Those Awful Good Old Days

When one of the many generations of men let out a “holler” to “get on to the house” they knew dinner was ready and went on a run, to get washed up. A big meal it was too, as everyone had brought something to contribute. Everyone sat at big long tables, pushed together, and covered with an assortment of different table clothes. It didn’t matter that they didn’t exactly match, they did their job of covering the old worn table top.

The meals were so much fun, what with all the different discussions taking place. Grandma and Grandpa might be telling stories from way back, while Mom, Dad or an Uncle talked about what might be in years to come. Dinner was about, not only sharing good food, but sharing life as well. Everyone joined into the discussions, even the tiniest child. It might have only been by banging on the high chair tray with a spoon, but everyone laughed, especially when the mashed potatoes inadvertently ended up in the hair and not the mouth!

After dinner, everyone gathered on the big front porch, or found comfortable sitting space in the yard. It was the twilight of early evening, and time to relax. Sometimes, a relative brought out an old guitar, that had been around for years, and started to strum a song. Soon, everyone was asking, play this song, or play that song. Even the little ones were trying to sing along, mostly making up words as they went.

When it was time to leave, everyone gathered their tired, sometimes sleeping, children and packed them into their various cars. It had been another good day, just like last weekend, and they were already looking forward to next weekend’s gathering. Because, a weekend without a whole houseful of family and friends, just wasn’t heard of. Sunday’s was the day you spent with family, plain and simple.

Perhaps we do live in a much more advanced world these days, but at what price? Telephones are no longer a luxury, that you are proud to own. They are deemed a necessity, and not just one will do. It seems that every member of the family must have their own, even down to the youngest child.

We talk, we text, we email, and instant message. It’s no longer necessary to make that drive to a relative’s house to visit. What for? We are all tied together by technology; who needs a face to face visit? Besides, we’ve all been busy at our jobs all week long. We have so much catching up to do around our own house!

The kid’s don’t want to go to Grandma’s house, anyway, because she doesn’t have a video game system. Nor does she have a big screen television with 250 channels. And they don’t want to take their games with them. It’s to much trouble and time to unhook all the wires. And if they did take it, someone else’s child might want to play too. Share? What a concept.

So, we plod along in this new age of “techno” everything, all the while complaining about the cost of living, and the ever failing economy. We complain, complain, complain, yet we continue to write out checks monthly for cell phones, house phones, internet service, cable television, game systems and new games.

After all, we have to have something to do, don’t we? It would be just awful to have to spend a quiet Sunday afternoon, visiting with family and friends. Just imagine the horror of no ringing phones, no blaring video games and no tables covered with everyone’s laptop.

Imagine the horror of real conversations, of seeing someone smile or actually hearing a child’s laughter, instead of seeing his face on your computer screen.

Yep, it sounds like we had it just awful back in the good old days, doesn’t it?