We loved the collection of authentic buildings, brought to Cracker Country (situated on a little section of the Florida State Fairgrounds in Tampa) from various areas of the state's interior. They included a general store, a church, a one room school house, a train depot and the old Carlton house. Each building was crafted from heart pine, the interior of the yellow pine that is both best and rot resistant. (Yepper, they just don't make 'em like they used to.) So here are a few lessons we learned:
A. Washing clothes was a bitch. We will never complain about it again. Boiling, washboarding, drying, hanging, and ironing with a 423 pound iron that you constantly had to bring back to the fire to warm up again.
B. Notebook paper may be quickly becoming a thing of the past with computers as far as the eye can see, but imagine writing on tiny chalkboards all day. My skin feels ashy just thinking about it.
C. I will never complain about the selection at our closest grocier again. Slim picken's back then. And you were damn thankful for what you had and thankful if the store would give you credit. Or exchange a bit of old timey bug repellant for your eggs.
16 comments:
Thanks for the tour of the Cracker Country. I love seeing old stuff. This is so informative. Imagine washing your clothes that way...and writing on chalkboards. I will die of asthma attacks for sure.
PS... Glad you like my long skirt, I was deliberating on whether to post it or not because you know how some people view long and frumpy dresses. xoxo
I will never complain about laundry (too much) again!
I so enjoy your photographic storytelling! Thanks.
Very neat! I'll have to head over to that part of the world sometime. I loved that series on PBS a few years back - the one where the three families lived a summer on the plains as though they were in the pioneer days. So cool...makes you SO thankful!!! :)
The electric washing machine is one of the greatest inventions of the 20th century. I wonder if anyone has ever built a monument to the inventor?
I quietly enjoy the company of women (as in most of you appearing on this blog) but I have to be the intrusive male here. I understand why you ladies homed in on laundering and shopping with your comments. But I believe there were two males included in this adventure. I'd like to know what made them say "Gad zooks I'm glad I don't have to do that." (Maybe they didn't say? Sometimes we don't unless w're asked.)
Hey, my code word for leaving the above post was "pstre". Sounds like a type of Christmas tree for dogs.
:>)
I love history and seeing how people lived way back then. I think it's so cool. Maybe b/c I'm not living in those times. God knew me well enough to at least wait until there was air conditioning and novacaine.
So that's where the term "cracker" comes from!
Sometimes we forget how good we have it, good to remember.
...and then after all that work in the laundry, you had to drag your long dress through the mud and chicken poop all day and get your hem filthy and ragged. Being a woman was no picnic in those days! Can't imagine how strong they must have been to survive the hard life, bugs, heat and disease while having a baby every year, to boot!
Thanks for the cool tour. Speaking of visits, can you pop by my place? I've got something waiting for you!
Pretty cool!! This doesn't even look like Florida to me, although how can I judge, I've only been to the Miami area lol Thanks for the pics!
Actually, the first Florida Crackers arrived in 1763 when Spain traded Florida to Great Britain, not "the late 1800s". Come on Gropious, you are better than that.
Hi Pimp, the buildings at Cracker Country are from the late 1800's. Don't believe I said the first crackers were from that period. But thanks for reading!
Pimpn, you obviously enjoy history. Have you read A Land Remebered? It's one of my fave books about 3 generations of FL Crackers.
Amazon caregiver, Boy one of those pixs bring back memories, the one with the DUNCE HAT! when I was in 4th grade I did'nt like math and refused to learn my times table so I had to sit in the corner all day with that stupid thing on my head. Even had to wear it to lunch talk about teacher/child abuse it was horrible. Anyway the look back on most part was good. Have a good day.
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