I first photographed this house in 2001 and it was still standing in 2015. I haven’t driven past it in a few years and am not sure if it survives. Typical of many tenant houses, it was of board-and-batten construction and had a small shed room at the back. These small utilitarian spaces were often associated with farming and/or turpentining and supported large families in many cases. It’s hard to imagine what life must have been like in such a small space without any of the modern conveniences.
We have largely forgotten how hard life was for those who came before us. Kerosene lamps for light at night, outdoor privies for toilets (in all kinds of weather!), no indoor showers, well water that had to be hand-pumped for indoor use, wood-burning stoves for both heat and cooking — A totally different lifestyle from what we are used to today.
Back then, clothes were more often hand-made instead of store-bought; kids went barefoot most of the time because there was no cash money for shoes; diet was basically what was raised or grown on one’s property, or bartered for with neighbors, etc. Baths were once a week — maybe! And haircuts were what your mom gave you with a bowl over your head and a pair of scissors.
My mother grew up in Charlottesville, VA, back in the 1930’s. Her dad was a funeral home director; her granddad was a Methodist preacher in Richmond. She once told me that both of them used to get paid often in “chickens and eggs, or sometimes a side of ham,” because folks back then simply had no cash money. And both wound up often providing services for free, because folks simply could not pay them.
“Pollution” then was snakes in the well water, or horse dung on the dirt roads. No hospitals to speak of, and “medicine” was often poor quality and ineffective.
Life is so far advanced, these days! We do not appreciate how far we have come.
I am reminded of this every time I pass by a crude house like this, and all I can think of is the winter winds coming through the cracks in the boards, and having to go outside in all sorts of weather to use the bathroom.
We are so lucky to live now!!!