Walking with my Mother through the door of Black Elementary that first day of kindergarten, clutching my brand new rug for rest period, was scary and exciting once I sat down on the circle and met other kids and Mrs. Ford, people who shaped our lives forever. Finding my cubby, then learning class rules and of course the long awaiting taste of paste, then recess, then rest while Mrs. Ford played her delightful piano before our half day school session was over.
My brother in 3rd grade walked home with me for lunch everyday, as most kids did back then.
It was quit a treat to pack a lunch for a rainy day and play Seven-up during recess. There were some times for a small cost you could order a basket lunch consisting of a hot dog, carrot or celery sticks, chips and an orange drink carton. Shortly before the lunch bell rang, a man would deliver a wooden laundry basket by our door and it was exciting to have activities like that. Memories of those simpler times mingle with being proud to donate a dime to the Red Cross and getting a metal clip that folded down over your collar, later lost in time but found in my junk drawer and tossed out to make room for Valentine's.
Free lunches or lunch tickets were unheard of, nor missed. Not until junior high did we get cafeteria food and it was so good and we paid daily and got to choose. A lot of food was bought for .50 and since we paid, I don't remember food being thrown out.After my brother returned to school from lunch, my afternoons were filled with playing with my drink n wet dolls and my mother letting me iron pillowcases and tablecloths.
I would think the world be kinder if mothers were back in the home, tending to the housework and nurturing the family. It's things like making a grilled cheese just the way you like it and no one else can or kissing a boo boo as it happens, cleaning gravel from a skinned knee instead of taking pictures and going to a hospital. Wearing a band-aid was big stuff!
Life went on amongst Girl Scouts and Sock Hops and conferences and I cherish my youth of living in the 50's/ 60's in Wichita.
Joyce Montague
Julittisme@att.net
follow me on twitter, juliettisme
juliettisme@blogspot.com
Thanks for bring back for one small moment those wonderful days of old. The days of youth at a time when it was about climbing trees, running barefoot, and catching tadpoles in the ditch that run beside the road.
ReplyDeleteIt seems so very long ago! And it's not just because the times were simpler, nor that we felt safer, but because we could know our world and count on it being the same both today and tomorrow.
You didn't buy some electronic device that was ready for the trash heap before you could learn to use it. Life was something that changed but at a pace you could keep up with.
But that's sure not how it is today!
Today everything is a constant battle and it's hard to keep up with anything. Learn how to use your phone today and then next week you learn all over again on a new phone. Gosh I still remember that we had one rotary dial phone for over 8 years before AT&T had to replace it. Yes back then the phone was their problem not ours. And you didn’t have to learn again how to use the new phone as it was just like the old one, rotary and black!
Anyway today is a wonderful time of marvelous technology that gives us almost magical powers. And I sure don't miss many of the difficulties we had growing up. As those good old days were also days without air conditioning or even a clothes dryer in the house as we hung the clothes outside on this amazing device called a clothesline.
But don’t feel sorry for us as we had something that all the electronics and technology of today can’t provide. We had time to be a family in a world we knew and understood as we grew up surrounded by people we loved in neighborhoods that were safe.
Gosh I would give up so much of what we have today for just a little of what we had “way back when”. I just pray that someday we can bring back even a small part of that world again! A world centered on family and filled with love and not the gadgets of technology.