Remembering The Good Old Days

What I thought I would share with the reader today had to do with the picture shown below and the peace that it conveys concerning times when life was more gentle. Those now famous "Good Old Days," that never were! That is the truth! My paternal grandmother was born in 1889 on the prairie here in South Dakota. She was one of 11 children born in a sod, single room house. Some of us in the family recorded her words of wisdom on her 90th birthday(she went home to be with the Lord over 20 years ago) and when asked what she thought to be mankind's greatest advance during her years we waited expectantly for her answer. After all, she had been there through the invention of electricity, phones, automobiles, aeroplanes, radio & television, space exploration, computers and instant communication globally. Her years of experience replied in a New York second, "INDOOR PLUMBING!" The good old days never were! Grandmothers everywhere washed clothes on a washboard. Farmers plowed with a single bottom hitched to a horse. Factory workers put in 12-16 hours daily, 7 days a week. It took weeks, sometimes months to get a letter to someone. Life expectancy, let's not go there. I'm in the process of searching out a publisher for the new book. The CD of all original music is to be released next month. My freezer is full and so is the fridge. Yet, I sit here in my 21st century comfort and sometimes bemoan the fact that things are not as easy as I would like for them to be. Poor me! I like to think of myself as a "rugged" guy. I can travel 5-6 hundred miles a day on two wheels, live in a tent and eat out of a tin can heated over the fire. I can bring down my own dinner with a gun and have it ready to eat 30 minutes later. Talk about "fast food!" So I look wistfully at a picture and think "Ah, for the good old days." They never were the "Good Old Days." Life was hard and the people that lived it were either just as hard or they didn't survive. Which puts me in a totally different head. How about, instead of the time worn, "Good Old Days," we talk about the, "New Good Days." Surely there must be pictures somewhere worthy of depicting the wonderful time we are living. Or, do we have to wait another 90 years before realizing it is the little stuff(remember that indoor plumbing), that sometimes makes the biggest and longest lasting impression on us? It is Sunday, again! Take a moment to count your blessings, and consider what your "New Good Days" have brought to your life. In Christ's Love, Preacher.

Photographs And Memories Are All That Remain Of This Vision.