These are probably some things that applied to everyone in my age group. Actually I'm a "pre boomer" having been born before the start of world war two. Didn't much matter where you were ,everything was moving into a totally different world.

In rural Alabama, Electric power and all it's advantages was still new. Many houses still used coal oil lamps for light, doing without electric power completely. All the while the T.V.A was generating millions of kilowatts of electricity less than one hundred miles away.

Something else we had was just a bunch of little country stores. Seemed as if there was one a every cross road. I think the advent of electric power caused them to spring up like mushroom's. Lots of them sold gas. Ten cents a gallon for regular. Hell, I bet there was ten store's in our neighborhood alone. Never was a time that so many people were failing at the same time while attempting the same thing.

Me and my cousins use to just set out walking and seeing how many of the little stores we could visit in one day. When I say cousins I'm talking about uncle Bucks boys. My uncle Bill lived near Carbon Hill and the country stores didn't exist so much in his area.

My aunt Hattie and uncle Jim opened a store. It was a nice example of the country store. So poor that the cash was kept in a cigar box and all the sales were figured using a "stubby pencil".

My cousin Sue was a sweet girl and often and got stuck with watching aunt Hattie's store. I always loved being around Sue. She was a joy to say the least. Anyhow, Sue was watching the store and a bad thunder storm came up. After a while the power went off and Sue decided to go to the house. The house and store were different  buildings about forty yards a part. Sue decided to use the money box as a shield to keep the rain off her head. She accidentally spilled the contents along the path to the house. She and her mom tried to collect all that had spilled out. A task made worse by the grass along the path between the two buildings. Next day Hattie told Lowell and me that we could have all the change we found if we would give her the paper money. We found eight dollars in paper and seventeen dollars in change. l told my mom and she made us give it all back to aunt Hattie. Lowell and me figured that would happen seeing as how mom and Hattie was sisters. We did wind up with three dollars each which was better than a sharp stick in the eye. 

Having so many little cross road's stores in such area's as where we lived created a problem of sort's. Our neighborhood wasn't just a few square blocks but more like several square miles. All the store owners were neighbor's. Hard feelings became pretty evident if you spent money at one and not the other. Shortage of spare spending money and no way to get there meant that we couldn't patronize every little store. Thankfully the fact that aunt Hattie owned one of the store's was our salvation. We were kin sticking together. It was expected. It was tradition. 

One of our favorite item's from Hattie's store was the bucket of steak special. The meat processing plant saved all the little bits and pieces. These pieces were put into little paper buckets similar to what Kentucky Fried Chicken uses. Each bucket contained two pounds of steak scraps. If you wanted them you had to order in advance. Momma used to have Hattie get the meat for us. I'd have to get up early and "trot" to the store and then back home. Mom would make us a Saturday morning breakfast. It was a good breakfast and still a good memory.