A Backward Glance
Over the years, there have been many changes that "modern folks" just would have problems relating to. Only us elders can conjure up these very vivid images. Among the first are our mores. We used to be so prim and proper, it used to make even us sick! Thank heavens, some of these traditions have relaxed but in some instances, we have gone practically to the
opposite end of the spectrum. Nowadays, no one
even thinks "Easter Bonnet" anymore.
We seldom wear hats and gloves to church now - not even the ladies, let
alone little kids like in the old days. Now, with some folks, it's
more likely to be shorts, tight little miniskirts and halter tops. And grubby sneakers instead of those shiny
shoes that some conscientious family member spent all of Saturday polishing. As far as other aspects of "propriety", well, let's just leave that alone, okay?
Moving on, our mode of travel has advanced since the horse
and buggy days. We have run the gammit
from Model A's and "coupe" cars with "rumble" seats to
"club cabs" and big gas-guzzling, road-hugging Lincolns. Now we're down to tiny go-cars and mini
vans. The gas guzzlers of today are the
super-efficient homes-on-wheels that roam the paved highways from one end of
the continent to the other like giant vagabonds, imprinting us with clouds of
putrid gases as they rumble on by. We're
not house bound anymore either. For the
sake of a musical concert, we drive five hundred miles and back as casually as we once
went around the
block. Instead of inviting the neighbours to ride with us, like we
would have done in the old days, we are often back before they even realize we
were gone. Even our bicycles have
graduated. We don't ride just ordinary
bikes anymore - we have "ten-speeds", “mountain bikes” and what-nots. Once a coveted dream for ordinary people, the Harley Davidson and its clones now strike a chord of fear and suspicion in our hearts as they thunder down the highway, especially if there are more than two in the group.
Farmers, too, have come a long way. Instead of the six-horse-drawn equipment,
farmers now drive multi-hundred-horsepower tractors and other self-propelled
monsters with cabs equipped with quadraphonic radios, earphone head sets, cell
phones and portable little gizmos that provide you with TV, voice mail, email,
the world wide web and heaven only knows what else, all at a touch of a tiny
button. You no longer have to come home
from the field to find out that the Yankees lost the World Series or some lunar
space shuttle is gyrating out of control in the great beyond.
We used to walk for miles to visit neighbours, friends or relatives and we
visited them often. Extended family was
important and everyone knew even distant aunts, uncles, and cousins. And we always knew where to find them. No address needed. They lived two miles east of the big barn,
one mile north and half a mile up the crooked road that led up that steep hill. People
came unexpectedly, informally. It was a
general "Ya'll come" invitation that extended to family and friends
alike. Now we drive fast cars,
communicate via email or
IM messages or cell phone called “blackberry” or something else just as exotic, and, if it
were not for weddings and funerals, we would never meet our relatives and friends. But thanks to the web cam, I-phones and other
hi-tech thingamajigs, we not only can talk to them, we can even see them while we chat, no matter
where they are, across the street or across the ocean! No hand-written letters with four-cent stamps. And no long distance fees either no matter
when or how long you talk! Like Wow!
Our ancestors would die again if they saw that.
Used to be when company came, we went to the hen
house, interrupted some poor unsuspecting chicken, and after a guillotine process that
would totally phase the modern housewife, there was a full course meal on the
table. And that was after starting a
fire in the old wood stove from freshly slivered kindling! There always seemed to be time for
everything. Nowadays, all too often it's
Kraft's macaroni and cheese instead of perogies and sour cream. Truth is, ever since they discovered that the
earth rotates around the sun, instead of the other way around, our earth has
been gaining momentum and picking up speed and we just adjust our clocks
accordingly. No wonder we can never
catch up to ourselves!
Our modern technology of freezers and microwave
ovens just cannot begin to provide those scrumptious meals that exploded from
old clay bake ovens and cast iron wood stoves.
We don't appreciate freezers enough, but to many of us, the mere mention
of the words "salt pork" is enough to make our jowls cringe. And those school lunches with cranberry
jam. Day after day, after day -
cranberry jam sandwiches. When we got
desperate for a change, we mixed in left-over mashed potatoes and convinced ourselves we were getting a
treat. Now the kids get hot soup,
Chicken Cordon Bleu and tapioca pudding and they think they are hard done by.
Modern technology has affected our
modes of entertainment as well. Before
the advent of TV's, Nintendo's, VCR's, CD‘s, DVD’s and MP or IP-things, or other doohickies that attach
themselves to our ears and entertain us as we walk, work or drive, people used
to make their own music. Every household
had at least one member that played one, or several musical instruments: piano,
organ, fiddle, guitar, banjo, ukulele, mandolin, dulcimers, banduras or that
tiny little mouth harp they called a "drimba" that had that special
twang that is probably unequalled in the music world. And people sang! They knew the words by heart - hundreds of
songs, lyrics and beautiful melodic arias spewing forth spontaneously without
the aid of song sheets - a cappella or accompanied. Many even yodelled! And if
you think that was easy, you try it.
Getting music from behind a tongue that flapped in your mouth like sheet
in the wind could not be an easy task.
It truly was a talent and some folks developed it into a fine art. Even the Swiss would be hard pressed to equal
the strains of Rudy's "Yodel-el-el-el-el-a-e-oh" when I was growing
up.
And Christmas was never complete without the carollers.
With hoarfrost on their eyebrows and icicles on their moustaches, they
came in - singing their hearts out, eagerly helping themselves to the
mountains of festive food and fountains of special spirits that were always
home made and home brewed.. Now our carols
are piped at us at the malls from the day after Halloween and by Christmas, we
are too tired of them to carol – or care - anymore. And chipmunks, reindeer and even Santa just
don’t seem to have the same affect that Baby Jesus had in our youth.
Laundry day is not what it used to be
either. We don't use Grandma's home-made
lye soap anymore and there is no more Oxydol that "transcends" all
other whites. We don't get blisters from
scrubbing linens on washboards or worse yet from wringing out men's denim
overalls. What a blessing our modern hot
water taps and automatic washers are!
And what woman in her right mind was sorry to see the demise of the
"sad iron"? Even our modern
irons with fingertip heat control, hissing steam and spewing spray are
fast fading into the archives of history with the new "wash and wear"
fabrics, some of which look like Bossy the cow mistook them for cud! And let’s not forget clothes dryers
either. Remember those rows of solid,
white, fleece-lined men's underwear waving in the winter gale like petrified white
skeletons suspended from
the clothes line? After a couple
of days, we took pity on the silly things and gingerly manoeuvred the monsters
through cold-blasting gaping doorways to
stack them over the couch until Jack Frost released his grip on the ghostly
figures and let them wilt into manageable masses. What a Godsend our dryers are now and how did
we ever even exist without Hydro???
And how about the “less is more” and that Persian
kitten soft bathroom tissue? Maybe
Eaton’s catalogues needed to perish in order for us to graduate to some of these modern comforts. Just remembering those midnight dashes to the
outhouse in forty below weather sends shivers up the spine. No cushioned seats in those days either! Skin had to be tough to withstand such
drastic deviations in temperature. No need for Ex-lax in those days. No
body dared to be that frivolous.
We have eliminated some of the old annoyances
from the old days too, (though some may argue that we have replaced them with
newer and bigger ones). At any rate, we
don’t seem to have
the flies like we used to have. Remember
those awful tacky brown curly strips we used to hang from the
ceilings to trap the pests? Who can
forget getting their hair tangled into the sticky mess of glue and dead (or
sometimes frantically buzzing live) flies? Just one such blunder and you never, ever
again, got near enough to repeat the experience - even in the dark! Our modern air pollution must have had at
least one commendable effect. Wish it had the same effect on mosquitoes.
There are many positive aspects to our lives now,
but we look back fondly at those primitive beginnings from whence we came. We cherish "Yesterday" because it makes us remember and remembering makes us appreciate "Today"!
No comments:
Post a Comment