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The Ancestry Insider: Scientists Discover Oldest Citation Ever: Photo by Fabricio Cardenas In the Abri de la Madeleine archeological site of southwest France, scientists think they have discovered the o...

Another example of my Great Grandfather's humorous poetry!

From our Great Grandfather Hughes, within a Saturday evening edition of the Springfield, Missouri Paper:

I have an interesting letter from Willow Springs. A contributor tells me that he has long wondered where all the Ozark poets came from, but now Rabbit Twister has "spilled the beans." He says---

"Well, now, I'm not making any kick about that, but want to thank him for his recipe for making poets out of hillbillies. He says all you have to do is soak you head and go to bed and sprout a poem. But why soak your head? I'm sure that the majority of us have enough sap in our heads for sprouting purposes. Here's my poem for Rabbit Twister's benefit!

If Rabbit Twister's on the line
I'm gonna try an' show 'em
That I don't have to soak my head
To sprout this little poem.
It's not a classic, I'll admit,
And some may say it's silly,
But what the heck can you expect
From an "ignorant hillbilly?"
               --J. M. Hughes
Willow Springs, Missouri
(Hey, for you, Mr. Hughes, go after him!)

EIGHT LINES

I'll write my eight line poem
Then send it on to May;
I don't expect to win a prize
Through what I have to say.
There's many an Ozark poet
More talented than I,
So if I fail to win a prize
You'll know the reason why.
               --J. M. Hughes
Willow Springs, Missouri
(That's a good one, Hughes. Be a good sport)

The following were never published that I know of...

"Somewhere the sun is shining,
Somewhere the grass is green.
Somewhere the birds are singing,
Somewhere, carols of early spring.

Somewhere the buds are swelling,
Somewhere the soft winds blow.
Somewhere the flowers are blooming,
Somewhere under the sun's warm glow?

Somewhere the snow is falling
Somewhere the drifts pile high.
Somewhere the ground lies frozen,
Somewhere under a leaden sky."

Valentine Memories

Where did your parents/grandparents meet? 

My Grandmother met Grandfather when he stopped at the family well to water his horse, she was just 15, & he was such a charmer she fell head over heals for 'her George'. Of course, her parents refused to allow them to marry until she turned 18. 

Our mother married her first husband at 13! He was the youngest brother of her new step-mother, and a cowboy! Can you imagine her delight when her pa decided to get them married? I have a photo just a few days after their wedding and she is looking much older than 13, and so very happy! Young Love!

Of course, after giving birth to 2 boys before she was 14, and having to take care of 2 babies, a home and cooking, plus a grumpy husband, who I think was wishing he was on his horse somewhere else... well you can imagine how well that went!

How old were your Grandparents when they met? Were they living at home or on their own? 

Was it an arranged marriage? They were very often done in the 1800's, or could your Grandmother have been a mail-order bride?

Are you a Grandparent? Be sure you share your knowledge about your family life as you were growing up, because it will not be anything like what your grandchildren have been living! 

Can you imagine answering a letter from a cousin who talks about jobs for hard workers and arriving before your letter does?

These and other areas of our lives are complete unknowns, and tell so much about you and your loved ones to your children and grandchildren. Especially if you aren't near them to tell them the , "When I was your age" stories. Don't let your history become lost. None of us are amazing to ourselves, but maybe someday a grandchild will need to know what you survived to tell. 

So, share your stories, over and over, every time you meet up with family. It's those bits of family history that give our children and grandchildren a foundation from which to build and excel! Take the time to make your story exciting and fascinating, even if it seems ordinary to you, it can become the 'tie that binds' families together...especially during these turbulent times!

Memories of Yesteryear

.... THOUGHT SOME OF YOU MIGHT ENJOY THIS ...

'Someone asked the other day, 'What was your favorite fast food when you were growing up?'

'We didn't have fast food when I was growing up,' I informed him.

'All the food was slow.'

'C'mon, seriously. Where did you eat?'

'It was a place called 'at home,'' I explained. !

'Mom cooked every day and when Dad got home from work, we sat down together at the dining room table, and if I didn't like what she put on my plate I was allowed to sit there until I did like it.'


By this time, the kid was laughing so hard I was afraid he was going to suffer serious internal damage, so I didn't tell him the part about how I had to have permission to leave the table.

But here are some other things I would have told him about my childhood,
if I figured his system could have handled it:

Some parents NEVER owned their own house, never wore Levis, never set foot on a golf course, never traveled out of the country or had a credit card.

In their later years they had something called a revolving charge card. The card was good only at Sears Roebuck. Or maybe it was Sears & Roebuck.

Either way, there is no Roebuck anymore. Maybe he died.


My parents never drove me to soccer practice. This was mostly because we never had heard of soccer.

I had a bicycle that weighed probably 50 pounds, and only had one speed, (slow)

We didn't have a television in our house until I was 12.

It was, of course, black and white, and the station went off the air at midnight, after playing the national anthem and a poem about God; it came back on the air at about 6 a.m. and there was usually a locally produced news and farm show on, featuring local people.


I was 21 before I tasted my first pizza, it was called 'pizza pie.' When I bit into it, I burned the roof of my mouth and the cheese slid off, swung down, plastered itself against my chin and burned that, too.
It's still the best pizza I ever had.


I never had a telephone in my room. The only phone in the house was in the living room and it was on a party line. Before you could dial, you had to listen and make sure some people you didn't know weren't already using the line.

Pizzas were not delivered to our home, but milk was.

All newspapers were delivered by boys and all boys delivered newspapers--my brother delivered a newspaper, six days a week. It cost 7 cents a paper, of which he got to keep 2 cents. He had to get up at 6 AM every morning.

On Saturday, he had to collect the 42 cents from his customers. His favorite customers were the ones who gave him 50 cents and told him to keep the change. His least favorite customers were the ones who seemed to never be home on collection day.

Movie stars kissed with their mouths shut. At least, they did in the movies. There were no movie ratings because all movies were responsibly produced for everyone to enjoy viewing, without profanity or violence or most anything offensive.


If you grew up in a generation before there was fast food, you may want to share some of these memories with your children or grandchildren

Just don't blame me if they bust a gut laughing.


Growing up isn't what it used to be, is it?

MEMORIES from a friend :

My Dad is cleaning out my grandmother's house (she died in December) and he brought me an old Royal Crown Cola bottle. In the bottle top was a stopper with a bunch of holes in it.. I knew immediately what it was, but my daughter had no idea. She thought they had tried to make it a salt shaker or something. I knew it as the bottle that sat on the end of the ironing board to 'sprinkle' clothes with because we didn't have steam irons. Man, I am old.

How many do you remember?

Head lights dimmer switches on the floor.

Heaters mounted on the inside of the fire wall.

Real ice boxes.

Pant leg clips for bicycles without chain guards.

Soldering irons you heat on a gas burner.

Using hand signals for cars without turn signals.

Older Than Dirt Quiz :

Count all the ones that you remember not the ones you were told about. Ratings at the bottom.

1. Blackjack chewing gum
2. Wax Coke-shaped bottles with colored sugar water
3. Candy cigarettes
4. Soda pop machines that dispensed glass bottles
5. Coffee shops or diners with tableside jukeboxes
6. Home milk delivery in glass bottles with cardboard stoppers
7. Party lines on the telephone
8 Newsreels before the movie
9. P.F. Flyers
10. Butch wax
11. TV test patterns that came on at night after the last show and were there until TV shows started again in the morning. (there were only 3 channels...[if you were fortunate])
12. Pea shooters
13. Howdy Doody
14. 45 RPM records
15. S&H green stamps
16. Hi-fi's
17. Metal ice trays with lever
18. Mimeograph paper
19. Blue flashbulb
20. Packards
21. Roller skate keys
22.Cork popguns
23. Drive-ins
24. Studebakers
25. Wash tub wringers

If you remembered 0-5 = You're still young
If you remembered 6-10 = You are getting older
If you remembered 11-15 = Don't tell your age,
If you remembered 16-25 = You' re older than dirt!


I might be older than dirt but those memories are some of the best parts of my life.

Don't forget to pass this along!!
Especially to all your really OLD friends