stove and put it into gallon jugs and then into a “cooler,” which was not like a cooler of today. It was basically just lots of edible or drinkable items surrounded by ice in buckets, drawers, and bushel baskets.
The men on the farm worked very hard and tied wet rags around their heads to stay cool in the hot weather, and to keep sweat from dripping in their eyes. They would be filthy and hot and sweaty from a day in the fields. I can remember them shedding their soaked clothes at the end of the day and washing off by a water pump, using coffee cans to pour water over their heads.
And yes, I remember the food that was grown: corn, soybeans, and giant vegetable gardens. We ate lots of vegetables and stayed away from the kitchen when the women were canning. I remember large pans full of boiling water on a flaming stove. Apparently adjusting the flame on the stove was an exact science that was hard to get just right. If the green beans or corn got too mushy, it was given to the hogs the following morning.
Get outside and look for dragonflies and lightning bugs — but don’t put them in jars. Many birds rely on them for food.
– Kassie nudo
I love these memories from a bygone era, and there are many more. As a kid, I remember the many shining lightning bugs, the hooting owls around the barn, and going to the well to get water. Much of what I saw on the farm always seemed like a lot of hard work that never ended, but we also had fun. I am thankful for the many things that have made life easier since 1949.
My advice to my grandkids is to not watch too much television. Get outside and look for dragonflies and lightning bugs — but don’t put them in jars. It seems like there are fewer and fewer lightning bugs and dragonflies, and many birds rely on them for food.