Howard Herron Memoir - University of Illinois Springfield

Howard Herron 8 8
just pouring down rain. Dad said, "Oh boys, you better stay home I
guess, you can go next week." But that took all the joy out of it, that
rain. We was all set to go to Virden to that carnival. We were treated
good as we could be.
Q: Do you think kids are more spoiled today than they used to be?
A: Oh yes, you had your chores to do. We had a coal house and a cob
house and a wood shed. And during the summer when we would go home from
school, we would go through the alleys. The stores would have a pile of
boxes, they'd ship oranges in crates, and they'd have crackers in boxes
and loose crackers and oyster crackers in boxes. We'd get one of them
boxes, and especially if it was raining, we'd cover our heads with it and
walk on home. When we got home we'd cut that all up and put it in the
wood house shed and they'd have us take a batch in every night for the
cook stove to build a fire. We had a big chunk like this to put in the
heating stove and it would hold all night and it would heat up the house.
We had our chores to do and we had them done. You had to get out and do
it after dark.
Q: Did parents punish their children more do you think in those days? I
mean did you ever get spankings or. . . .
A: I don' t, I can' t even remember when my father spanked me. I knew if
I had to do it and I was taught, you was taught when you were little.
Q: You had your responsibilities.
A: I remember one time we was down in Kentucky. I wasn't there, my wife
was telling me about it, but she was born and raised in Kentucky and now
they feed the kids first. We didn't get fed first, we would wait till
the old folks ate and then we got to eat. She said her cousin Jack was
sitting at the back porch and he started to cry. He said, "There goes
the last piece of chicken, we're not going to get any." So that's the
way it was. But there was always plenty for the kids. You weren't
robbed blind, you were told. You were told what you had to do and you
knew you had to do it and you did it. But it's got away.
Q: I think it would be very difficult on these spoiled children if there
ever came a time when things not so easy. Jobs are harder to get and
money is tighter. I think they're going to find it more difficult.
A: They don't how what hard times are. Getting back to Dr. Britton.
He later on had a boy and a daughter and I was older than them and his
boy was kind of a sissified kid in a way. They called him "Sister Red"
at school. And he said to me, "There's one thing about it." I said,
hat's that DOC?" He said, "He's got a champagne appetite and a peanut
income." He always wanted the best. Of course Doc didn't give it to
him. He said he had a champagne appetite and a peanut income. I never
did forget that.
Q: Do you think discipline in school was better in your days than it is
today?