Excerpt
We moved to an old deserted house to work someones land. The old house had what was called "board and batten siding". Twelve inch pine boards standing upright with strips over the cracks. Most of the strips had been removed or rotted off. The house wasn't sealed at all on the inside. You could see light through the outside walls. Mama made flour and water paste and we put newspaper and anything we could get over the cracks. The roof leaked everywhere. We sat buckets, pots and pans and bowls to catch the leaks. In my room we put pans on the bed and the water splattered on me. I awoke several nights with my bed wet from rain. Once I awoke with about an inch of snow on my bed. On a clear night I could lie in bed and count stars through the roof.
Between the floor and outside wall there was an opening that you could put your arm through. The white trash share croppers who lived there prior to us had been pouring their kitchen garbage through this opening. I can remember scraping this mess off the wall, floor and sill and washing it with hot water and lye soap. There were no seiling or insulation at all. It was unbearably hot in summer and unbearably cold in winter. It was heated by a rock fireplace. With a big fire going your legs would burn in front and freeze in back. We had to continuly turn from front to back trying to keep warm, like a pig roasting on a spit.