Daisy144

When I was a girl living in my dinky hometown in the country I dreamed of leaving and never comming back because nothing ever happened here. There were three - four families in the town and most people was kin to at least two - three of them. The Daddies were the only ones who worked and took the only car with them leaving a town of children and women. The women would get their house work done of a morning and many afternoons were spent visiting with neighbors and/or family members. They would have Stanley, Tupper, and Sarah Coventry parties. They would prepare Vacation Bible lessons and Sunday Schhool lessons while we kids would roam the hills (can't now because of the coyotes and other wildlife that hss ben reintroduced into the area) and play in the big field across from house. Our town didn't receive telephones until I was in the 6th grade (approximately 1960) but it was surprising how fast news traveled. Everyone in the town knew the kids and we were expected to be respectful to any and all grownups, so, if they yelled out of their house for you to stop doing something you'd better stop because your mom would sure know about it by the time you got home - someone earlier mentioned that they mentioned the innocense of the earlier times so do I

Highmtn

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Ditto to the above post... AND... I'd like a charming older home like my grandparents had with no neighbors in sight! They grew their own food (veggies AND meat)...and tons of flowers...and their place was a little slice of heaven!

miriam

we had phones but the operator would say 'number please'

AnnR

I had already written a reply, but Mitch's mom has put her finger on the those personal attributes that made us an honorable and civilized society. Sadly, they have been diminishing over the years. I would love to see us return to the standards of behaviar of years past.

tinker

Iwould like it all back,esp. Children that showed respect to everyone includeing their peers!!!!Tinker

zoeytoo

I once tried to communicate with a Spanish speaking person in their language after two years learning Spanish in high school. I came away with more appreciation for how difficult speaking a second language is. Most of them work jobs that are physical and raise a family as well on little money. When you are tired you don't feel like tackling another hard task, yet many do learn English. Becoming a literacy volunteer and you would help them. We'd have to walk a mile in their moccasins as the American Indian saying goes, to understand how it is to be an immigrant. Kindness is a universal language...we all understand it.

zoeytoo

Eating cold watermelon with friends and seeing who could spit the seeds farther. Planting the seeds and watching for a melon to grow. Lining base ball cards on the building and frisbying a card to knock one down. Playing marbles on the dirt and collecting them. Later finding one in the dirt was cool! Berry picking.digging up potatoes after we had cut up pieces with eyes and planted them. Watching new born kittens crawling in a box over our old t shirts. Putting my feet on the coal stove after sledding down a hill in the road near our house. Moms stood watch for traffic. Running through the water when they opened the fire plug for us. Finding a stray dog and getting to keep him. Shiny prayer book and a small silver box with a hinge holding pretty rosary beads. Getting a ceder jewelry box at graduation from the local furniture store. Five and dime stores especially the pizza/ice cream soda fountain at the counter. Waiting for the Easter bunny, Santa and leprechauns. Knee socks and skinny legs I no longer have. Crenolin slips and full skirts. Learning to sew on my mom's treadle machine. Our neighbor's player piano. My Dad's model t ford. The boy next door who combed his hair like James dean. Going down sliding boards that were too hot and having someone push you high on a metal swing. Real christmas trees and scents not from a spray can. Movies without advertisements and people doing the stunts not computer generated stunts. Black composition books. Slang books..my aunt wrote"when you get married and you have twins don't come to me for safety pins." raffle blocks where you pushed the paper out of a hole you poked and it said how much your chance cost. Nice neighbors took chances and I got a radio that had a wire antena you touched to metal to make it play. Passing to the next grade with a high average because I knew the work not because I had grown a year older. You felt special. Nylons that held up with a wire over a button. Rings in plastic bubbles that came out of vending machines. Dagwood sandwiches.

mrsk

Here, Here!!!!
I would even go back to cigarette comercials if they would just bann all the "men's sexual problem" pill commercials, the incontinence adds, and the pills for anything that causes worse side effects than the original pill is supposed to cure!

pippa45

Service station attendants & washing machine with hand wringer.. Ah the good old days.

kaykwilts

I appreciate the difficulty inherent in working a physical job (something I HAVE done before...for three years) and in being tired at the end of the day....AND having to learn a new language. BUT I personally know of Spanish speaking people who have been in this country for 30 years and never learned English. (My new DIL's mother is one) From all that I have read and studied, that wasn't the case during the time of the "Great Immigration" of the early 1900's. Back then, if the history books are correct, those coming here sought to find a better life for themselves, AND learned English as a means to achieve that better life. I have worked as a Literacy Volunteer before, and found that because there was NO desire or push for the adults at home to learn English, the children were less interested too...just doing it because they we told they HAD to by the teachers at the school (I worked with the children of the "boat" people from Cambodia, North Vietnam, and Laos).....I feel I have been kind and understanding of how hard many Hispanics work...and the struggles they go through when coming here....BUT when you have been here for 30 years and still can't understand or speak English...to me, that isn't about just being too tired at the end of the day....that is just NOT wanting to become an American.

Sorry if I offended you....that was not my intent.

And I agree, kindness is a universal language....and English should be the official language of the United States.