Chickadee, that poem is great! For me, it brought back some long forgotten memories:

My grandparents did not have indoor plumbing. So, when I spent my two weeks every summer at their home in Wanamee, Pennsylvannia, I remember always becoming "bound up!"

This probably had something to do with that dark hole at the bottom of the freshly painted pink seat over the "pit."

Grandma always had the outhouse stocked with magazines and the little house was kept clean and neat. Grandma even planted beds of pink petunias around the foundation of the house, no doubt to greet those in need!

Grandpa fueled the furnace - which was how they heated water - with coal. And then he'd fill a wooden tub, placed in the middle of their big kitchen , and in I'd go!

Grandma would scrub me down, dry me off with "scratchy" towels that had gotten that way because they'd been dried "on the line," and then we'd listen to the radio.

I loved visiting my Grandparents Pennsylvannia. (My Mom was a Jones who married a Jones. So we called our grandparents Grandma and Grandpa Pennsylvannia or Grandma and Grandpa Missouri.)

I remember most everything anyone has mentioned, which qualifies me for a "mud" bath!

And, I remember: Ginny dolls; Mum deodorant (sticky icky); seamed stockings; Easter Eggs that had a scene inside; being able to buy colorful, dyed chicks at Murphy's or Woolworths at Easter; buying one of the cute little duckies from one of those stores and naming him George; getting my brand new patent leather MaryJanes before Easter, along with a new pair of lace trimmed anklets; Oh, Oh, and my Tiny Tears Doll!

I also remember going to the Cheasapeake Beach, on the Cheasapeake Bay, and seeing signs marked "white" and "colored."

Oh, and I typed on a manual typewriter, when I took my first test to become a Federal Government employee just after graduation. I also remember, after getting the job, that I had to type all letters with seven carbon copies. (I had to bang really hard to get the keys to put an impression on that sixth and seventh copy!)

Oh, and I also remember when my Dad brought home some "tv" dinners. The five of us stood, staring at the oven, waiting for dinner.

Love this thread!

Emily in Maryland