My mama mia sent me me this poem in a forward and I enjoye it so much I figured I would pass it along. While I'm much too young to remember these times, I do try to keep some simplicity and good old-fashioned togetherness, contentedness, and comfort in our modern lives.
A little house with three bedrooms,
One bathroom,and a car on the street.
A mower that you had to push
To make the grass look neat.
In the kitchen on the wall,
We only had one phone,
And no need for recording things,
Someone was always home.
We only had a living room
Where we would congregate,
Unless it was at mealtime,
In the kitchen where we ate.
We had no need for family rooms,
Or extra rooms to dine,
When meeting as a family
Those two rooms would work out fine.
We only had one TV set,
And channels maybe two,
But always there was one of them
With something worth the view.
For snacks we had potato chips
That tasted like a chip,
And if you wanted flavor
There was Lipton's onion dip.
Store-bought snacks were rare,
Because my mother liked to cook,
And nothing can compare to snacks
In Betty Crocker's book.
Weekends were for family trips,
Or staying home to play.
We all did things together --
Even go to church to pray.
When we did our weekend trips,
Depending on the weather,
No one stayed at home because
We liked to be together.
Sometimes we would separate
To do things on our own,
But we knew where the others were,
Without our own cell phone.
Then there were the movies,
With your favorite movie star,
And nothing can compare to
Watching movies in your car.
Then there were the picnics
At the peak of summer season.
Pack a lunch, and find some trees,
And never need a reason.
Get a baseball game together,
With all the friends you know,
Have real action playing ball--
And no game video.
Remember when the doctor used
To be the family friend,
And didn't need insurance
Or a lawyer to defend?
The way that he took care of you
Or what he had to do,
Because he took an oath and strived
To do the best for you.
Remember going to the store,
And shopping casually,
And when you went to pay for it
You used your own money?
Nothing that you had to swipe,
Or punch in some amount,
Remember when the cashier
Really had to count?
The milkman used to
Go from door to door,
And it was just a few cents more
Than going to the store.
There was a time when letters came
Right up to your door,
Without a lot of junk mail ads
Sent out by every store.
The mailman knew each house by name,
And knew where it was sent;
There were not loads of mail
Addressed to "present occupant."
There was a time when just one glance
Was all that it would take,
And you would know the kind of car,
The model, and the make.
They didn't look like turtles
Trying to squeeze out every mile;
They were streamlined, white walls, fins,
And really had some style.
One time the music that you played,
Whenever you would jive,
Was from a vinyl, big-holed record
Called a forty-five.
The record player had a post
To keep them all in line,
And then the records would drop down,
And play just one at a time.
Oh sure, we had our problems then,
Just like we do today,
And always we were striving,
Trying for a better way.
Oh, the simple life we lived
Still seems like so much fun,
How can you explain a game,
Just kick the can, and run?
And why would boys put baseball cards
Between their bicycle spokes,
And for a nickel red machines
Had little bottled Cokes?
This life seemed so much easier,
And slower in some ways,
I love the new technology,
But I sure still miss those days.
So time moves on and so do we,
And nothing stays the same,
But I sure love to reminisce,
And walk down memory lane.
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