Reminiscing

One of my friends gave me a stack of magazines to read. We trade things like that as they are perfectly good and we don't all take the same ones. I was reading one about the good old days and things that happened "Way back When,"when I realized that those were my days and it wasn't very long ago.

When I think about the changes that have taken place through the years, it was a long time ago by the standards of my grandchildren. But this is how it was......

When I was a girl:

We didn't know that we were poor, everybody had the same thing which wasn't much.

We walked where we wanted to go as we didn't always have a car and if we did, we might not have money for gas. No one drove to school, the kids in the country rode the bus.

We pulled a wagon full of sheets to the "Help Yourself Laundry" which had the old wringer style washers and brought them home to hang on the line. (My mother operated a rooming house.)

We didn't have a TV. If we did, we couldn't see a picture on, it as the nearest station was 150 miles away. We did have a radio in the living room that I thought was very old. I recently saw one in an antique store like it for $375. When I was in high school, I bought my own little radio.

We didn't have airconditioning. We sit outside in the shade of a tree, or had a fan in the house. I loved to go to the ice cream parlor and sit where the ceiling fan would blow on me. Before I left home my family had a water cooler.

Fast food was a bologna or peanut butter sandwich. We never ate out as that was a luxury. Even when we went to Woodward, mom packed a lunch that we ate in the park. We thought that was a real treat.

We had one phone that worked by calling the operator and we kids weren't allowed to use it unless it was an emergency.

Kids were expected to get a job to buy the extra things they wanted. We thought it a priviledge to earn our own money. I thought I was rich when I started earning $15 a week. I bought all of my school clothes and supplies, and even took a trip with some realtives that summer when I was 17.

When I was a girl:

My parents were always right....I was not to sass or question their authority.

With 5 children in the family, we each had chores and responsibilities and we "better take care of business" before playing around.

I never went very far from home until I was 17. I had not even been 50 miles from home until I was about 11 years old. Today my grandchildren go on cruises, mission trips in foreign lands and fly from one end of the country to the other and think nothing about it.

On the other hand.....When I was a girl........

We could freely roam the streets in our little town, day and night and not worry about any danger.

Play up and down the river from morning until we got hungry and went home. There were always a group and our mothers knew we took care of each other.

Start walking to a friends house that lived 3 miles out in the country and know that someone would give us a ride and we would know them.

Walk around holding hands and giggling with our best friend and not think it strange.

And last of all, When I was a girl:

N0 ONE HAD A TATOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!