Some of the better white privilege, many were worse than this lady I know because my family had a harder time but we did not blame others because we're in the same situation.
Im a Yankee..middle class..not poor compared to this lady and many others..but I can appreciate all she speaks of as my husband was from Hattiesburg, Ms. as well as New Orleans..long story how we met..but when he took me down south to meet his mamaw..Miss Nanny and her humble home with a large screened in sleeping porch with four poster feather beds, crisp sheets and quilts as well as feather comforter and some feather mattresses..I will never forget..that sleep was the best sleep I ever had..it was hot during the day and cool breezy nights..we would sit on the front screened porch n help shell purple hull peas n green beans...this is when I first fell in love w the south..this was back in 1970 that the trip was from St. Louis to Mississippi then to New Orleans which was about an hours drive from Hattiesburg. And this is where I fell in love with the queen anne homes and antiques and the food n city itself! There are many stories I cherish as well. My husband's job was in St. Louis but we took many trips down south till all the family passed! Back then..it seemed like a different country..especially New Orleans as the culture of the French Acadians still were populous n spoke cajun n French..to be honest..it's never been the same since Katrina. But my granddaughter was named after a Miss. southern belle named Vilulah..she's the only person in the U. S. with that name..as it's not been used for 140years. My daughter wanted to honor her southern heritage and named her befittingly! Also, my husband's mamaw was half Choctow Indian..that's an interesting story in itself. Ty for reading my lengthy comment but my husband's stories are a bit like her s but not as hard..his father's father passed early after they had 4 children, from the Spanish flu..so Miss Nanny raised her children with the help of her older brother and the local church pitched in and built her a home..that's what folk did back then..NOTHING LIKE TODAY! Sadly. Ty for reading my lengthy comment. God bless! Mrs.James Wells..been married almost 50yrs! 💝
james wells Thank you for the story,,,,, I am from the Kiln now living in Biloxi Mississippi since 1976,,,,, I was a Merchant Mariner for a Boat Company Offshore out of Morgan City La,,, Grand Isle,, Galiano,,, Venice,, Fushion,,, etc,, I worked with many Cajuns.. those were great times for me.
We didn’t really consider ourselves broke we had what we needed and honestly didn’t want for much we ate good and we enjoyed making outdoors our playground we were just simple country folk
@@captainflatbed.7927 I grew up in New Orleans and it was the same for us. Thanks to Reagan we went from Middle Middle class to Middle Lower class but we always had everything we needed so I didn't know I was poor until some school kids told me🤷♀️
La Jo I wouldn’t trade my raiding for nothing!! we enjoyed family and the outdoors. Worked hard played even harder rode horses every day just good ole deep woods country folk if ya really think about it we had it better than the rich and snotty. They always complained about whatever all the time. We didn’t complain were were just happy to have what we had and be left alone lol pretty simple
My family is from the south Virginia to Texas area. My parents would talk about eating buttermilk and corn bread. We where so poor, that we ate meat and milk once a month. We had uncle's and an aunt that would give us fruit and vegetables. Where i grew up in Louisiana you could walk anywhere and pick fresh fruit off the vine or tree plus pecan tree's where everywhere. We didn't think of ourselves as being underprivileged. God provided for us with whatever we needed. I thank God for raising me with a good moral compass. In knowing what's really important in this life.
My mom and dad loved buttermilk and cornbread. Dad was Mississippi born and raised and mom was in Georgia until she married my dad at 17. I love cornbread but they can keep the buttermilk. We didn't feel underprivileged either.
I was raised in southern Mississippi and my mother’s story is very similar to this woman’s. I still love cornbread and milk! LoL We were never hungry! Raised a huge garden and lived on fish and chicken! Beef was a Sunday treat. We had school clothes and play clothes! The good old days!! Family was tight!
Oh y'all didn't raise hogs I'm from Arkansas and nearly all the farmer flok had hogs to bucher come fall and one or two to tacke to the sale barn alongside a dozen cavels to.
I was born in Vicksburg in 1941. Both my parents were dead by my 11th birthday but I was able to graduate from college, knowing that my life was molded by my decisions more than circumstances. Life is what you make it substantiates the fact that choices equal consequences. Life is simple, people complicate life by the choices they make.
Good for you. It sounds like you learned young that your destiny is in your own hands and to change what you can and give it your all and to let go of trying to control anything you can’t change. I’ve had a hard life as well, but I always refused to be defined by what happened to me and let it continue to torment me, but only in part by my response to it. I was fortunate enough to be able to be strong enough to do the work to heal and move on and those events only made me more grateful for what I have.
My father (b. 1901) grew up near Aliceville, AL close to the Mississippi state line. He was one of 11 kids in a family in the timber biz whose fortunes has steadily declined since the Civil War, and poverty was rampant. All the kids had to do their part from a very young age for the family to survive, and he spoke of hunting squirrel and 'possum for the table. Kids today have NO IDEA.
Amen. I moved to my stepdad ho.e in Tenn. A lil way from Corinth Miss....also near Ky border at Paris tenn and. Fulton.....I was city girl to sharecroppers daughter...oh yeh. I worked the forld....cotton sack...hoe. no tractor. 1st place we lived not even on road..I was 13. Went to o e room and kitchen schoolhouse. Teacher mispronounced. Tamale and country of Chile. I'd come home and tell my mom. I knew more than teacher. Omg. It was awful but I learned lots. I now am in a city. I have a garden cause I learned down there. And I can cook all that wonderful food. Greens grits all that hoid stuff. Do yes I'm also proud to be Southern. Mom was Southern. But from LA not the country. Ray for the South cornbread collards and yes I've eaten opossum coon and wild rabbit. Yim
About every family in Mississippi had mules and horses with needed equipment (mostly home made) to make our living. We hunted, fished, and farmed about 99% of everything we ate growing up and we loved it i learned responsibility, a good work ethic, and manners to our neighbors and elders. Live hard play hard
This reminds me of my growing up. We never had electricity and in the evenings, we would go to my uncles to watch tv. Because we were so well taken care of, you don’t consider your life as hard. We always had a roof over our head, food to eat, and we were loved, to me I had the best child hood and I wouldn’t have changed any of it.
Come on now!!! We where a house or nine single mom...we used to look at holes in the floor and walls....had to carry water.....but we had love and morals..right now thats how i learn of Gods love🙌💕.we didnt know when we where gonna get a meal ..but God...still blessed🙌
@CJ DUNROVIN you think when it became available power stations and lines sprung up all over the country? Not a few people didn't get electricity until the 70s. Because they and their regions was poor and the building was hard.
@CJ DUNROVIN You dont know much about growing up like this woman do you? We had very limited electricity which is what burned down our house. After that we lived with family members for awhile that had no electricity. It was not uncommon in those days. I was born in 1955.
My Mother and Father both grew up and left Mississippi, (from towns 20 miles apart), and met in Cicero Illinois as young adults. They were both working to send money back to family younger than them. They worked like Hebrew slaves all of their lives, whether in the fields, or factories. Before they left, both had picked acres of cotton, and produce. It was a way of life. The North yielded many more opportunities. They took in most of their younger siblings, as newlyweds, and helped them to make better lives for themselves. I know it was rough at times, but they were married 51 years before my Momma passed. Daddy followed almost 3 years later because he never lived another day without wanting to be with Momma. People talk about Southern folks being uneducated, but the truth is, they know more than most. They know that family is first.
"They know family is first." So true. Raised in Texas by a mother from the North, I'm half way through my life and only now realizing what she didn't have that my father did. They divorced when I was 5 and tho he loved me, I didn't get to see him as much as I needed or as much as he needed. I grew up clueless about what my father's love was. His people trickled down from Virginia thru the South, Mississippi being a stop, and landed in Texas. I'm figuring out the Spirit of love and family more that half way thru my life. Grateful to have my daddy. Grateful to have the South in my blood.
Honest to God, you just made me bawl. My Mom and Dad started dating when she was 13 and he was 15. They had ten children. She died nearly two years ago at 84 years old. My Dad is now 88 and he is like a lost puppy without her. We are also here in Chicago, IL
Ancestral Twine so glad that you know how we are down here. We love fiercely! May not get to see each other as much as we would like, but always take up for our kin. And we also adopt people into our families. People down here stick together and take care of each other. Most of them become aunts, uncles, granny’s or pawpaw’s even though we may not be related by blood, they are family.
Captain Flatbed, me too! As kids we would get out on the old dirt roads and ride bikes when it was 90 plus degrees out to visit friends or family in a nearby town. We always knew where we could stop and get some cold water, and most of them always had us some tea cakes or cold watermelon or cucumbers to snack on while we cooled down. We were definitely spoiled by folks that were not really our aunts and uncles, but were close enough to the family that we always thought of and called them that. Those were wonderful days!
@@gordythecat I don't see a lot of makeup. Actually, I don't see any on this lady. Makeup does help but it doesn't hide wrinkles. She doesn't look her age at all.
my grandparents grew up in the mississippi delta in the 1930s-1950s. my grandmother told me once that the only dolls they had to play with were made out of corn husks and their dresses were made from flower sacks. I always loved hearing her stories.
Am from Mississippi my mom is the oldest out of 14 and they had to work the land all they really had was what they grew...but they was very thankful what ever they can get...
My mother was born in 1924. She was the eldest of 8 kids in a little holler called Grassy in Missouri State. I remember the stories she would tell me of the depression era and how she being the eldest daughter had to quit school when she was just starting 6th or 7th grade to work cutting railroad ties with her dad. She was sent to Michigan when she was maybe 15/16 yrs old to work in a some factory. She was given room and board and a carton of Lucky Strike smokes once a month. Any money that she made was sent back to her family by the company. My mom was a very sweet and kind hearted soul and very grateful/thankful for what she had. As a complaining teenager in the 70's era she would look at me and just get this knowing look on her face and say, 'You know what?...you really need to stop complaining about what you think you should have. There is always worse things you could be experiencing. You have so much more to be thankful for than you have to complain about. :( Knowing what she went thru at my age...I had to stop and reflect and agree with her even though I still wanted all those cool things some of the wealthier kids had. We were well loved and taught the value of hard work, honesty and thankfulness...these things made us strong and built our character. I have to agree with CJ Dunrovin... Kids these days don't have a clue what hard work is....that is sad, because when really hard things come their way they won't have the tools to cope with it.
I was born and raised in Mississippi and this lady's story sounds so much like my mother's. She was born in the 30's into a sharecropper family. They also had cornbread and milk for supper most evenings. I still eat cornbread and milk to this day. I love it, but probably because I don't HAVE to eat it.
I liked how she noted that kids can get love from more than one family. She must’ve been thru so much, you can see the pain in her eyes, but she didn’t dwell on it.
My mom had sixteen brothers and sisters. They lived in Arkansas. The family lived and worked on land owned by a Bauxite mine. My grandfather and several of my uncles worked in the mine. Talk about hard times! My mom told me that at times they were so poor they had water gravy. Now that’s poor!
@@R3cuzican I'm guessing fat (rendered pork lard, chicken fat, bacon grease), flour, and water, then add lots of salt and pepper to try to incorporate some favor. My husband said when times were lean he ate lard on soda crackers.
@Julia A Abstinence or the rhythm method was the only prevention back then. Most southerners weren't Catholic so the rhythm method was unknown to them. It was common that wives "submit" to their husbands desires so even abstention wasn't really possible.
I grew up in Greenwood, Miss, it was either feast or famine. Once all we had to eat was cabbage. I supper was always cornbread and buttermilk,but living in the country is a real adventure for kids even if u are poor.
My mother was one of 14 children raised around Mt Olive MS. . Her dad was a tenant farmer and the kids all drug cotton sacks until they were turned 18 and left home. They were white and grew up very poor. All my aunts and uncles were and are the best people in the world.
@CharlyRomeo2009 their are some wonderful people in Mississippi but there are some “evil” ones too. The evil that Emmitt Till encountered was so horrific, and NO CHILD should ever have to endure what Emmitt Till endured. Although Emmitt Tills brutal murder happened before I was ever born, that is a fact about Mississippi that I am so ashamed of. The evil act of his murder is unconscionable and the injustice done to him and his family afterwards weighs deep in my soul. God Bless his sweet mother, who had to watch as her sons killers walked away free. Mrs Till was the epitome of strength, grace and love to everyone that knew her. I love Mississippi and am proud to be a Mississippian but I will never forget or forgive all of those evil people that took that child’s life......THE KILLERS, THE COPS, THE JUDGE, THE JURY.....ALL OF THEM!!!! They all had a part in his murder! Those parts of Mississippi’s history I am ashamed of and always will be. My only solace, about the injustices done to children, is that one day THE EVIL ONES WILL PAY.....”Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord” God Bless.... 🙏🏼
CharlyRomeo2009 yeah let’s label a whole state for the sins of a few. The facts they never tell you in the narrative is those responsible were caught because most everyone was angry by what happened and turned them in.
@@jkeithgarner3396Thank You!!! I’m so sick of people lookin down their nose at Mississippi. Most people were just hard working Honest people a lot like this lady. Our family didn’t even Know anyone like those FEW idiots that did stuff like that!!
@renjenman I think it is all her own hair. My family has that kind of hair. I'm 63 and because of the reddish tint (natural) I have very few white hairs and I have a lot of it. My mom and sisters hair was more strawberry blond and very thick.
Anna she did grow up on milk though and good home cooking. My parents who are fairly spry, are her age grew up simple farmers in eastern NC and lived off pork.
@@Annamelese they had better diets then. Ever notice how wimpy and hairless most of these 20 year old guys are now. Fast food is poison. Democrat main stream media doesn't help either...
Enjoyed her story tremendously. Today people don’t even think of what life was like 50ty to 70 ty years ago. Today everything is taken for granite. No appreciation for working hard . I would love to turn back time m live a simpler life. Also must say this beautiful lady has some gorgeous hair n not a grey spot did I see. ♥️😊🙏🇺🇸
It's not that people of today are lazy it's that no American wants to do hard work and be paid $11.50 an hour and not be able to afford an apartment. Maybe if the pay was better you would see more hard working people.
@@winning3329 its $7.25 a hour min wage in Mississippi. An $11/hr job in Mississippi is the big time if you didn't go to college, and no you will not be able to afford shelter in the worst ghetto of Mississippi without a roommate/significant other to help pay rent and utilities. And I 100% agree. A dollar does not go as far anymore as it did back then.
It seems like another world. I’d love to have lived the. I know it would have been much harder. My nanny (grandma) was born in 1935. If I could pick I’d pick then.
I’m 68 and remember wood stoves, steam trains, horse drawn milk and bread delivery, and of course, pumps and outhouses. Poor folk all over lived like that TIL the 60’s.
Loved this story. I was born in Hattiesburg Miss 1949. My whole family born and bred there. We were poor & lived on the wrong side of the tracks literally. Lived with my grandmother a lot of my childhood but had the best times with uncles, aunts and cousins
My grandma was born in their cabin/shack in Forrest, she was a McLemore and Parker from picayune/ forest county and her momma's side came from ellisville Mississippi. She wrote a book called "White Child" about growing up there it's chock full of old remedies and good ol Southern superstitions, very interesting, I'm proud of her RIP❤️Mary Irene McLemore ❤️
I live in Mississippi. It's a secret to the rest of the country but it's a wonderful place to live. People get along well, much better than in other places (black and white), taxes are low, housing is affordable, medical care is great, and there is a church on every corner so there is no problem finding a place to worship.
You are exactly correct. we dont really have racial issues here, we dont want em. I live in Gre4enville, I grew up mississippi, went army ended up georgia and moved back here 15 yrs ago. we have Italians, greek people, cajun people etc here. it's cheaper to live here, esp good for a retired citizen. i know about the poor atuff, originally from Ark, father dumped me and three younger brothers here I was six, here in Greenville youngest brother was 6 mos. 2 weeks of homeless welfare got us, but that a whole different other story, My family in Ark was share croppers, was deff hard, but our story was 1963 on that of my brothers and me.
I was a young Marine stationed at NAS Meridian for a three month training school back in the late 1980s. I ran around with a group of guys that we not into the drinking/bar scene. We would play pool, go to the movies, attempt to engage and encounter the local females, etc. We made a point to NOT go looking for trouble. We were always treated with respect and courtesy by the local store owners, cab drivers, and just people on the street were always cool to us. Most, if not all, of the ladies that worked in the chow hall were from town....A) they could cook and B) they were so kind and nice to us. I ate grits for the first time in that chow hall! I guess you gotta grow up with em-LOL. I was aware of the Southern culture of hospitality but it’s another thing to see it and experience it. I appreciate it more now as I look back on things. God Bless all of my Southern sisters and brothers and God Bless the United States of America.
I lived in the North, California. There were jobs for women and men that didn't go to war. Neighbors never went without that I knew of. But my mother married her second husband. He made good money as a police Captain, but for us 4 kids from the first marriage there was never enough food, and clothes were bought just before school started and no more. Just a minimum of clothes. Often the soles wore out on our shoes and my mother would put cardboard in the shoes. We were very thin. Not all people that suffered in those years had to do without. My stepfather ate a steak and large salad many times while us kids are fish soup or such. And often they went out to dinner. Bless you. Your such a sweet lady. Thank you for your story.💖😇
How sad, your mother did the best a women could do with 4 children at that time. Not trying to be nosy but I’m curious, did your mother and stepfather has any children together? I’m assuming if they did they were treated better
Thanks sharing your story. So many today don't know how to face adversity. Life isn't always easy, but if we let it, life's problems can make us better people. When you know the Lord, it's easier to make sense of it all.
In my Texas home county a woman was left a widow with 6 or 8 little sons. The only work she could get was in a chicken processing plant. She did that, reared her boys. Recently her g-grandson was on the Harvard polo team.
Libby Hess Black people* have never said that we were the only ones to struggle. Poor white people still had more than poor Black people when looked at as a whole.
I don't remember seeing any white women or men hanging from a tree like black people did Mississippi I wouldn't put one f****** foot in that f****** rotten state at all and all I hear is proud to be a southerner really Yankee all day.!!!!
@@42dragonfire I don't understand that last sentence but glad you don't want to go to MS. My black friends love it there and wouldn't live anywhere else.
42dragonfire Hummmm.... Guess you’ve never visited the old West! Hundreds of men died hanging from a rope back then. Also, in the little town where I live in California, there are plenty of pictures at our Historical Center, of white men being hanged. You sound angry, hateful and a bit racist there, Woodrow.
Reminds me of how I grew up. I’m only 51 but grew up in a rural part of Wyoming. We had a garden, milk cow, pigs, chickens, sheep, horse, rabbits. We had a two seater outhouse and wringer washer. It was the best way to grow up.
I wanted to watch this, since I had been married for about 10 years to a fellow, my ex-husband, my big boys dad, who wasfrom Alabama! A lot of the things she talked about was true over there in Alabama also, what with the sharecropping & plowing behind a mule, which my ex-husband did… and eating just corn bread and milk, etc.! Yes, as some person just commented, I loved her wisdom and view of life!
Born and raised in neighboring Alabama, I can relate to much of her story. Much of it I can only wish my life could have been as good lol. People nowadays don’t understand, can’t understand just what a treat a piece of bologna between two slices of bread was. It was really a different world back then. She has a few years on me but it was much the same when I came along.
Wow almost sounds like my upbringing on Back Bay in Biloxi, MS in the projects. Born in 1952 I watched my mom try so hard just to keep getting knocked back down, she never quit trying. Like you it would almost take a book to tell my childhood story of survival, but here we are alive & well. God bless😊🙏❤️
My family as well... My Mother was an Adams born in 60 to George and Shirley. They also had Tyrone, Mike, George, Dennis. Russel. Pam and Chyrel My Grandparents lived on Maple St. up until they passed...
Born and raised in Mississippi. Still here. We had a huge farm with pigs, quail, horses, and we owned a fishing camp. We raised all our food. We I was young I remeber I hated it. Now I miss it. Going to my granny's on sundays. I miss it all
Being poor made me appreciate my now life , taught me hard work was the only way to get more What I see nowadays are spoiled and what are you going to do for me and if you don’t I’m going 2 take it
I remember having one space heater for the whole house and only cold running water in the house. In one house we pulled water out of the well. No inside bathroom until I was in the fifth grade. We helped all the extended family bring in the harvest from their gardens through the summer and early fall. We canned and pickled everything until we finally got a freezer.
My daddy was born in ‘47 in Mississippi, where he was raised and eventually I was born in ‘84. I’ve heard stories like this my entire life. It’s a wonderful breath of fresh air to see your family story reflected on youtube, to a degree.
My parents are from Gulfport MS. My grandmother's was born and raised in Gulfport MS. She was the first postmaster general in Mississippi City which is now Gulfport MS. She lived to be 💯 year's old. Her name was Rosalie Branager.
What a lovely lady! These are stories I heard from my parents and my grandmother. I am in my 50s and we are from Arkansas. Even though I grew up in Little Rock, my dad still hunted and fished and we ate squirrel, deer, crappie, catfish, bass - and so many delicious foods from the garden. I love hearing about the old days. Times are so different now.
Most folks don’t realize the South remained economically devastated for 100 years after the War Between the States. As the Rust Belt declined, the South began to attract industry: lower taxes and no unions helped accelerate that path.
Ten years ago, after the death of my wife, I was blessed to know and date a lady who came from Mississippi in 1959 age 13. She was 3/4 Choctaw and said she and her family faced a lot of discrimination. She had a scrapbook with pictures of, and receipts from, the family picking cotton. Their house was firebombed once. Her parents passed, so she was put on a bus with her younger brother to live with a family here in New Jersey. She even ran into bias here and was put back a grade in school. She believed that was done because she came from the South. She remained positive and was a lot of fun to be with. She was diagnosed with colon cancer and died in December 2013. I have no idea what happened to all her mementos as I was hospitalized at that time. Rest in Peace dear Vivian.
My parents grew up in north eastern Mississippi. They were sharecroppers, but my father owned our house and barn. When I was one year old we moved to northeastern Illinois. My dad became a steel worker at US Steel and my mother was a seamstress. My mother and father still ate mostly vegetables, cornbread and milk. Mother and dad always had a garden for food and my mother canned a lot of the veggies for the winter. We visited our relatives in Mississippi yearly and we never went without food, medical attention and education (two brothers and one sister). I retired and moved back to Mississippi at age 50. Things have changed too much from what my parents grew up with and I remember from visits (I liked that downtown closed at six o'clock and TV went off at midnight). I love living in the woods and having space between me and my neighbors!
My grandma was born in southern Mississippi in 1922. She had her first child there in 1942. They were poorer than this believe it or not because her mother died when she was 7. My grandparents met during the war effort as welders in the shipyard in pascagoula in 1944.
@Tracee Blair I literally grew up with a tracy Blair. I know the spelling is different and it's out of georgia but what a coincidence. That family is the blairs and the arnells.
I'm a Mississippi Boy to the heart! Raised by my grandparents that were born in the 30's or 40's and I am 31 and still have my heritage raised in the south! TO MY COUNTRY FOLKS!!!!
Born in Jackson 78’ I remember my grandmother talking about being poor as a child in Gulfport. We moved away and I haven’t been back in 25 years and I miss it so terribly.
She is so right about going through hard times so we know about good times. God Bless her
“Do not use the things that God gave you as negative, always make them into positive” ~ beautiful words ❤️
Yes I think poor is good it keeps you humble
Wow! What a story!
Some of the better white privilege, many were worse than this lady I know because my family had a harder time but we did not blame others because we're in the same situation.
Amen,Amen Amen
Im a Yankee..middle class..not poor compared to this lady and many others..but I can appreciate all she speaks of as my husband was from Hattiesburg, Ms. as well as New Orleans..long story how we met..but when he took me down south to meet his mamaw..Miss Nanny and her humble home with a large screened in sleeping porch with four poster feather beds, crisp sheets and quilts as well as feather comforter and some feather mattresses..I will never forget..that sleep was the best sleep I ever had..it was hot during the day and cool breezy nights..we would sit on the front screened porch n help shell purple hull peas n green beans...this is when I first fell in love w the south..this was back in 1970 that the trip was from St. Louis to Mississippi then to New Orleans which was about an hours drive from Hattiesburg. And this is where I fell in love with the queen anne homes and antiques and the food n city itself! There are many stories I cherish as well. My husband's job was in St. Louis but we took many trips down south till all the family passed! Back then..it seemed like a different country..especially New Orleans as the culture of the French Acadians still were populous n spoke cajun n French..to be honest..it's never been the same since Katrina. But my granddaughter was named after a Miss. southern belle named Vilulah..she's the only person in the U. S. with that name..as it's not been used for 140years. My daughter wanted to honor her southern heritage and named her befittingly! Also, my husband's mamaw was half Choctow Indian..that's an interesting story in itself. Ty for reading my lengthy comment but my husband's stories are a bit like her s but not as hard..his father's father passed early after they had 4 children, from the Spanish flu..so Miss Nanny raised her children with the help of her older brother and the local church pitched in and built her a home..that's what folk did back then..NOTHING LIKE TODAY! Sadly. Ty for reading my lengthy comment. God bless! Mrs.James Wells..been married almost 50yrs! 💝
My daddy’s family is from New Orleans also, I was born there. Everyone is also gone since Katrina. Mamaw lives to 103 and walked to Mass daily to 101.
james wells Thank you for the story,,,,, I am from the Kiln now living in Biloxi Mississippi since 1976,,,,, I was a Merchant Mariner for a Boat Company Offshore out of Morgan City La,,, Grand Isle,, Galiano,,, Venice,, Fushion,,, etc,, I worked with many Cajuns.. those were great times for me.
We didn’t really consider ourselves broke we had what we needed and honestly didn’t want for much we ate good and we enjoyed making outdoors our playground we were just simple country folk
@@captainflatbed.7927 I grew up in New Orleans and it was the same for us. Thanks to Reagan we went from Middle Middle class to Middle Lower class but we always had everything we needed so I didn't know I was poor until some school kids told me🤷♀️
La Jo I wouldn’t trade my raiding for nothing!! we enjoyed family and the outdoors. Worked hard played even harder rode horses every day just good ole deep woods country folk if ya really think about it we had it better than the rich and snotty. They always complained about whatever all the time. We didn’t complain were were just happy to have what we had and be left alone lol pretty simple
My family is from the south Virginia to Texas area. My parents would talk about eating buttermilk and corn bread. We where so poor, that we ate meat and milk once a month. We had uncle's and an aunt that would give us fruit and vegetables. Where i grew up in Louisiana you could walk anywhere and pick fresh fruit off the vine or tree plus pecan tree's where everywhere. We didn't think of ourselves as being underprivileged. God provided for us with whatever we needed. I thank God for raising me with a good moral compass. In knowing what's really important in this life.
My mom and dad loved buttermilk and cornbread. Dad was Mississippi born and raised and mom was in Georgia until she married my dad at 17. I love cornbread but they can keep the buttermilk. We didn't feel underprivileged either.
Then you had something to eat they didn't give us nothing but took everything from us
@@pegs1659 I love buttermilk but only the full fat kind. The other kind would be called "Blue John."
I was raised in southern Mississippi and my mother’s story is very similar to this woman’s. I still love cornbread and milk! LoL We were never hungry! Raised a huge garden and lived on fish and chicken! Beef was a Sunday treat. We had school clothes and play clothes! The good old days!! Family was tight!
Thea Yegerlehner eat it weekly!! Yum yum!!!
Yes ma’am! Yumm on that cornbread and milk🙏🏻
Oh y'all didn't raise hogs I'm from Arkansas and nearly all the farmer flok had hogs to bucher come fall and one or two to tacke to the sale barn alongside a dozen cavels to.
I'm actually from Hattiesburg! Small world!
I'm from McComb, MS. Helped pluck a few chickens really young. Love cornbread and milk!
I was born in Vicksburg in 1941. Both my parents were dead by my 11th birthday but I was able to graduate from college, knowing that my life was molded by my decisions more than circumstances. Life is what you make it substantiates the fact that choices equal consequences. Life is simple, people complicate life by the choices they make.
Good for you. It sounds like you learned young that your destiny is in your own hands and to change what you can and give it your all and to let go of trying to control anything you can’t change. I’ve had a hard life as well, but I always refused to be defined by what happened to me and let it continue to torment me, but only in part by my response to it. I was fortunate enough to be able to be strong enough to do the work to heal and move on and those events only made me more grateful for what I have.
How did u live on ur own without an income?
Bravo!.. So true.
I was born in Vicksburg in 1944. Nice to meet you. Did stay or did you go.
Terrell Price that is so very true.
My father (b. 1901) grew up near Aliceville, AL close to the Mississippi state line. He was one of 11 kids in a family in the timber biz whose fortunes has steadily declined since the Civil War, and poverty was rampant. All the kids had to do their part from a very young age for the family to survive, and he spoke of hunting squirrel and 'possum for the table. Kids today have NO IDEA.
I just dont understand why breed 11 kids
@@eddieraydz3182 no birth control dumb azz...
Amen. I moved to my stepdad ho.e in Tenn. A lil way from Corinth Miss....also near Ky border at Paris tenn and. Fulton.....I was city girl to sharecroppers daughter...oh yeh. I worked the forld....cotton sack...hoe. no tractor. 1st place we lived not even on road..I was 13. Went to o e room and kitchen schoolhouse. Teacher mispronounced. Tamale and country of Chile. I'd come home and tell my mom. I knew more than teacher. Omg. It was awful but I learned lots. I now am in a city. I have a garden cause I learned down there. And I can cook all that wonderful food. Greens grits all that hoid stuff. Do yes I'm also proud to be Southern. Mom was Southern. But from LA not the country. Ray for the South cornbread collards and yes I've eaten opossum coon and wild rabbit. Yim
Children were the farm workers and also took care of aging parents and grandparents.
Eddie Exists are you serious? As if they had birth control I’m those days! Ppl rarely had food! Think.
About every family in Mississippi had mules and horses with needed equipment (mostly home made) to make our living. We hunted, fished, and farmed about 99% of everything we ate growing up and we loved it i learned responsibility, a good work ethic, and manners to our neighbors and elders. Live hard play hard
I was born in 77 and this preseted Into the 90s in my part of arnksaw with alot of familys.
Yeah so much money now has yo be spent on food
Captain Flatbed. Amen You lived off the land! Wild game was abundant. Folks shared with one another!
Thea Yegerlehner and yes if our neighbors came short on anything we helped and as did they also
And a mule was our ancestors
This reminds me of my growing up. We never had electricity and in the evenings, we would go to my uncles to watch tv. Because we were so well taken care of, you don’t consider your life as hard. We always had a roof over our head, food to eat, and we were loved, to me I had the best child hood and I wouldn’t have changed any of it.
Yes! When you’re grown you don’t remember all the money your parents had near as much as the love you were shown.
Come on now!!! We where a house or nine single mom...we used to look at holes in the floor and walls....had to carry water.....but we had love and morals..right now thats how i learn of Gods love🙌💕.we didnt know when we where gonna get a meal ..but God...still blessed🙌
@CJ DUNROVIN you think when it became available power stations and lines sprung up all over the country? Not a few people didn't get electricity until the 70s. Because they and their regions was poor and the building was hard.
@CJ DUNROVIN You dont know much about growing up like this woman do you? We had very limited electricity which is what burned down our house. After that we lived with family members for awhile that had no electricity. It was not uncommon in those days. I was born in 1955.
My Mother and Father both grew up and left Mississippi, (from towns 20 miles apart), and met in Cicero Illinois as young adults. They were both working to send money back to family younger than them.
They worked like Hebrew slaves all of their lives, whether in the fields, or factories. Before they left, both had picked acres of cotton, and produce. It was a way of life.
The North yielded many more opportunities. They took in most of their younger siblings, as newlyweds, and helped them to make better lives for themselves. I know it was rough at times, but they were married 51 years before my Momma passed. Daddy followed almost 3 years later because he never lived another day without wanting to be with Momma.
People talk about Southern folks being uneducated, but the truth is, they know more than most. They know that family is first.
"They know family is first." So true. Raised in Texas by a mother from the North, I'm half way through my life and only now realizing what she didn't have that my father did. They divorced when I was 5 and tho he loved me, I didn't get to see him as much as I needed or as much as he needed. I grew up clueless about what my father's love was.
His people trickled down from Virginia thru the South, Mississippi being a stop, and landed in Texas. I'm figuring out the Spirit of love and family more that half way thru my life. Grateful to have my daddy. Grateful to have the South in my blood.
Patricia Porterfield we know how to keep a family together and sustain ourselves without outside help or corruption. I truly miss those days
Honest to God, you just made me bawl. My Mom and Dad started dating when she was 13 and he was 15. They had ten children. She died nearly two years ago at 84 years old. My Dad is now 88 and he is like a lost puppy without her. We are also here in Chicago, IL
Ancestral Twine so glad that you know how we are down here. We love fiercely! May not get to see each other as much as we would like, but always take up for our kin. And we also adopt people into our families. People down here stick together and take care of each other. Most of them become aunts, uncles, granny’s or pawpaw’s even though we may not be related by blood, they are family.
Captain Flatbed, me too! As kids we would get out on the old dirt roads and ride bikes when it was 90 plus degrees out to visit friends or family in a nearby town. We always knew where we could stop and get some cold water, and most of them always had us some tea cakes or cold watermelon or cucumbers to snack on while we cooled down. We were definitely spoiled by folks that were not really our aunts and uncles, but were close enough to the family that we always thought of and called them that. Those were wonderful days!
I cannot believe how beautiful her hair is! She does not look her age.
I love her hair too.
Good living.😊
@@gordythecat
I don't see a lot of makeup. Actually, I don't see any on this lady.
Makeup does help but it doesn't hide wrinkles. She doesn't look her age at all.
It called having good generic traits
That is what happens when you stay away from drugs & nicotine👍
my grandparents grew up in the mississippi delta in the 1930s-1950s. my grandmother told me once that the only dolls they had to play with were made out of corn husks and their dresses were made from flower sacks. I always loved hearing her stories.
Am from Mississippi my mom is the oldest out of 14 and they had to work the land all they really had was what they grew...but they was very thankful what ever they can get...
My mother was born in 1924. She was the eldest of 8 kids in a little holler called Grassy in Missouri State. I remember the stories she would tell me of the depression era and how she being the eldest daughter had to quit school when she was just starting 6th or 7th grade to work cutting railroad ties with her dad. She was sent to Michigan when she was maybe 15/16 yrs old to work in a some factory. She was given room and board and a carton of Lucky Strike smokes once a month. Any money that she made was sent back to her family by the company. My mom was a very sweet and kind hearted soul and very grateful/thankful for what she had. As a complaining teenager in the 70's era she would look at me and just get this knowing look on her face and say, 'You know what?...you really need to stop complaining about what you think you should have. There is always worse things you could be experiencing. You have so much more to be thankful for than you have to complain about. :( Knowing what she went thru at my age...I had to stop and reflect and agree with her even though I still wanted all those cool things some of the wealthier kids had. We were well loved and taught the value of hard work, honesty and thankfulness...these things made us strong and built our character. I have to agree with CJ Dunrovin... Kids these days don't have a clue what hard work is....that is sad, because when really hard things come their way they won't have the tools to cope with it.
Wow! 14 is a lot of kids!! I'll bet you weren't lonely at all, ever. That would have been a lot of fun.
I could tell she was a great lady before she even started to speak. The goodness in her just shows on her face.
I was born and raised in Mississippi and this lady's story sounds so much like my mother's. She was born in the 30's into a sharecropper family. They also had cornbread and milk for supper most evenings. I still eat cornbread and milk to this day. I love it, but probably because I don't HAVE to eat it.
My grandmother too! The whole family worked. She still tells her stories.😊
I absolutely LOVE to listen to the elderly share their life & memories ♥️♥️♥️
I could listen to this wonderfull woman and her life story for hours
I liked how she noted that kids can get love from more than one family. She must’ve been thru so much, you can see the pain in her eyes, but she didn’t dwell on it.
What an interesting interview! What she says is so true. You have to live through some bad times to know what the good times are♡
My dad was born in 1947 and grew up in Mississippi. His stories are incredible too. Glad I found this channel
Born and raised in Mississippi wouldn’t change it for the world.
Amen Hallelujah 🔥🥰🙌🏽💕
AMEN!!!!!!
Born and raised in Mississippi too
We are from Greenville to Oxford Mississippi.
She has beautiful hair and her memories are priceless ❤️
Robin Hillbery
Her hair tells me that she my have Irish ancestry.
I’m a Mississippi girl!!! I’m so proud to be from the south!!
Amen me too!!!!!!
Amen!
me too! Love my state!
ME TOO , I LOVE MY MISSISSIPPI ❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤❤
Me too!
My mom had sixteen brothers and sisters. They lived in Arkansas. The family lived and worked on land owned by a Bauxite mine. My grandfather and several of my uncles worked in the mine. Talk about hard times! My mom told me that at times they were so poor they had water gravy. Now that’s poor!
Can you explain water gravy? I’m just curious
@@R3cuzican I'm guessing fat (rendered pork lard, chicken fat, bacon grease), flour, and water, then add lots of salt and pepper to try to incorporate some favor. My husband said when times were lean he ate lard on soda crackers.
AZHITW 😳
My Mom was born in a box car, Point Pleasant W. VA 1926
@Julia A Abstinence or the rhythm method was the only prevention back then. Most southerners weren't Catholic so the rhythm method was unknown to them. It was common that wives "submit" to their husbands desires so even abstention wasn't really possible.
I grew up in Greenwood, Miss, it was either feast or famine. Once all we had to eat was cabbage. I supper was always cornbread and buttermilk,but living in the country is a real adventure for kids even if u are poor.
My mother was one of 14 children raised around Mt Olive MS. . Her dad was a tenant farmer and the kids all drug cotton sacks until they were turned 18 and left home. They were white and grew up very poor. All my aunts and uncles were and are the best people in the world.
I'm from hattiesburg and have family in My. Olive! How about that, small world.
@@donnag2449 my aunt and cousins are still there :)
@@terriegoff1655 cool! I live on the gulf coast now but we still get up to Hattiesburg.
@@donnag2449 i personally live near OS.
@@terriegoff1655 oh wow, I'm not far from there.
This is so interesting. So glad this popped up in my feed. I love listening to true history. Great story.
Same! 👌🏾
I love the code "borrow some butter" to let the neighbors know to keep the older siblings because a baby was coming.
Thank you for sharing your Mother’s memories. Loved it!
Growing up in 40s & 50s everybody was poor even in Al,Ga, SC,NC ,WV, & we walked to School!
A typical story of life across the nation. I'm a Kentucky born Mississippi girl! My husband is from the same area as this sweet lady!
Mississippi born and raised right here
@CharlyRomeo2009 their are some wonderful people in Mississippi but there are some “evil” ones too.
The evil that Emmitt Till encountered was so horrific, and NO CHILD should ever have to endure what Emmitt Till endured.
Although Emmitt Tills brutal murder happened before I was ever born, that is a fact about Mississippi that I am so ashamed of.
The evil act of his murder is unconscionable and the injustice done to him and his family afterwards weighs deep in my soul.
God Bless his sweet mother, who had to watch as her sons killers walked away free. Mrs Till was the epitome of strength, grace and love to everyone that knew her.
I love Mississippi and am proud to be a Mississippian but I will never forget or forgive all of those evil people that took that child’s life......THE KILLERS, THE COPS, THE JUDGE, THE JURY.....ALL OF THEM!!!! They all had a part in his murder!
Those parts of Mississippi’s history I am ashamed of and always will be. My only solace, about the injustices done to children, is that one day THE EVIL ONES WILL PAY.....”Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord”
God Bless.... 🙏🏼
CharlyRomeo2009 yeah let’s label a whole state for the sins of a few. The facts they never tell you in the narrative is those responsible were caught because most everyone was angry by what happened and turned them in.
@@jkeithgarner3396Thank You!!! I’m so sick of people lookin down their nose at Mississippi. Most people were just hard working Honest people a lot like this lady. Our family didn’t even Know anyone like those FEW idiots that did stuff like that!!
She looks so youthful for someone in her 70's!
Long, thick hair, a decent dye job and a turtle neck will do that.
@renjenman I think it is all her own hair. My family has that kind of hair. I'm 63 and because of the reddish tint (natural) I have very few white hairs and I have a lot of it. My mom and sisters hair was more strawberry blond and very thick.
I guess not eating meat is good
Anna she did grow up on milk though and good home cooking. My parents who are fairly spry, are her age grew up simple farmers in eastern NC and lived off pork.
@@Annamelese they had better diets then. Ever notice how wimpy and hairless most of these 20 year old guys are now. Fast food is poison. Democrat main stream media doesn't help either...
Enjoyed her story tremendously. Today people don’t even think of what life was like 50ty to 70 ty years ago. Today everything is taken for granite. No appreciation for working hard . I would love to turn back time m live a simpler life. Also must say this beautiful lady has some gorgeous hair n not a grey spot did I see. ♥️😊🙏🇺🇸
Taken for granite...🤔
Granted, not granite.
@@1leech Well people's heads are hard as rocks these days so may as well be granite...
It's not that people of today are lazy it's that no American wants to do hard work and be paid $11.50 an hour and not be able to afford an apartment.
Maybe if the pay was better you would see more hard working people.
@@winning3329 its $7.25 a hour min wage in Mississippi. An $11/hr job in Mississippi is the big time if you didn't go to college, and no you will not be able to afford shelter in the worst ghetto of Mississippi without a roommate/significant other to help pay rent and utilities. And I 100% agree. A dollar does not go as far anymore as it did back then.
I love stories of this era especially. This was great thank you
My mom grew up during the depression. Her stories are the same.I loved to hear them!
She seems so sweet! Not surprising that other families would be happy to include her.
I really enjoyed listening to her story. Thank you for sharing
Heartbreaking for her mom 💞
It seems like another world. I’d love to have lived the. I know it would have been much harder. My nanny (grandma) was born in 1935. If I could pick I’d pick then.
This is why people joined the army,navy,etc.You got food, clothes ,etc.
The military isn't for everyone.
@@krystalrussell8831 There was a time in American history that it was the military or starvation. The money earned kept their families fed, housed.
Makes sense..
@Steve Slade I think what she's saying is there was no choice.
I’m 68 and remember wood stoves, steam trains, horse drawn milk and bread delivery, and of course, pumps and outhouses. Poor folk all over lived like that TIL the 60’s.
60s was when Johnson began the wide spread welfare program.
Loved this story. I was born in Hattiesburg Miss 1949. My whole family born and bred there. We were poor & lived on the wrong side of the tracks literally. Lived with my grandmother a lot of my childhood but had the best times with uncles, aunts and cousins
What a dear, lovely, & inspiring woman who's such a wonderful storyteller...God bless her with good health, good friends & a loving family...
My grandma was born in their cabin/shack in Forrest, she was a McLemore and Parker from picayune/ forest county and her momma's side came from ellisville Mississippi. She wrote a book called "White Child" about growing up there it's chock full of old remedies and good ol Southern superstitions, very interesting, I'm proud of her RIP❤️Mary Irene McLemore ❤️
My grandma was a McLemore and Parker, any fellow cousins reading this? I say hello cuz from beautiful Alaska 🐺
I am from South Mississippi and would love to read it! Where can I buy a copy?
I live in Mississippi. It's a secret to the rest of the country but it's a wonderful place to live. People get along well, much better than in other places (black and white), taxes are low, housing is affordable, medical care is great, and there is a church on every corner so there is no problem finding a place to worship.
You are exactly correct. we dont really have racial issues here, we dont want em. I live in Gre4enville, I grew up mississippi, went army ended up georgia and moved back here 15 yrs ago. we have Italians, greek people, cajun people etc here. it's cheaper to live here, esp good for a retired citizen. i know about the poor atuff, originally from Ark, father dumped me and three younger brothers here I was six, here in Greenville youngest brother was 6 mos. 2 weeks of homeless welfare got us, but that a whole different other story, My family in Ark was share croppers, was deff hard, but our story was 1963 on that of my brothers and me.
Andy, AMEN!!!
I was a young Marine stationed at NAS Meridian for a three month training school back in the late 1980s. I ran around with a group of guys that we not into the drinking/bar scene. We would play pool, go to the movies, attempt to engage and encounter the local females, etc. We made a point to NOT go looking for trouble. We were always treated with respect and courtesy by the local store owners, cab drivers, and just people on the street were always cool to us. Most, if not all, of the ladies that worked in the chow hall were from town....A) they could cook and B) they were so kind and nice to us. I ate grits for the first time in that chow hall! I guess you gotta grow up with em-LOL. I was aware of the Southern culture of hospitality but it’s another thing to see it and experience it. I appreciate it more now as I look back on things. God Bless all of my Southern sisters and brothers and God Bless the United States of America.
@@Mattthefarmer1 Yeah, grits are an acquired taste. Glad your experience was positive and thank you for your service.
Love Mississippi! Most hospitable, friendly people in the US.
I lived in the North, California. There were jobs for women and men that didn't go to war. Neighbors never went without that I knew of. But my mother married her second husband. He made good money as a police Captain, but for us 4 kids from the first marriage there was never enough food, and clothes were bought just before school started and no more. Just a minimum of clothes. Often the soles wore out on our shoes and my mother would put cardboard in the shoes. We were very thin. Not all people that suffered in those years had to do without. My stepfather ate a steak and large salad many times while us kids are fish soup or such. And often they went out to dinner. Bless you. Your such a sweet lady. Thank you for your story.💖😇
How sad, your mother did the best a women could do with 4 children at that time. Not trying to be nosy but I’m curious, did your mother and stepfather has any children together? I’m assuming if they did they were treated better
How could anyone enjoy steak when your kids are hungry.
@@jenrutherford6690 they were not his kids, that's how, and he was probably a pos
What a beautiful story and wonderful life. Money don't make you rich having a strong family that are together has more value than any Dollar.
Thank you for your story. I hope it encourages all of us in this age group to tell our life stories to our grandchildren no matter where we are from
Thanks sharing your story. So many today don't know how to face adversity. Life isn't always easy, but if we let it, life's problems can make us better people. When you know the Lord, it's easier to make sense of it all.
I grew up in Natchez. My dad worked for International Paper. Your story is more what I saw as a child. Thank you for telling it.
Enjoyed listening to this lovely lady! God Bless her for sharing with us!
In my Texas home county a woman was left a widow with 6 or 8 little sons. The only work she could get was in a chicken processing plant. She did that, reared her boys. Recently her g-grandson was on the Harvard polo team.
These stories were so common in Mississippi. Blacks were not the only ones who struggled and sometimes that is forgotten.
Libby Hess Black people* have never said that we were the only ones to struggle. Poor white people still had more than poor Black people when looked at as a whole.
I don't remember seeing any white women or men hanging from a tree like black people did Mississippi I wouldn't put one f****** foot in that f****** rotten state at all and all I hear is proud to be a southerner really Yankee all day.!!!!
You’re right. So many get caught up with being victims, but then there are the ones who quietly pull themselves up.
@@42dragonfire I don't understand that last sentence but glad you don't want to go to MS. My black friends love it there and wouldn't live anywhere else.
42dragonfire
Hummmm.... Guess you’ve never visited the old West! Hundreds of men died hanging from a rope back then. Also, in the little town where I live in California, there are plenty of pictures at our Historical Center, of white men being hanged. You sound angry, hateful and a bit racist there, Woodrow.
Reminds me of how I grew up. I’m only 51 but grew up in a rural part of Wyoming. We had a garden, milk cow, pigs, chickens, sheep, horse, rabbits. We had a two seater outhouse and wringer washer. It was the best way to grow up.
I wanted to watch this, since I had been married for about 10 years to a fellow, my ex-husband, my big boys dad, who wasfrom Alabama! A lot of the things she talked about was true over there in Alabama also, what with the sharecropping & plowing behind a mule, which my ex-husband did… and eating just corn bread and milk, etc.! Yes, as some person just commented, I loved her wisdom and view of life!
Born and raised in neighboring Alabama, I can relate to much of her story. Much of it I can only wish my life could have been as good lol. People nowadays don’t understand, can’t understand just what a treat a piece of bologna between two slices of bread was. It was really a different world back then. She has a few years on me but it was much the same when I came along.
Glad I found this channel.
So sad. Her story is similar to my dads. Bless her heart. So precious.
Wow almost sounds like my upbringing on Back Bay in Biloxi, MS in the projects. Born in 1952 I watched my mom try so hard just to keep getting knocked back down, she never quit trying. Like you it would almost take a book to tell my childhood story of survival, but here we are alive & well. God bless😊🙏❤️
My family as well... My Mother was an Adams born in 60 to George and Shirley. They also had Tyrone, Mike, George, Dennis. Russel. Pam and Chyrel My Grandparents lived on Maple St. up until they passed...
I love this. Thank you for filming and sharing!!! This woman is the salt of the earth.
Born and raised in Mississippi. Still here. We had a huge farm with pigs, quail, horses, and we owned a fishing camp. We raised all our food. We I was young I remeber I hated it. Now I miss it. Going to my granny's on sundays. I miss it all
Loved every minute. Very blessed by her wisdom.
Very beautiful Lady .. beautiful soul and what a beautiful head of hair!!! Really enjoyed her story. Great Video 👌😊
What a lovely lady. I could listen to her stories all day.
This was a good video, thanks for sharing!
I lived there as a young boy in the 70s we had a garden and we was poor also but alway had the things we needed i love Mississippi
Great life you have lived thank you very much for sharing, you sound like a really kind sweetheart 💞
Thanks for sharing! This is so interesting
Thank you for your wisdom. Beautiful lady!!!
Being poor made me appreciate my now life , taught me hard work was the only way to get more
What I see nowadays are spoiled and what are you going to do for me and if you don’t I’m going 2 take it
from mississippi. this was awesome to see. thank you
Wish I would have done this with my momma! She reminds me so much of her! Thank you for this!
I remember having one space heater for the whole house and only cold running water in the house. In one house we pulled water out of the well. No inside bathroom until I was in the fifth grade. We helped all the extended family bring in the harvest from their gardens through the summer and early fall. We canned and pickled everything until we finally got a freezer.
Minnie one of the girls in the back row of the picture is my husbands great grandmother
My daddy was born in ‘47 in Mississippi, where he was raised and eventually I was born in ‘84. I’ve heard stories like this my entire life. It’s a wonderful breath of fresh air to see your family story reflected on youtube, to a degree.
Beautiful Story. Thank you
reminds me what my parents went through in the south. blessings despite the hard times. thx for sharing =)
My parents are from Gulfport MS. My grandmother's was born and raised in Gulfport MS. She was the first postmaster general in Mississippi City which is now Gulfport MS. She lived to be 💯 year's old. Her name was Rosalie Branager.
What a lovely lady! These are stories I heard from my parents and my grandmother. I am in my 50s and we are from Arkansas. Even though I grew up in Little Rock, my dad still hunted and fished and we ate squirrel, deer, crappie, catfish, bass - and so many delicious foods from the garden. I love hearing about the old days. Times are so different now.
Most folks don’t realize the South remained economically devastated for 100 years after the War Between the States. As the Rust Belt declined, the South began to attract industry: lower taxes and no unions helped accelerate that path.
Her ending statement, really truly touched me.. I truly needed that at this time in my life
What a wonderful story! Thanks for sharing. God bless this lady!
Very smart lady. Thank you for sharing!
Thankyou so much for sharing some of your story.
I grew up quite poor also. Not much ever bought new. And mostly hand me down cloths and shoes. Thank you for sharing your story. ❤️
In England we had Sunday Roast Dinner. That was the only day we had a pudding, too.
Heck. I had 9 siblings. We were so poor, we ate the grapes off the wall- paper. Lol
You had wallpaper?
@@terrythornton3076 yeah,. Pretty much everyone had that old ugly wall paper back then.
Ten years ago, after the death of my wife,
I was blessed to know and date a lady who came from Mississippi in 1959 age 13. She was 3/4 Choctaw and said she and her family faced a lot of discrimination. She had a scrapbook with pictures of, and receipts from, the family picking cotton. Their house was firebombed once. Her parents passed, so she was put on a bus with her younger brother to live with a family here in New Jersey. She even ran into bias here and was put back a grade in school. She believed that was done because she came from the South.
She remained positive and was a lot of fun to be with. She was diagnosed with colon cancer and died in December 2013.
I have no idea what happened to all her mementos as I was hospitalized at that time.
Rest in Peace dear Vivian.
What a beautiful story.
Mt Olive Ms... everything has a season and a reason
My mom was born in Mt Olive 1933
@@leslielousma7913 Ok! My siblings are the Leggets..legget rd...we lived by dry Creek water park .. hooks pond ..
Batesville Mississippi
Mendenhall, you not lying at all lol
Thank you very much for uploading this, I appreciated it so much
My parents grew up in north eastern Mississippi. They were sharecroppers, but my father owned our house and barn. When I was one year old we moved to northeastern Illinois. My dad became a steel worker at US Steel and my mother was a seamstress. My mother and father still ate mostly vegetables, cornbread and milk. Mother and dad always had a garden for food and my mother canned a lot of the veggies for the winter. We visited our relatives in Mississippi yearly and we never went without food, medical attention and education (two brothers and one sister). I retired and moved back to Mississippi at age 50. Things have changed too much from what my parents grew up with and I remember from visits (I liked that downtown closed at six o'clock and TV went off at midnight). I love living in the woods and having space between me and my neighbors!
Live in Caledonia MS all my people are from Holmes County MS.....Ebeneezer and Coxburg Tough People thanks for posting
My grandma was born in southern Mississippi in 1922. She had her first child there in 1942. They were poorer than this believe it or not because her mother died when she was 7. My grandparents met during the war effort as welders in the shipyard in pascagoula in 1944.
@Tracee Blair I literally grew up with a tracy Blair. I know the spelling is different and it's out of georgia but what a coincidence. That family is the blairs and the arnells.
Thank you for your story.
I'm a Mississippi Boy to the heart! Raised by my grandparents that were born in the 30's or 40's and I am 31 and still have my heritage raised in the south! TO MY COUNTRY FOLKS!!!!
Thank you for sharing. I really enjoyed the time I spent watching this video.
This is a great insight into how people managed in the past.
She made it! THANK GOD
Born in Jackson 78’ I remember my grandmother talking about being poor as a child in Gulfport. We moved away and I haven’t been back in 25 years and I miss it so terribly.
Loved listening to her tell her story. I didn't want it to end.
Enjoyed your story. Thank you and God bless you