Happy New Year everyone! Here we are at the end of another year and the beginning a new one. Each year as I open the door on a new year, I wonder what adventures await me on the other side of that door. If we could start at the end of the year and look back, there wouldn’t be any mystery associated with it. We’d already know the story. We aren’t able to foresee the future, but we can glance in the rearview mirror once in a while.
We do a lot of looking back as we visit here, across the fence, each week. It’s important that we live in the present, but it doesn’t hurt to look back and remember where we came from and where we’ve been.
I recently received a book in the mail from Frank E. Studnicka, who lives in Lancaster. He reads my column in the Boscobel Dial. The book he sent is titled Happenings In the Hollow that he wrote about his life, growing up on a farm near Blue River, Wisconsin in the 1930’s and 40’s.
Frank says, “Another reason for penning these words is nostalgia for a way of life that once was. It’s not likely any of us would like to go back to that way of life; modern technology has spoiled us. But I believe that people as a whole were happier then and life was so much simpler. What every person wants out of life is happiness, but in their pursuit of happiness they lose sight of what happiness really is. I do not have a definition for it but I know my young life was a happy one and I have few regrets as I look back.”
I feel the same way that Frank does. There is nostalgia for the way life was when we were growing up. I hear that all the time from the readers of this column. It did seem to be a much simpler time, but maybe it just seemed that way because I was young and had a lot fewer responsibilities. I think he’s right. Technology has spoiled us and I doubt if very many people would want to go back in time and live without the many things we’ve become accustomed to.
Let me cite just a few examples of why it’s good to live in the present and not in the past.
Lets start with water. We take water for granted. In those days that many of us remember, water had to be pumped from a well and in many cases, carried to the house in a bucket. Hot water was obtained by heating it on a stove. You didn’t just step in a shower and turn the hot water on. You didn’t go to the bathroom and flush a toilet. We didn’t have indoor plumbing until I was a sophomore in high school. We used an outhouse. All cooking and washing of dishes was more difficult because you had to heat the water first. Washing clothes was a major task using a wringer washer. Nobody carried around a personal plastic bottle of store-bought water to drink. We drank well water. We shared the same cup. We all drank out of the same glass water jar when we worked in the fields. I don’t remember any of us getting sick because of those drinking practices. How many of you want to give up the way we use water today and go back to those days?
Lets talk about communication. Many of you remember when we listened to the radio because there was no such thing as television. Then television came along and we were thrilled with one black and white channel on our one TV set, even if the reception was horrible much of the time. How long has it been since you had to adjust your horizontal or vertical hold? Remember when you got a second channel, you had to get up and change the channel on the TV? No remote controls in those days. Now we have color TV and most of us have over 100 channels that are clear the majority of the time. There’s even high definition TV. If the picture isn’t perfect all the time we complain. Many homes have multiple TV’s. Maybe we all need to go back to having one TV with one black and white, snowy channel, without a remote, for just one week. I think everyone would better appreciate what we now have. Sometimes it’s good to look back.
Then there’s the telephone. At one time we were lucky to have a crank phone on the wall. Now everyone seems to have one attached to their hip or in their ear. We have voice mail, call waiting, and answering machines, so we don’t miss any calls. But we also use those devices so we don’t have to answer those calls. How many of you could go back to not having your cell phone handy?
Now we have computers, e-mail, and every other type of instant communication device. How many of you could go back to doing without them?
What other changes will we see and experience? What new adventures await us in the New Year? We’ll soon know. It’s important that we live in the present, but it’s good to look back once in a while, to better appreciate what we have now.
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