by Tonia Hooper

Created on: July 28, 2009   Last Updated: July 29, 2009

Memories of a Country Girl

Everyone has memories of their childhood years, some good, some not-so-good, and some that are just plain out hilarious! I was raised in a small rural southern town in north Florida. The town of Crawfordville where I grew up was a typical small town in the south; everyone knew everyone and most were related in some way. Now as a teenager this was at times quite frustrating since everything you did was reported back to your parents!

During my early years my father farmed for a living; raising mainly peanuts, soybeans, corn and other vegetables to support our family. My mother worked at the local "hometown" bank. I am the oldest child with two younger brothers, so naturally I was quite a tomboy growing up, at least until I discovered the advantages of being a female, and with those advantages there were plenty of disadvantages! However, I was fortunate to be raised with a large, close knit extended family; with plenty of love and guidance.

For those people who were raised on a farm or in a rural setting will understand that such life provides many memories that, for the most part, when you look back tend to be very humorous, at least they do for me. It is these types of memories that I treasure the most, and wish that my own children could experience. But as we all know, with the progress of technology and the creation of video games, computers and so forth, children of today are not as interested in climbing trees, playing stick ball, making mud pies, building a fort or tree house. These were the simpler things in life that I enjoyed.

One of my fondest memories is when we slaughtered our own hogs every winter for pork to fill our freezer. Now the butchering of hogs has to be done in the winter on a good, cold day so that the meat will not spoil through the long slaughtering process. You may have heard the expression 'it is cold enough to kill hogs!' Just as in the pioneer days, when I was young this was always a family, social, event where we all gathered early in the morning with my extended family joining in for the fun and to be sure to get some of the good homegrown pork! I remember it clearly; the morning would begin with my parents cooking a huge breakfast for everyone. I would wake to the smell of bacon frying, eggs and grits cooking and of course my mama's homemade biscuits! Afterwards, with our stomachs full we began the hog butchering process that lasted all day!

Now you may be thinking what can a child

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