My mother grew up in South Georgia, USA back in the 1920 & 30's... She said that one of her jobs was to get up at 05:00 and start the fire... They used fireplaces to heat the house in the winter months... I remember the fireplaces, where you had to stand in front and turn to stay warm; from visits to my Grandparents house later, as they still lived in that house until about 1955...
My mother said they of course walked to school, and she remembers bringing biscuits with syrup for lunch time... For many people in the world today this is still the the way of life... Attached is some info from a copy of an article on a Georgia school in the 1920's & 30's a good read...
Historian Horace Holland writes:
" The students brought their country ham, fried chicken or squirrel or turtle, baked possum and sweet taters... In store-bought dinner buckets or small lard buckets.... The diner bell would ring at Noon and the students would carry their dinner buckets outside and feast under the trees... There was no electricity at the school until 1940 and the water was drawn from the well by hand.... "
Hard Life? Yes, by some of todays standards...
I have been to places in the world where what we call hardship is an everyday accurance. Just maybe some people think they have it hard; how about no running water, no refrigeration, very little food storage or food for that matter, fuel is wood, charcoal, or dried animal dung... Oh yea, no TV either, nor a garage since they do not own a motor vehicle, plus it is 200 miles to the nearest medical help!! And you think you have got it bad?? HUH!!
" One of the worse things for most people is to not realize the limits of their environment nor ever learn to make the best of it!!" a True-ism July 2008