I resemble that, though I also have a sister. Also meat cutting & wrapping for the freezer from my dad, with my mom helping: as likely to be a deer, or even an occasional bear, as a side of beef from the packing house.
60 years later, still growing, hunting, canning, etc.
The last couple of nights we had rabbit stew from home grown rabbit; it included home grown & canned carrots & corn, as well as home grown & stored potatoes & onions.
Last year, we finally bought an Excalibur dehydrator to replace our 35 year old small round one, and filled a lot of jars that way, too; as well as adding a food sealer to the mix the year before.
A set of life skills that can make a real difference.
Sounds as if many of us grew up in similar ways in post depression / post-war America.
Kackikat said "That generation went through the Great Depression and learned from it well."
How true. I feel fortunate that I didn't have to live through it but was able to benefit from some of that knowledge and experience as it was passed down to me.
When I was growing up my mom never did like corn, although she prepared it for the family, canned it, froze it, etc. I asked her why she didn't like it and she said that during the depression they didn't have much to eat and most of the time what they did have was corn. Corn, corn mush, corn cakes, corn fritters, corn bread, Johnnycake, etc., etc.
She said when her grandfather had the money or something to barter he would buy a big bag of corn at the feed store and that is what they would eat unless there was a squirrel, rabbit or some garden veggies to add to it.
But the winters were long and cold and after a few years the woods were pretty much hunted clean.
I look back at family pictures from the depression, WWII, and the post-war years when I grew up and one thing stands out: almost all of the kids and adults are skinny. In photos of me and my friends as kids you can see our ribs well enough to count them!