I Remember

by Abraham Lincoln

I remember rain hitting our tin roof;
And how windows rattled in the winter.
Shaking the grates filled the pan with ashes,
And made the stove pipe glow a cherry red.

I remember wind howling through window cracks
And powdered snow flying by, bending dry grass low.
How quick my feet got cold walking to the store.
And 1, 2 or 3 pairs of socks didn’t make my toes any warmer.

I remember coal slack, and how my mother worried;
Because slack could explode and send hot cinders everywhere.
She warned me many times; never cover the bed with coal slack,
Unless you want to burn the house down.

I remember how my fingers froze
Wearing cotton gloves to school;
The girls wore mittens and their fingers never froze.
Boys never wore mittens to school.

Boys wore Long Johns with a buttoned flap;
Girls wore long underwear with a slit in back.
Of course us boys never saw them on the girls,
But boys with sisters said they do.

And their flap was just a slit
That opened when they sat down.
Now that sounded pretty good to me,
If they had hole in front to pee.