Awesome History!

By Rich Kozlovich

Take a moment to really look at these pictures, which were sent to me by Dave Deitz. These pictures were taken from color slides found at the Library of Congress and are dated between 1939-1943. It's where we all came from and truthfully - it just wasn't that long ago, although it may seem otherwise!

Born in 1946 and having grown up in Southwest Pennsylvania in what was known as “poverty stricken Appalachia”, not all, but many of these pictures aren’t so far removed from my young experiences in life. Although they were taken a few years before I was born much remained long enough for me to remember.

We lived seven miles out of town, no car, used an outside toilet and caught our fresh water in a cistern, and that was not uncommon. There was no super highway system and passenger trains were how we traveled long distances. Even in town the outside toilet was common for many.  

We had a small farm where, until my grandfather was crippled in a coal mine collapse, we raised all our own food.  We had pigs, cows, chickens, a huge garden, three great producing cherry trees, ten or so apple trees, peaches, strawberries and a large corn field as feed for the animals.  We drank raw milk, and watching the cream rise to the top was really slick for a small child. 

My grandmother made cheese, butter, all our fruit preserves, her own ketchup and mustard, and canned all our vegetables.  The only thing we consumed from outside the farm was salt, sugar, pepper, spices and flour. 

In fact my grandparents who lived in town only had the kitchen coal/wood burning stove for heat.  We roasted in the kitchen and froze in the bedroom, and the cat, who slept in the middle of the kitchen floor, had to be walked around or over.  He moved for no one.  But from a small child’s viewpoint, we were all doing just fine!

It's all a bit of nostalgia I thought I would share with you.