Family Porchrait: 1939

"I smell a cat around here somewhere..."

Boot are a must have on a farm. Animal muck everywhere. I wore mine all the time. No worries and when you are done you can spray them with the hose before you take them off.

I tell young friends that my Mother didn't live in an electrified house until she was 20 and moved to Atlanta. They are dumb-founded. Rural electrification was a great thing. The electric company's would never have done it. To few customers to justify the lines.

Also, great dog!

Block could most certainly be used on ms hen's neck, however, the block was most likely for chopping firewood.

A hatchet for the hen, an ax for the wood.

If these folks didn't have power for a radio, they probably didn't have power for Christmas lights.

I have no idea why he's wearing those boots, but to SJBill's comment about fishing, it seems that Chicot Farms was/is located on Chicot Lake.

Besides fishing, you'd need the boots when doing the chores such as feeding the hogs or mucking out the stable. You wouldn't want to be stepping in that stuff with regular shoes. Also, Ms Hen might not be ready to meet her demise. On family farms, it would be the poorest layers who'd meet their doom first.

Those "stickers" in the window look like Christmas lights (which would be somewhat appropriate since it's January). It's hard to tell if they're really lights or just stickers.

Okay, I'm going with Christmas light stickers.

No signs of fishing equipment in the scene, so I wonder - why the hip boots?

Ms. Hen in the left background may be the guest of honor for that chopping block.

[I truly love old farm scenes.]

And from the looks of that ax, Joan Crawford is probably lurking somewhere nearby.

I can feel the pride they have showing off their new home; all white and pretty. Are those some kind of manufacturer stickers on the window panes? You know, like Minnie Pearl's hat with price tag still attached.