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Little House Out Back

By Capper's Staff
Published on November 30, 2012

Oh how well I remember that shack

Stood between the house and the barn out back.

Was a good place to hide when time to do dishes

With Wards and Sears catalogues we look through and made
wishes.

All summer until late in the fall

We watched for snakes, some years never saw any at all. Papa
had it bolted to posts,

He knew what happened on Halloween with all those ghosts.

Some were three holers and some had more

Once we had one was so big it had four.

Grandpa had padded one with fur, “Just for
Grandma,” he said, We kids liked that one the best, we’d wait our turn,
faces red.

A hook made of wire on the inside of the door

And of course it had a wooden floor.

On wash day it was scrubbed with hot wash water using a
broom We kids took turns doing this chore, and how we did fume.

Ladies that were really high toned would say,

“I’m going to Mrs. Jones,” others called it the
old Privy. (Webster’s says it means Private)

Now people take pictures of paint the few there are left

Some make them of cloth to hold toilet paper for a craft.

People talk of the GOOD OLD DAYS, how soon they forget

Yet I remember when the cat jumped from the rafters to the
floor, I was so scared that I went right through the door.

Papa had to put on hew hinges and a wire to hold it shut. 

Mrs. George Wyant
Cook, Washington


Back in 1955 a call
went out from the editors of the then
Capper’s
Weekly
asking for readers to send
in articles on true pioneers. Hundreds of letters came pouring in from early
settlers and their children, many now in their 80s and 90s, and from
grandchildren of settlers, all with tales to tell. So many articles were
received that a decision was made to create a book, and in 1956, the first
My
Folks title – My Folks Came in a
Covered Wagon – hit the shelves. Nine
other books have since been published in the
My Folks series, all filled to the brim with true tales from Capper’s readers, and we are proud to
make those stories available to our growing online community.