Gosh -- I always loved horses. So the plow horse my granddad borrowed was Nellie, whom I was told to stay away from lest I got hurt (a normal thing to tell a kid as it can happen) BUT I so loved her and would mosey on out to where she was grazing at a lunch break & climb her harness to get up on her. We both just felt it was good. I loved on her & am sure she appreciated someone giving her that extra snuggle!
I remember one winter on a visit from VA to WV, granddad took me with him to dig potatoes about 2000 ft up the road from the house. Nellie and a sled (snow!) I was snuggled with some burlap bags. We brought back a sack full to use and take some back home with us -- along with some canned goods. See, moms have ALWAYS provided food to kids for life. Of course I felt this was a wonderful day. Loved helping milk a cow (when there was one) and making butter by shaking a quart jar until I was exhausted.
Outhouses, sawing lumber by hand with another on a big crosscut saw. Holding the rabbit for granddad to dress out. Dropping the bucket into a well for water -- drink, wash clothes, bathe, and all. Wood stove in grandmas kitchen to cook canned good from the cellar dug into hillside behind their house -- albeit one we would burn down by today's standards. It's what they had. The garden was a MUST, not an option, unless you wanted to starve. Loved that cellar! Played with crawfish in the little creek (krick, LOL) running in front of their house.
Dad was in Navy, so all felt It was a "better" life -- well it was sure a steady job when jobs were hard to find. While things were "cheap" then, it seems, you must remember that wages were also. Dad got a couple hundred a week in Navy then. YES.....hard to believe but true. Cigs were 10 cent a pack on the ship. It was a tough life, with frugality at the forefront. I blame our trips past the coal mines, watching the foals play each Spring from the mine ponies, for my desire to have the minis. Dad would stop for me to watch & it was never enough.
WOW -- I put many, many miles on a bike --for FUN -- climbed a whole lot of trees!! (still love to climb). Played monopoly, Chess, & cards games (solitare), as a youngster. Yep, we had those "ring defined" party lines. High living then.

Black & white TV....old western programs. My Hi-Ho Silver comic books.
Gas at 29 cent a gal & we all chipped in to buy a couple gallons...as a teen. Babysat for 25 cent an hr & had to be careful to tell the moms it wasn't for two of them to combine kids and each pay half!!

YES -- they would. I saved and paid $95. for my first little old car.
As a young mom $50 a week for child care was as much of an expense as the $150+ now. It's all relative, right?
Sure more will come to mind.