The older I get, the more I realize I lived in the best of days. We didn't have much back then. In fact, by today's, standards we would have been considered poverty level. But, in addition to unconditional love, we had things no amount of money could buy. Our clothes were hand-me-downs but they were clean. The roof didn't leak and we had food on the table. We thrived on carefree summers spent at my grandparents farm or fishing with my dad or my brothers. We wandered around in the woods looking for arrowheads or swinging on vines across a deep gully like Tarzan. We spent days horseback riding and berry picking, followed by taking turns cranking the handle on the ice cream freezer. We gathered eggs, and milked a cow then painstakingly churned the cream into butter. We drew water from a well and poured it into a #2 washtub that was placed in the sun to warm for a bath. We caught lightening bugs in a jar and marveled at the glow before letting them go free. We made a swimming hole in the creek near my grandparents home by damming up one end of the narrow stream. We lay on our backs, eyes focused on an azure sky, seeing who could find the most things in the puffy white clouds rolling by.
We had the BEST Saturday morning cartoons and evenings spent with Lawrence Welk, Bonanza, The Virginian and Sky King. Dinner time meant whole the family around the table talking - to each other.
Modern technology has accomplished many wonderful things, but I fear it has robbed a whole generation of people of the ability to communicate one-on-one and to appreciate the simpler things in life. Why, you can even get an online counseling session if you need it and never have to actually talk to anyone face-to-face. And don't even get me started on what passes for family-time entertainment today as we have gone from My Three Sons to Dr. Pimple Popper.
How I wish for those kinder, gentler days when we spent quality time with our family, respected our leaders, our military and first responders and looked out for our neighbors and those in need. Values and morals seem to be words in the dictionary anymore with no meaning or substance.
I suppose I'm in the minority with my thoughts on the subject, but I do miss the good ole days.