I was blessed with having my grandmother live with us when I was growing up. She was born in 1888. Like you, I wish I had talked to her more about her life. I do know that she was there when Oklahoma became a state and literally lived the musical Oklahoma. Her father (Papa) was the youngest of five boys and the only one who did not serve the Confederacy in the Civil War. Of the other four, three died during the war and Papa and his remaining brother were Sheriff and Under Sheriff in Grayson County Texas when the James brothers sister lived there. In fact, his parents helped found Sherman. Deep roots.
People from rural areas actually step back to an earlier time. My mom was raised in the dustbowl plains, before electrification. She is in her 80’s.
Her stories sound like Little House to me - the way they sat around the table at night, reading from the small stack of books by kerosene lamp. I think that is one reason older people love certain books - my mom still talks about works by Sir Walter Scott and poetry her dad used to read to them. Their house was very tiny 600 -sq ft- and they built it themselves, the whole family lived in it and no electricity. She remembers the “literary” and walking out at night without any light but from a lantern.
I was never there but can visualize it.