I was sent an e-mail yesterday with lots of pictures that were of the so called good old days when times were slower and our world was so different than it is today. I am sure these pictures will jog a memory or two. Small ranch homes were the ilk of the time, some with only one floor and some with two with louvered windows. Our first home was a two, very small, bedroom, living room, kitchen, one bath and a small central heating unit in the hallway purchased under the GI bill for under seven thousand dollars. If I remember correctly we paid $48.00 a month and that included taxes and insurances. The suberbs were the place to be and we in the so called 'boon-docks' a half mile down the road from the bus stop to ride into town for work. It took quite a while before a car could be purchased and it wasn't as fancy as this Ford, but it was a broken down second or third cousin. We didn't have a milk man come to the door, although I did as a very young child, but we did have a man come around with his van filled with breads and donuts of all kinds. I owned a Betty Crocker cook book, in fact I still do, and I use it all the time, and come to think about it, I still use a push lawnmower on my postage size grassy area in the back yard.
When our family grew, we traded the small house for a larger eighty year old house, closer to the city, and it was a beauty with a slate roof, three bay windows, double living room, dining room, kitchen and a front foyer. Up eighteen stairs was three bedrooms and a bathroom with a claw foot tub and a pedestal sink which became such a rage for this generation. I think it was about $12,000 and payments were about one-hundred a month, so the change had started.
There was a carriage house in the back with what could have been a small apartment above, but it was run down and unusable. This is where my daughter, Eileen, spotted a 'kunk in the gaage' and it didn't take me look to find out exactly what she was saying. Somethings never change as I have raccoons around the garage here in Brookings.
Our world keeps changing faster and faster, homes have gotten bigger and bigger with little life within as the owners are off working to pay thousands of dollars a month on a mortgage payment. Asking two hundred thousand for a small manufactured home is the 'usual' now. In the stick built home it is way above three to four hundred thousand and two or three cars sit in the driveways as gasolene prices can go from two to five dollars a gallon. The estate size yards are taken care of by someone else and there is no time to enjoy living as we knew it.
The hustle and bustle of today with all of its electronic gadgets has isolated generations in such a different way. The new wireless age with hand held gadgets have everything from a camera to a push button world of its own. Conversations are texted and thumbs are in play so people are communicating but in a much different method than anything we knew. The older I get, the less I fit into this world, and that is not a bad thing, just different. I have one little foot in the door so I can blog, e-mail, write my novelettes and still pick up the telephone as I am afraid texting is not for me.
So today when you get into your 2009 car and toodle down the highway with hundreds of others in the morning rush, don't forget to leave the texting for the office, meditate instead, calm the spirit and get ready for a great day. I'm going to lunch at "Rollen In Dough" with a couple of lady friends and have a half sandwich and a decadent desert as we toodle up the highway and enjoy the ocean scenery all the way to Gold Beach.
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