| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Mollie |
Posted - Apr 08 2006 : 08:05:38 AM
What has "disappeared" from your world? As farmgirls many of us still use things that have gone away for the majority of people, such as, clotheslines, treadle sewing machines, etc., but what about the things that have left nearly all of us? Have you missed what has “disappeared” for you? I'll get us started.
Manual typewriters
Drive-in theaters
Full-service gas stations
Mimeograph machines (gets purple ink on fingers)
Record players
Rotary telephones
Being met by your loved ones as you get off the airplane
My Memory
Polite children (manners)
Carbon paper
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| 25 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| sonflowergurl |
Posted - Apr 23 2006 : 9:45:04 PM
Elizabeth, great challenge!!! We live in "suburbia", but thanks to the vision of our brand new church, a true sense of community is being encouraged so I've been thinking about this more myself. How can I, (a full-time WOHM, busy youth pastor's wife, mom to two busy kids with soccer and band practices, part-time tutor, and former/wannabe farmgirl) be more "neighborly"? We've lived in our home for over 6 months. We've talked to our next door neighbor to the South a few times because he's offered to let us use his riding mower to mow our lawn (because last summer it wasn't kept up and their yard had tons of snakes from our yard). That is the only neighbor we've spoken to, and our "subdivision" is fairly rural compared to most of the rest of our town. (All of the lots are at least an acre, some people have chickens, goats, llamas, ponies and horses...)
I am planning to make a meal to take to a friend who's having surgery this week, but that's a friend/co-worker, not a neighbor. But it's a start I suppose.
It just baffles me how we live our little autonomous lives and can go for so long without ever even meeting neighbors! I'm the "newcomer" to the street, so I don't feel it's my place to walk up to someone's door and say "hi"....just so different from my little Kansas town, and growing up on the farm!!!
Thanks for provoking some thoughts! :)
Katee
The end will justify the pain it took to get us here.
"Looking Toward the Son"---- http://sonflowergirl731.blogspot.com
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| asnedecor |
Posted - Apr 23 2006 : 6:57:54 PM
This evening while DH and I sat out on our porch (first really warm evening we have had since last fall) we talked about the yard, neighbors and of all weird things the bumblebees. Then I told him that at this time of year when I was a kid on the blueberry farm we would have a bee keeper come out in the early am (2 or 3) and he would drop off hives of bees. For the next several weeks, while the berries bloomed we would have the buzz of bees all over the farm. Then when the berries were done, he would come out again early am and the hives would be gone. Hadn't thought about that in years.
Anne
"Second star to the right, straight on till morning" Peter Pan
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| Terre |
Posted - Apr 21 2006 : 4:20:30 PM
I've enjoyed reading all the things missed. YOU ALL brought back lots of memories. I miss the fact that a lot of neighborhoods are not as safe for children to play outside. I miss new "I Love Lucy" shows, Nehi pop, going to my grandmothers, the sound of the train whistles at night. There's not as many trains as there once was. I never really wanted to know about dust mites. I remember when Aids was a diet candy
Be true in heart. |
| sillyfoulks |
Posted - Apr 21 2006 : 1:48:35 PM
You all have listed some wonderful things that I probably never would have even thought to list. Like many of you,I miss many of the thing we did as children. Playing barefoot, the ice cream man, playing in the sprinklers or walking to the plunge (why don't they call it that anymore?"). I do miss the innocense of childhood. However, that is one of the reasons we chose to move to Illinois. My children have more freedom in our small community then I could possible give them where we used to live. My 2 kids have a great bunch of friends, who have great parents. In the summer they all hang out together, swimming, fishing, riding bikes, and yes, just plain getting in to trouble (LOL). They can still ride their bikes down mainstreet to the market and buy tons of candy. They even still have lemondade stands in the summer. My husband and I are always running into people we know, at the local Diner, the market, or Friday night car races. Neighbors fequently stop in to see whats new. Everyone just seems to care here. My husband and I make a conscience effort to give our kids these things. We still play games and cards, and we sit together in the evening outside(did just last night). They spend quality time with extended family. And have a great sense that family goes beyond just the 4 of us. We eat the evening meal together, at the dinning room table. I just hope that when my children grow up, they have some of the same wonderful feelings of childhood, that I do.
I guess what I am trying to say is...."Lord! Give me strength to change the things I can change, give me courage to accept the things I cannot change, and grant me wisdom to know the difference." There are just things that can't be changed, but then again there are things that we can work on. We can take a pie to the neighbor we have never met, each and everyone of us can. It seems to me that many of us miss what is essentially the feeling of community. But we can work on changing that. What if we all took 15 to 30 min. each week, to stop our own busy and hectic lives, to visit a neighbor. Take a plate of cookies, or ask if they would like some fresh vegetables. I am sure we could all come up with a reason to stop and just say "Hi!" And when we do, invite them over your place for that glass of lemonade. Anyone up for the Challenge? We could start our own movement!
By the way.....I had to giggle some with the mention of wing windows, and cars that stay on without the key. We have a car that does both of these. We drive is pretty regular during the warmer months.
Elizabeth
Not how long, but how well you have lived is the main thing.
http://livingcountrystyle.blogspot.com/ |
| Destiny~ |
Posted - Apr 21 2006 : 1:27:28 PM
I miss the time before the word 'lawsuit' was an everyday issuance.
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| n/a |
Posted - Apr 21 2006 : 11:44:56 AM
Oh Amie, I wish you lived closer. My husband made my picnic table and benches and I love them.
When I feel spring coming I have to plant or I’ll go crazy! |
| coconutcakes |
Posted - Apr 21 2006 : 11:42:32 AM
Since I moved from home, I don't have. . .
a piano
and the sound of my mother playing each evening after supper
I miss that, but I guess I shall have to save my pennies for one for myself!
Emily
"After a long period abroad nothing could make me more homesick or emotional than an American magazine ad of a luscious layer cake, except one, and that was a pictured lemon pie." Irma Rombauer, Joy of Cooking (1943) |
| celebrate2727 |
Posted - Apr 21 2006 : 09:19:50 AM
The church I grew up in is the First Congregational Church of Ithaca NY. What I loved there was their respect for all views. We had traditional hymns most Sundays , but did have alternative music upon occassion. If you're ever in the area stop on in.
blessings
beth
Dreaming of Friday Night Lights
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| Amie C. |
Posted - Apr 21 2006 : 08:55:45 AM
Re: hymns, there's no chance of diversifying the music at this church. The people who have the say practice the tradition of being strictly non-traditional!
I have another thing to add to the list of things that have disappeared. Picnic tables with benches. Now that I have a yard, I thought I would look into getting a picnic table. They are hard to find these days. Most places sell patio furniture instead, and the picnic tables that are available are the kind with benches joined to the table in one unit.
The picnic tables I remember used to have independent benches that you could pull out and arrange however you wanted. We used them for so much besides sitting: steeplechase jumps for our "horses", pier and diving board for the wading pools (we knew not to really dive, don't worry!), beds in our play hospital. I don't think I would get nearly as much use out of a picnic bench these days, but I would still like to have the option to use the table and the benches separately for outdoor cooking and sitting around the fire.
I'll have to start watching the classifieds. |
| brightmeadow |
Posted - Apr 21 2006 : 05:35:20 AM
I guess I'm lucky, I belong to a church where we have the traditional German organ music and songs from the 1800's set to Bach, Beethoven, and Mozart at the 10:00 service, and we have a less formal, less liturgical service at 9:00 - some Sundays we have jazz hymns, others we have bluegrass (little brown church in the vale), sometimes old-time Dixieland (When the saints come marching in) Sometimes gospel (up from the grave he arose!). Sometimes we have music from the 1970's (I'd like to teach the world to sing, Put your hand in the hand, Lord of the Dance, De Colores, Michael Row the boat ashore) and sometimes we actually sing "praise music" which I think is the Christian rock you are talking about. I generally go to the early, less formal, service but sometimes for variety I'll hit the old traditional service, where we confess our sins, say the Lord's prayer, sing the Gloria Patri and the Doxology, confess the Apostle's Creed..just like the church I grew up in. Very traditional for me, (German reformed tradition) but others (like my husband, a Catholic) find it a little strange.
I guess my point is that "traditional" might depend on the tradition you were raised in!!!! If you like the church otherwise, maybe you could talk to the pastor about diversifying the music somewhat to include other traditions.
You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands - You shall be happy and it shall be well with you. -Psalm 128.2
Visit my web site store at http://www.watkinsonline.com/fish or my homepage at http://home.earthlink.net/~brightmeadow |
| Amie C. |
Posted - Apr 17 2006 : 12:15:05 PM
I probably would enjoy a traditional service more, but I really like the people at the church I attend! So for now, I'll just have to keep missing the hymns.
It's funny because I'm the kind of person churches want to attract with their modern music. I'm relatively young, and I play in a punk band myself. But that's not what I go to church for. Even if these church bands were playing the kind of modern music I like, I'd still prefer the old hymns.
Like most of the things people have mentioned on this topic, it's partly the connection to the past, but also think the old way of doing things is still better sometimes. |
| Horseyrider |
Posted - Apr 17 2006 : 09:44:12 AM
I'm sorry Amie, I guess I misunderstood! My dad goes to a church like that with his new wife, and it leaves me pretty cold, too. My mother was Episcopalian, as am I. We have a traditional hymn book, and most of the hymns in it would have been familiar to folks a hundred or more years ago. Most were written in the 1700s-1800s. The liturgy hasn't changed much, either. That, along with my historical old church, gives me a feeling of connection with the past, and reverence for the work done there.
Funny, I like Christian rock. But to me, it doesn't belong in worship services; it's just nice listening. The South Park remark is a hoot!
You just need a different, more traditional church. I think then you'd feel more comfortable. |
| Amie C. |
Posted - Apr 17 2006 : 06:23:59 AM
A couple of people wondered what I meant about missing hymns. Many churches these days (most in my experience)don't sing hymns at all anymore. They use "worship music", which is basically soft rock. Usually, there will be a live band playing and everyone is supposed to sing along. The lyrics are projected onto a screen or TV monitor. There is no musical notation to go by, you either know the song or you don't.
I can't stand this practice, and I have specific reasons. First, I happen to think soft rock sucks, and I don't like feeling as though my religion is tied to this specific taste in pop culture. I'd rather have a distinctive church music that isn't tied to pop culture (although I know that traditional hymns were pop culture in their own day!)
Second, singing along with a band isn't nearly as participatory as group vocal singing with an accompaniest. I feel like I'm part of an audience, not part of a congregation.
Third, the theology of soft rock is all about personal emotion. Like they say in the South Park episode, Christian rock is easy to write: you just put "Jesus" where the girl's name would go. Traditional hymns were all about God, worship music is all about how God is supposed to make me feel: happy, awestruck, overwhelmed with soppy, mushy love. I'm sorry, but most days I just don't feel this way. Rather than inspiring me to forget my troubles and appreciate the glory of God, this stuff makes me feel like I can't be a Christian because I don't feel the right feelings.
So, that's my little sermon, for those who are interested. Sorry to bore the rest of you!
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| Mollie |
Posted - Apr 15 2006 : 8:43:37 PM
I miss playing house as a kid, my grandmother had an old stove next to the shed and lots of old dishes and pots/pans/utensils. We would make mud cakes, decorate them with flowers/dandelions and play for hours mixing "dinners". Now kids have all this fancy plastic toy furniture in bright colors and not much "make believe" goes on. We used to lie out on blankets reading the Black Stallion books and imagining our own horses. The bookmobile would come to the neighborhood in the summer and we would check out books and join a summer reading program. We made apple cider on an old wooden "huge" mill in the backyard. We lived in a town where lots of people had my last name and if they didn't they knew my parents/grandparents. A funeral was an event, lots of people and lots of food. Relatives would visit and come to stay a week pitching right in with the chores, plucking chickens, repairing equipment, mending, cooking, etc. Even small towns had a "literary society or club" as a social event for young adults. |
| brightmeadow |
Posted - Apr 15 2006 : 2:18:17 PM
OOOoooh, I just remembered lying in bed on the summer night with the windows open and listening to the whistles of the distant freight trains and the whippoorwills and frogs croaking....
And waving to the train conductors when stopped at a crossing and the LONG train finally finished up. Knowing the names of the rail lines B&O, Great Southern. Counting the coal cars....
Dreaming about the far-away places that the trains were going to. Listening to the radio from Chicago when the weather was right, and wondering what it was like in a big city.
Now we have air-conditioning, the windows don't open, a bridge over the railroad crossing, and satellite radio is the same coast-to-coast....
You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands - You shall be happy and it shall be well with you. -Psalm 128.2
Visit my web site store at http://www.watkinsonline.com/fish or my homepage at http://home.earthlink.net/~brightmeadow |
| bubblesnz |
Posted - Apr 15 2006 : 1:57:04 PM
I miss people counting the change back into your hand.
Sucking honey suckle from a bush on the way home from school.
Making trollies and bows and arrows from old wood with the neighbour hood kids.
The excitement of Santa arriving.
Smokes at 25cents a packet. lol
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| n/a |
Posted - Apr 15 2006 : 1:00:42 PM
Wow, I love this question...it really makes me reminisce.
Grandma's house & Grandma - Party lines, the homemade wood screen slamming when I ran out of the house, the look of grammas tile counter tops (small octagons in black and white), Grandma's little barnyard collectables on the kitchen window. Hot lemonade with Knox gelatin, keeping bread warm on the hearth in the kitchen fireplace, putting orange and lemon peals on the hearth for fragrance. Thanksgiving dinner in the long dinning room at the ranch. Eating almonds from my grandparent’s orchards. But I don't miss having to watch out for rattlesnakes and black widows.
Grandpa's - sitting and napping on the swinging bench on the front porch, climbing in the pomegranate tree, shooting bb's, driving the old tractor, petting and caring for the goats, old horse and rabbits. The look on his face when we pulled up and the little two step shuffle he would do when we got out of the car. The tomatoes, zucchini, green eggs and almonds he would send us home with. Ok I am crying now, haven't thought about this in a while.
I use to love staying out late with my friends laying out on the field, watching the stars and hoping the skunks wouldn't come out and Mom wouldn’t call us in.
I miss riding my bike to my friend’s house and I miss my childhood friends.
I could go on and on, but it's time to start appreciating the present.
When I feel spring coming I have to plant or I’ll go crazy! |
| Horseyrider |
Posted - Apr 15 2006 : 04:00:21 AM
Some congregations run them off a copier. My church did that for awhile, running off the whole service (instead of using the prayer books). Some liked it, because it was less flipping around and jumping from place to place in the prayer book, and then back and forth to the hymnal, and it was lighter in the hands. Others disliked it because it made them feel disconnected. We did that for about six months, and went back to the prayer books. (We're Episcopalian.) |
| theoanne |
Posted - Apr 14 2006 : 7:25:32 PM
You guys have thought of almost all of them but I have a few more.
-Waving to the truckers when you passed them...and having them smile and wave back!
-Singing songs to pass the time on car rides.
-also playing find all the letters of the alphabet, in order, on road signs.
-Eating fresh unpolluted snow and icecicles(sp?)
-bringing in the milk in the winter and finding the frozen cream had popped the paper lid off the glass bottle.
-using the paper lids to make "flowers" on art work.
-sitting outside in the evening to listen to the "bugs" at twilight
-having my grandmother hem my dress with the hem guide(?) is that what you call that ruler that stood in a metal stand? it made your skirt an equal distance from the floor.
-I also miss the dresses with the full sirts and crinolines that you could "twirl" in.
-Grandma also put my hair up in bobbie pins and made it curl in Shirley Temple curls.( Grandma raised me till I was 10)
Okay now that I have showed my age I guess I'm done. Teddie
P.s. I have a ?. If you don't have hymnals how do you sing? We still use them.(Lutheran) I didn't know people didn't use them anymore.
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| asnedecor |
Posted - Apr 12 2006 : 5:19:25 PM
I miss swimming. We had a pool (above ground) when I was a kid. We would go swimming almost every day after picking berries all day long in the heat. I know I can go to the local community center, but it is not the same. We would even swim late at night if it was too hot to sleep. I miss my childhood dog - Tippy. She was my best friend. She would follow me everywhere on our property. She use to hang out with my grandma too. She loved children and all animals. She was nanny to our cat's many kittens and took care of my many pairs of ducklings. She was the best dog ever!! I miss A & W hamburgers too! We use to go to the drive-inn as a treat - not the norm - for burgers and rootbeer floats. A & W made the rootbeer right on site and made fresh onion rings from onions purchased from the local farmers who grew them at lake labish. Snow days - when it snowed good - no school. We lived out far enough there would be no traffic if there was snow and ice on the road, so we would sled on the road - it had a dip and a curve that we would just go so fast on our sleds with the neighbor kids. Grandma - I miss her the most. She was our other parent, but a big kid at heart. Always thinking up games for us, feeding us M & M's and 7 UP. Making doll clothes for all of my sister's my dollies.
Anne
"Second star to the right, straight on till morning" Peter Pan
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| akcowgirl |
Posted - Apr 12 2006 : 12:53:35 PM
It is not something that disappered from my life but i miss the days when C-sections were not the norm and no one looked at you like you were a freak for wanting to have your child at home with no drugs or even at the hospital with no drugs.
Valerie
Alaska Girl all the way
Deja Moo: The feeling that you've heard this bull before.
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| sonflowergurl |
Posted - Apr 12 2006 : 05:45:23 AM
I thought of a few more:
*piano lessons from my grandma
*walking through the wheat fields in June
*picking mulberries by the creek
*shooting tin cans with a pellet gun
*skipping rocks on the pond (and my cousin doing it with cow patties and thinking the "rocks" were floating)
*fresh cow milk at my grandma's
*no-bake oatmeal cookies with my other grandma
*learning how to knit with my cousins (and getting into a yarn throwing contest from one loft to the other above my uncle's living room)
*riding my horse bareback (even the one who bit me, bucked me off, held air in her gut to keep the saddle loose, and ran me through
hedge trees)
*swimming and fishing in the river
*eating soy beans we had grown ourselves (we always saved 2-3 five-gallon buckets of them back from the elevator to last all year)
Wow! I guess I miss the innocence of my childhood, even though it wasn't nearly as innocent and romantic as I like to remember. I miss living on a farm too!
Katee
The end will justify the pain it took to get us here.
"Looking Toward the Son"---- http://sonflowergirl731.blogspot.com
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| Horseyrider |
Posted - Apr 12 2006 : 04:40:07 AM
What a fun topic!
I miss yogurt containers that were waxed paper. I hate it when I buy yogurt now that has a plastic taste to it.
Foods made with SUGAR, not high fructose corn syrup. That stuff's freaking EVERYWHERE.
Farmers who were diversified. Then if one crop failed, others would pick up the slack.
My mom. I really miss my mom, and the day to day contact with her. But as she would say, if everyone stayed here, then there wouldn't be any room in the world for new babies. I sure miss her though.
Hats. Most everyone wore hats. Your outfit was not complete without them. And gloves. Sometimes I wish they'd come back. They were so whimsical.
Home dairy delivery. I remember having a milkman, and the bottles were glass. Old ones went out to the milkbox, and new full ones would appear, along with ice cream, cottage cheese, sour cream, etc.
I miss being able to go outside and play all day, riding my bike or walking to a friend's. I don't think those days were safer, though; I believe we just perceived them that way. In those days, many crimes against women and children went unreported. When I was a kid, I remember hearing noises in our yard one night. My mother asked me about it the next morning, and at the age of six or seven I found out what rape was. Well, not literally; but from what a child that age could absorb. A teen was walking home from babysitting that evening, and was assaulted. This was a nice neighborhood in the middle of a wealthy suburban town. I remember my mother angrily telling her friend that the victim had to be a ninety year old nun with three witnesses in order to get a conviction. There was no arrest, even though the victim knew the perpetrator, as she was told there would be scandal, and rape would be hard to prove.
I think in those days, people didn't report incest, or rape, or molestations. They were whispered about, and the hushed tones of adults indicated something bad had happened; but nothing much was ever done. I believe we perceive it's worse now, but only because it's more out in the open. I wish it hadn't cost the freedom of the children, though. We felt so powerful on our own, flying through the neighborhoods on our bikes, or exploring the woods, fields, and rivers. *sigh* |
| Julia |
Posted - Apr 11 2006 : 9:32:59 PM
This is great!
Rag curls
catching frogs in the pump house
friends just dropping by
sitting by the road trying to get the log trucks to honk
lemon-ade stands
ice cream trucks
I agree on with the manners and purity. Wh is propriety so wrong now days?
wanting to hear grampa's stories
Rebecca, we sing hymns from real hymn books too, both Sunday and Wednseday. My daughters boyfriend who is a music major was playing the violin with my husband one day. My DH asked him to go to a certian hymn. He didn't even know how to look up the hymn. He said the church he goes to has never used hymns. WE were shocked! How do you teach kids the wonderful harmonies, let alone the words of these great songs if hymn books aren't used. Sorry, my soapbox.
Here's another one, soapbox derbies.
"...the setting sun is like going into the very presence of God." Elizabeth Von Arnim |
| brightmeadow |
Posted - Apr 11 2006 : 3:47:06 PM
One thing from my childhood that I can't imagine happening today is the monthly township meeting - all the farmers, wives and kids getting together once a month to figure out all the important township business..... (I don't know what it was, maybe how to do maintenance on the snowplow???) We met in the township hall, which was an old one-room schoolhouse.
But the kids played board games or cards, or caught lightning bugs or played kickball ..... there was an OUTHOUSE instead of a restroom.... the ladies outdid each other making fancy desserts to impress everyone... and the men all sat around in a circle discussing the weather and how their crops were doing and the price of corn and soybeans... the ladies traded recipes and sewing tips..
We don't know our neighbors now like we did back then. And there are a lot more of them...
When there was a new person in the neighborhood everyone took over a pie or some in-season produce to introduce ourselves and get acquainted. Likewise a funeral or an illness, everyone in the whole township cooked casseroles for the family.
Now we sometimes don't even know if someone is sick...I don't know the people who live three doors down.
(I wonder what is stopping me from taking a pie over to them????)
You shall eat the fruit of the labor of your hands - You shall be happy and it shall be well with you. -Psalm 128.2
Visit my web site store at http://www.watkinsonline.com/fish or my homepage at http://home.earthlink.net/~brightmeadow |
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