When My Father Grew Up in the 70s and 80s
My father lived down prices creek rd. right past highlawn elementary school. When he was growing up in the 70's and 80's life was completely different. He had chickens, cows, and many other forms of livestock that they depended on for food and work.
When he would wake up the first thing he would have to do is feed and water all the animals. He did this every day before he went to school. Sometimes he would have to wake up at 4:30 in the morning to do his daily chores. When he came home he would have to clean pens and chicken coops
until nightfall.
When harvest time came everything was canned and stored for use in the winter. They lived in a small 2 bedroom house and he had a brother and a sister. While life may have seemed hard he was taught a very strict work ethic. My grandfather is not any easy man to impress so my father had to learn to put forth all of his effort into anything he was told to do.
This strict work ethic and sense of pride in his work led him to a career in the navy. He spent 10 years in the Navy and attributes all of his success to his upbringing. He believes that without hard work people will go nowhere. I believe that having to work every day to put food on the table really makes someone work hard at everything they do.
They still have the old well site where they actually had to pull up buckets of water to cook and clean with, when their running water wouldn't work. Whenever I go to my grandparents house (the same one my father lived in) I get a glimpse into the rural life that my dad grew up in. Seeing this makes me feel privileged to have the type of life that I have been blessed with. I'll probably never know the joy and hardships of a farm based life. Though with help from my family I can have the same values of which that life gave my father.
Joshua Elkins
Cabell Midland High School FFA
My father lived down prices creek rd. right past highlawn elementary school. When he was growing up in the 70's and 80's life was completely different. He had chickens, cows, and many other forms of livestock that they depended on for food and work.
When he would wake up the first thing he would have to do is feed and water all the animals. He did this every day before he went to school. Sometimes he would have to wake up at 4:30 in the morning to do his daily chores. When he came home he would have to clean pens and chicken coops
until nightfall.
When harvest time came everything was canned and stored for use in the winter. They lived in a small 2 bedroom house and he had a brother and a sister. While life may have seemed hard he was taught a very strict work ethic. My grandfather is not any easy man to impress so my father had to learn to put forth all of his effort into anything he was told to do.
This strict work ethic and sense of pride in his work led him to a career in the navy. He spent 10 years in the Navy and attributes all of his success to his upbringing. He believes that without hard work people will go nowhere. I believe that having to work every day to put food on the table really makes someone work hard at everything they do.
They still have the old well site where they actually had to pull up buckets of water to cook and clean with, when their running water wouldn't work. Whenever I go to my grandparents house (the same one my father lived in) I get a glimpse into the rural life that my dad grew up in. Seeing this makes me feel privileged to have the type of life that I have been blessed with. I'll probably never know the joy and hardships of a farm based life. Though with help from my family I can have the same values of which that life gave my father.
Joshua Elkins
Cabell Midland High School FFA
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