In Fifty Years

Let's just admit, I'm a lovely 50 plus year old woman.  This is relevant to my post.  Not the "lovely" part, but hey.  If you are a 20 or 30 year old, 50 may seem ancient.  If you are in your 40's, you are getting the faintest whiff of approaching middle age.  Don't let it bother you...I found the 40's quite nice.  I was old enough to know better and my body still agreed with me.  Even the 50's are fun.  There is a lot to say about being old enough to know better.  I spend way less of my time on drama and chaos caused by the choices made while not being old enough to know better.  Only thing is, my body is starting to disagree with my mind...like when my mind suggests that it would be a good thing to stack two cords of wood, my body says, "really?  you really want to do this?".  And then my body punishes me for not listening.  Or if my head tells me that this is a great time to snuggle in bed a little longer in the morning and catch up on my reading, my body says, "oh yeah?  Because we are not going to be stiff enough after six hours of lying here?".

Back to the point.  Fifty years is not a whole lot of time.  Not in the big picture, really.  I'd like to know if every generation feels like there has been an incredible amount of change during their lifetime, or if there really has been a super amount during my 50 years.

Every winter I watch the lake and hope that I will be able to dig out my ice skates.  The conditions have to be perfect for that to happen....about two weeks of freezing temps, no wind, and no precipitation.  Sometimes we get sooooooo close, but there have been only two winters where we could skate.

 
When I was a kid, there were a couple of places where the neighborhood would gather and skate, play hockey, race and have a raucous old time out side.  There was one little pond in the woods my brothers and I would walk to.  It wasn't too far from anybody's house, but not by any means in anybody's back yard.  Once in awhile there would be an adult there, but rarely.  The older kids would have started a bonfire, and there would be a pick-up hockey game.  It was wonderful, and my brothers and I would spend most of the day there.  The other pond was bigger and deeper, although a closer walk.  In the summer that was the neighborhood swimming hole.  We would swim out to the log to sit on the other side, and that was a badge of honor, the littler kids biding their time with envy, waiting for their era to come.  I haven't seen a neighborhood swimming hole in....well, I can't remember.

When I was a kid, the phone had a circular dial and was attached to the wall.  The kitchen wall.  We did not answer it during mealtimes, or if we were otherwise occupied.  It was not a priority and I was allowed no more than 10 minute conversations...while standing in the kitchen.  When I look at how people today are attached to their phones, parents having no clue as to with whom their children are speaking or of what they speak, I wonder at how things have changed.  Every public place I go, people have their heads down.  It looks like a crazy world to me, people close enough to touch each other but hardly even aware of any one else's presence.  Really!  It looks weird!  If you haven't stopped to notice, please do.  Take a quiet observation of who is around you at whatever place you are in and notice this.

Microwave cookers rate as one of the best changes.  Every Saturday my mother would clean out the refrigerator, and Saturday lunch would be the week's leftovers.  I actually like leftovers, but they were pretty gross back in the day when they were warmed up on the stove.  Nothing like warmed up mashed potatoes with little black specks of burnt things in them.  Truly, nothing like them.  Now I cook extra, because a quick minute in the microwave, and zap, they are like I just spent the afternoon in the kitchen, but no!  It's like ordering in! 

We can't not mention the technology age.  My brothers and I used to play cards, Monopoly, Sorry, Parchesi, (does anybody play Parchesi anymore?)  Today I try to match a string of three colored balls before they go into the hole on my computer screen.  We may get together with friends to play Dominos once in awhile.  I used to have a dictionary handy or a set of encyclopedias, but now I can click a button and there is the answer...which is pretty cool, really.

Shopping.  Now that's an area where a lot of changes have happened.  I crack my kids up when I tell them about grocery shopping with them.  Gabe would be in the front of the carriage, in the little kiddie seat and Crystal would either be in the carriage, or hanging off the front.  And as I wandered up and down the aisles, I would be smoking my Virginia Slims. smoking along with many other customers.  Can you imagine?  Then I would pay CASH for my groceries, load my paper bags into the car, and pop next door with the kids for a quick cup of New England clam chowder at the local little dairy bar. 

So many changes, in what to me seems like such a short amount of time.  Life is so different, and I don't think my children even know how different.  My mother used to leave us in the car when she went in to the store, we didn't wear seat belts or helmets.  My mother never brought us to McDonalds, and in fact it wasn't until I was a teenager that McDonalds was even an option.  If she were here with us now, I wonder what she would think of how life works today.  She was a forward thinker back in her day, composting and recycling long before it was trendy.  It just made sense to her.  I wonder what her take would be on today's values.

I am pretty comfortable with the way things are today.  Every now and then, however, I remember that it wasn't always like this.  And then I find I am amazed at the changes, and gee, wasn't that just yesterday we pulled our car up to the gas pump and someone came out and asked "how much?" and washed our windshield and checked our oil, and then we paid CASH through the driver's side window?  Whats that you say?  It was a long time ago?  No way.

Peace and hoping the lake freezes this year,
Elfscooter