In a Land Far, Far Away
Yesterday and Today
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Long ago makes me think of fiction, in a land far, far away………., so often not wanting to remember past days. There were good ones and bad ones like today. Nothing different there. The differences could be astounding and back then, many of us were in the same boat. Some had more, some had less, some had much less.
I grew up in a family of twelve. There were ten children, and it could get very noisy and dramatic. We slept two to three in a bed, but we had a bed to sleep in, a roof over our heads, and food in our bellies. I was the youngest, so I was more fortunate because progress had been made in later years. My brother and one sister had cars. My parents didn’t drive, so I walked to school six blocks away. Kindergarten class had over forty kids. The funny thing about starting school, which I have to laugh about, is that I hid in the same place every day when it was school time. That’s a five-year-old striving to find comfort, and the place behind the side table that held newspapers and magazines was my comfort zone.
My grandson had to discuss how life was growing up for his parents and grandparents which brought me to this article. My mother was my rock. She did most everything to take care of us and what she couldn’t do, my brothers and sisters would. My father worked seven days a week. My mother gave up her job in New York to follow my father to New Jersey. She was the lady in the shoe that had so many children, she didn’t know what to do with all of us and did her best.
Long ago also represents the many changes in society. How industry brought us clothes and food, not having to sew our own or grow our own, and how wars shaped our country which produced the bravest men and women whether you fought the wars or healed those who returned after wars ended.
A very long time ago, homes had just one room where people had to eat and sleep in the same room. People cooked in big pots over a fire. Children had many chores and helped their parents with planting or sewing. Yarn was spun on wheels. Today we go to stores to buy our food and we cook in smaller pots on a stove powered by electricity and gas. We have dishwashers and washing machines and dryers and we didn’t have to wash clothes in a stream, or a tub made of wood.
