BY LOYCE MARTINAZZI
As we proceed into the new year, with our usual winter weather; snow, ice, rain and more rain, I like to hunker down and reflect on the past. The cold of winter, the hope of spring, heat of summer and beauty of autumn are still with us, each in it’s own time. Growing up in on a farm on the outskirts of what was a small village, starting first grade in the new brick school, attending the Methodist church, singing and dancing at the Winona Grange…they were good times for my generation.
Everybody knew everybody else, and everybody else’s business. Telephones were on party lines, each home having a different ring. But one could quietly pick up the receiver and listen in on a neighbor’s conversation. Often as not though, the neighbor heard the click and told the eavesdropper to “hang up the phone!”
When I was growing up, kids worked. Even if you didn’t live on a farm, there were chores to be finished before going to school or outside to play. Feed the dog and cat, bring in firewood, wash the dishes, sweep the floor etc. And if you were lucky enough to live on a farm, with no brothers, you would be rousted out of a warm bed into a cold room, dress in jeans and last year’s shoes, and shiver as you scooted out to the barn to feed the pigs and milk the cows before a breakfast of hot cereal. Then changing into a homemade dress, bobby sox and saddle shoes, and hurry down to the end of the road to wait for the school bus.
The “good old days,” were just reality for us then, and life was okay. People actually talked to each other as they walked down the street. No looking at cell phones. No earbuds. Imagine that!
The photos this month are just some of my favorite from the Tualatin Historical Society archives.
Loyce Martinazzi was born and raised in Tualatin and is passionate about Tualatin History. She is currently Lecturer of the Winona Grange, Co-Founder of the Tualatin Historical Society and Co-Author of Tualatin… From the Beginning.