Country Life – Then and Now

Posted on November 28, 2013 by Billie Crumly — NOTE: Our first Thanksgiving without Mrs. Crumly. I sure do miss her. Thanksgiving at this house was only just a little different from a regular day.  We usually had some kind of company and dinner was enjoyed in the middle part of the day.  Mother always…

Sears and Roebuck Catalog – memories bounce out as I sit here and thumb through the pages of the colorful Christmas Wish Book.  At the same time, John is looking at the “big” catalog and grumbling about prices. Sears is the only place we can find those wonderful coveralls that John wants to live in. …

Posted on January 9, 2014 by Billie Crumly — NOTE: The remedies and superstitions written here are not medically proven – so try them at your own risk. In the days when country doctors were few and far between, folks had to do much of the doctoring themselves and some of these old remedies have…

NOTE: A blog post from one of Mrs. Crumly’s unpublished works. It’s a sight to behold, the blossoms on our sun porch – and it January.  Several years ago a friend gave me an Amaryllis bulb for Christmas.  Then, apparently, forgetting what she had given me the year before she gave me another blub the…

John and I became fans of jigsaw puzzles while he was in the U. S. Air Force.  We spent many hours at the USO where there were always puzzles on the tables — we also enjoyed singing around the piano and just visiting with other service people.  Now in the winter we always keep a…

Whew!  For an old couple this is a busy week.  We can’t handle going somewhere every day and this week is doctors week for us.  We’ll keep I59 hot as we run up and down the interstate to meet various doctor appointments.  And on top of that, we’re freezing.  We are having an early fall…

As I am all nice a comfy on my bed with my screen door open to feel the nice cool breeze and hear the rain (I know I may be the ONLY person in Alabama with a window open on this cold wet Sunday afternoon) watching the birds come and go to the feeders. I…

Posted on November 18, 2013 by Billie Crumly — Built in 1895, if this house could talk imagine all the stories it could tell.  Births, deaths, storms,  and reunions.  The sills (underneath) are 12×12? hand-hewn white oak and the studs are 4×4? undressed pine lumber.  When we were renovating, thirty years ago, a man who…

Posted on November 24, 2013 by Billie Crumly — No Comments ? The Hi-Jac Quilt Hi-Jacs wuz made in Fort Payne, Alabama — at one time called “The Sock Capital of the World.”  A Hi-Jac is (wuz) a little sleeve that could be slipped on the bottom of a 6 oz Coca Cola bottle and…

Posted on September 20, 2013 by Billie Crumly — No Comments ? With living today, it seems ice is taken for granted.  Why, all we have to do is open the refrigerator door (or in many cases that don’t even have to be done) and out comes the ice. Not so in days gone by. …