It's Not The Way It Was!

What happens when it's time again to celebrate your birth date. Are you as excited about it as you once were? Are you disappointed because the family didn’t come up with a ‘surprise’ party like they did ten years ago? I hope you answered ‘NO’ to both of those questions, and have filled your heart and mind with grateful and thankful thoughts… for another day, for loving family and friends, and acceptance of the challenges that all of us are experiencing this year.

September was my month, and I had prepared myself that whatever happened, I would be thankful and content. There were wedding plans for our only grandson and his fiancé, and the anticipation for several family birthdays, including my own. In the meantime, I had time to think about lots of things that have changed in my lifetime. Who would have thought that we would be able to experience a plethora of experiences that were so different from what we thought were normal. I’m hoping that when you continue to read, it will bring to mind events that have been tucked away in the recesses of your memory.

When I was growing up on the farm, we had no electricity ( only an oil lamp in the kitchen), no running water (only a manual pump in the kitchen and pails to carry water from the well to the washing machine and the bath tub), and no heat (except for the kitchen stove that burned coal and wood). We didn’t have a phone and the radio only worked if there were batteries in it. How did my mother cope when she didn’t have a phone available to call family and neighbors?

Learning cursive handwriting was taught in elementary school, when I was in grade three, but when my children were in that grade, there was no hint of cursive handwriting. All through their educational years, it was printing notes and reports, and now, their children hardly know how to use a pen or pencil. They ‘tap’ on their computers and phones.

I could go on, and I hope that I’ve started something that we all can relate to, no matter your age. These days, I keep thinking about our opportunities to travel… short or long distances. As a child, we travelled to the city by train, pulled by a steam engine. As a married adult, I have travelled across the country, on highways and mountain trails, logged many air miles, for business and pleasure, to many states in the U.S.A. We have visited multiple European countries on a bus tour, and enjoyed a variety of cruises to warm and exotic locations. Little did I even imagine all this would be possible when I learned how to drive my dad’s car, equipped with the standard gear shift (remember clutch first, then change gears!). Now, due to physical limitations, and social and government restrictions, our travel days seem to have come to an end. I am happy to have our photo albums that bring back the memories of wonderful experiences.

As for my birthday celebration this year… I treasure the red roses that arrived from my beloved early in the day. Later in the day, our family arrived with a ‘take out’ dinner that we enjoyed on our kitchen table, served on our vintage china dinner set. A grand step-up from food served on paper plates.

The love of family surpasses any expectations to repeat past experiences.