Life in a "Dog Trot" House ; I love this special memory

I love this "memory" sent in by a visitor to my antique shop website. Being a Texan myself I recall the days of getting the "switch" to the old buttocks area. It was really bad if you were asked to go cut your own switch, the child mind thinks smaller is better but in actuality it was like a little whip. When you are getting a whoopin' the bigger the better when it came to switches.

No, we were not abused children. Simply everyday kids who were disciplined when we broke the rules and yes we knew what the rules were. We got in trouble and got a spanking when we misbehaved. I can't speak for everyone but I don't have any traumatic emotional scars from getting a butt whipping I grew up to be a pretty decent adult who raised amazing children and used discipline appropriate to the incident including "the switch."

I also remember seeing many dog trot homes and wanting to live in one. The little breezeway between the buildings was a welcome respite from the Texas heat.

To this very day I call the refrigerator the icebox.

Please read this special memory and try to visualize it if you can. Thank you for sharing and bringing memories back for me.

year_born: 1952
memory: A "dog trot" style house. There was no running water or electricity. Water came from the well on the backporch (leaning over the well and spitting into it got one an instant whipping with a switch).

There was a BIG black woodburning cookstove that never went out, and was in
a kitchen WAY at the back of the house, near the well. You went "out the
back"and up a trail, past the chicken coops, to an outhouse that had two holes,
but only in the daytime, because a chamber pot at night that neatly tucked under
the bed or the wooden "throne" with the chamber pot hidden in a cabinet
underneath was used at night.

In really cold weather, one slept between two featherbeds for warmth.
Kerosene lamps were used for lighting and candles were a terrible fire hazard
and rarely used at all. The "icebox" was just that, a wooden box on the
outside, metal inside, with a big chunk of ice inside. There was a "drip
pan" underneath that HAD to be emptied regularly, or there would be a stream of
icy water running across the kitchen floor. Fire extinguishers were sealed glass
containers, with water (or some clear liquid)inside mounted in heavy metal
brackets above doorways. They theoretically would explode in case of a
fire, and allow the water to make a wet spot where one could escape.

location: Country
state_lived_in: Texas

Please feel free to share your memories by emailing them to me or posting them as a comment and I will post them for you.

To read more about Dog Trot houses please visit this website http://northbysouth.kenyon.edu/2002/Space/Evans%20Dogtrot%20Page.htm