Last Updated: March 28, 2005

Welcome to The Back Fence home page. As you will recognize, this is the home page of
the weekly column that appears in the Cleburne Eagle News. I will keep the past articles
posted here in case you have missed any. Each article will be posted approximately one
month after it appears in the newspaper.

I have added pictures to many of the stories including pictures of an old time
stationary thresher, (Harvest Time), an old time cream seperator, (The Cow In The
Well), and an old steam engine, (Age of Steam) among others. I hope you enjoy the
pictures as well as the stories.

Some of you already know me but let me introduce myself so that all of you will know
who I am. My name is John Watson, I have been a resident of Cleburne, Texas for the
past 53 years and lived in Somerville County before that. I worked for the City of
Cleburne for 25 years in the Parks and Cemetery departments before retiring
six years ago.

Since my retirement we have left the twentieth century and headed into the twenty-first
century. Everything today is computerized, from the computer chip that controls the
microwave oven in your kitchen, the computer that controls the electronic system on your
car to the computer that runs the presses this paper was printed on. We have fully
entered the electronic age.

It really hasn’t been all that long since some of us did not even have electricity for lights.
Some of you may remember the old kerosene lamps used for lighting a room. Then there
was the wood heater and wood burning cook stove. Now that really brings back memories.

Mother always claimed that the wood cook stove we had could out cook any stove
around. The oven was just above the firebox and had a door on either side of the stove.
Mother said that it took two people to cook biscuits on that stove. She would fix a pan of
biscuits and open the oven door on one side of the stove and put them in. Dad would be
on the other side of the stove and as soon as mother shut the door on her side he would
open the door on his side and take the biscuits out fully cooked and browned just right.
Now, can your microwave do that.

Most of you will say “I could never live like that. I could never do without my central
heat and air, my electric range, my TV and stereo.” The thing is that if you have never
had these things you never miss them, but once you acquire them it is almost impossible
to do without them.

The good old days! Who wants to go back to them? I do not believe that many people
would want to give up the conveniences we have today in order to go back and live like
we did in “the good old days.” However, it can be fun reading about how it was as you
lean back in your easy chair, turn up the thermostat and think, “Boy, I’m glad that I don’t
have to go out and carry water in from the well and cut firewood for the heater.”

Life without electricity! No running water! No central heat and air! What was life like
before these modern conveniences came into existence? It was only two or three
generations back that some of us did not have any of these modern facilities.

Since my retirement I have decided to write some short stories about everyday life ‘in the
rough.’ A few of you may be old enough to remember some of the things I speak of and
you younger generation may find it ‘intriguing,’ ‘unbelievable,’ or maybe just
plain ‘funny.’

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