Downstairs

We begin downstairs and we end up up here.

(well see you grew everything that you needed to live on.

That's what it amounted to.

Mostly the main crop was potatoes.

But then you grew carrots, you know,

Cabbages, lettuce, tomatoes...

And we had cherry trees, big cherries,

You know, almost as big as the ones you can buy in the store now.

We still have some here as matter of fact.

If you're around in the summer, late july, drop in! yeah,

You had to grow your vegetables.

I mean we had to.

You couldn't go out to the stores

And buy vegetables in those days.

You had to grow it to live. yep, we had big gardens .

And you had to work hard b'y,

'tis a lot o hard work. everybody worked-

When you're old enough to work you had to work.

That's....that's it.

Everyone had to help you know.

But you managed to get enough. usually.

We did anyway.

You kept from...you grew enough

To have seeds for the next year.

And people traded seeds back and forth.

Some had more than others.

They just shared with one another.

Everyone had to grow vegetables if they wanted to live.

That's what it amounted to.

Lots of poor people too, who needed help you know.

People who had a little more helped.

Everyone helped everyone else.

That's the way we lived.

If you needed something you had no trouble to go next door,

If they had it, you got it; same way in reverse.)