Where Have the Good Days Gone?

    The holidays seem to make me reflect on times while growing up, especially Thanksgiving and Christmas.  I like to think that our family was like the Walton's or something of that sort because there was a lot of us.  Both of my parents came from a large family and had a large family themselves.  This is just some of the reflections from those times of old.



    I remember years ago Christmas was very important.  Our family came in for holidays even if they lived states away.  We always looked forward to those days to catch up and have time to visit with loved ones.  Things were so simple back then.  You didn't go to the store for a tree or ornaments for the most part and it was one of the only two times of the year that we ate turkey. 



    I don't remember my mother ever cooking, that was always dad's job.  Dad was a cook in the Army and he was really good at it.  Mom had no desire to cook so I guess that worked out well for them.  I remember going places with daddy when I was little because he watched me while mom worked.  We would go to visit my uncle at his garage, or go to the little country store down the lane, he always liked to visit with his friends.



    We never had a lot of money growing up so our food was raised for a long time.  We always had pigs and chickens around the house for eggs and foo.  We have horses to ride, picked raspberries and blackberries in the summer and canned them for the winter.  We also raised a garden, corn, green beans, potatoes, tomatoes, sweet potatoes, cucumbers, cantaloupes, watermelon, turnips, its hard to remember them all.



    For a long time, the school bus didn't come to our house, we had to walk to it and it was over a mile away.  We went to school rain or snow as well as summer school to have something to do.  If we didn't have summer school , we had day camp or bible school.  That kept us out of the house while mom and dad worked.  We were taught to use the tiller to help in the garden as well as to work in the garden and tend what we raised.  A lot of my friends while growing up had no idea how country life was because they had never experienced it.  Just like we had never experience the city or suburban life.



    Most of our family was within walking distance of the house, at least it was walking distance then because you didn't always have gas for the car.  The roads weren't the best in the world either and sometimes the shortest route to someone's house was through the woods.  I had two sisters that lived pretty close and we often walked to one of their houses.  My sister Shirley lived out Carter Bridge Road and would often walk up to meet us to pick berries.  Her mother in law Emily would often come with her.  She was the sweetest old lady and scared to death of snakes.  One day she walked into this old building to use the bathroom and came running out because she almost set down on a snake.  We all laughed but probably would have reacted the same if it had been one of us.



    I went to Shirley's one day with my sister Joy and we went over to Emily's for homemade ice cream.  It was the very best stuff.  She would pick fresh cherries and make cherry ice cream.  She was like a grandmother to all of us.  Years later when my daughter was born, she called Emily her nana Emily.  Its funny how those who were good to you as a child become so important to you later on.  You never know then how much you will miss them when they are gone.