The Good Ol' Days

ElizabethB said:
I miss civility. I miss chivalry. I miss good manners.
I miss seeing children actually play outdoors .
I miss fairytales and pretend. I miss imagination .
I miss a world that believes in a higher power.
I miss quite. Time with no electronics. I miss a phone with a party line.
I miss gravel roads. I miss having acres of fields and woods as a backyard.
I miss being pretty instead of being a Senior.
I miss being young and thinking nothing bad would ever happen to me or anyone I loved.
I miss silly things like bell bottoms, mini skirts, macrame, "love beads ". Hip huggers, maxi skirts, hot pants., "go go boots ".
Dressing for success to take a plane. Actually enjoying a plane ride.
I miss going to a public place and not having to worry about some crazy person randomly shooting everyone in sight.
I miss a simpler world without so much hatred and ugliness.
I miss people being nice to each other.
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Amen...
 
ElizabethB said:
I miss civility. I miss chivalry. I miss good manners.
I miss seeing children actually play outdoors .
I miss fairytales and pretend. I miss imagination .
I miss a world that believes in a higher power.
I miss quite. Time with no electronics. I miss a phone with a party line.
I miss gravel roads. I miss having acres of fields and woods as a backyard.
Click to expand...
You're just in the wrong country...

Coming to Australia was a little like going back in time only electronic definitely exist here. But they did still have limits.

Only yesterday I was helped out twice whilst in the wheelchair within 10 minutes.

The second time being the most helpful. I'd told hubby to go ahead with the trolley to the car. he often does this, unpacks and is then ready for me by the time I've reached the car. This time however part way back, my back started to hurt me out of the blue, and that badly that I had to stop all of a sudden. People were walking around me, looking back to check out I was ok when one man some 15m away called out to see if I was ok. I think it was clear I wasn't but I told him it would pass. He had his hands full of shopping including a smaller bag of compost/soil. But he was insistent I wasn't ok. I couldn't move myself in the wheelchair at this point from the pain my back was giving me. I said that my husband would soon realise there was a problem and come and find me. The man however wasn't having any of that. He insisted on pushing me out of the shopping center and all the way to our vehicle where he explained he was used to a bad back and wanted to see me safely to my car. Then he left and was on his way again back into the shopping center.

I am often helped when I'm out. Sometimes, just a door, reaching something down for me, picking something up that I've dropped. On Saturday, we people eating in a resturant had moved their table out slightly too far into the space used as a corridor and I couldn't get the wheelchair through. They actually started too move everything themselves when they realised as we tried to leave. Not complaining or anything like that, totally apologetic that they hadn't seen me there and were blocking the way.
I've had a customer at one cafe we go to actually help me from the toilet (there's only the 1 toilet and I can't get the wheelchair to it) to walk back to my wheelchair then he proceeded to lift me right leg into the foot rest. Just helping me back to the wheelchair he'd picked up which leg was the issue. (Turned pour he was a physiotherapist. He'd been next in line for the toilet, the other 2 customers both just waited for him to return. No-one saw it as a problem.
But I also think this is one if the few capital cities in the world where you can leave anything at your table (wallet, laptop, phone included) go to the bathroom and it will all still be there when you get back.

We've actually been joking that people will know that our house is empty whilst we're away because the windows will be closed, garage doors closed and locked and we'll actually have locked the house as well. Oh and I'll have locked the 4x4 that we're leaving here as well (you've just reminded me). But back in the UK we'd never lock up either. On one occasion I totally forgot to close the front door. When we got home, it had been wide open for 2 days and 2 nights at this point, our first thoughts were not had we been burgled, but what wildlife had gone into the house (several pheasants, one if whom was still in the house).

With the exception of moving house and finally leaving the old place, it will be only the 2nd time in 3½ years that I've locked the house. I do generally lock the vehicle when we're out in it, but at home, no. Normally I don't even take the keys out of it.
 
After Elizabeths beautiful post, I feel silly saying this. But one of the things I miss is the clanging bell/music of the "Ice Cream Man." Does he still come around in your neighborhood?
 
ElizabethB said:
I miss civility. I miss chivalry. I miss good manners.
I miss seeing children actually play outdoors .
I miss fairytales and pretend. I miss imagination .
I miss a world that believes in a higher power.
I miss quite. Time with no electronics. I miss a phone with a party line.
I miss gravel roads. I miss having acres of fields and woods as a backyard.
I miss being pretty instead of being a Senior.
I miss being young and thinking nothing bad would ever happen to me or anyone I loved.
I miss silly things like bell bottoms, mini skirts, macrame, "love beads ". Hip huggers, maxi skirts, hot pants., "go go boots ".
Dressing for success to take a plane. Actually enjoying a plane ride.
I miss going to a public place and not having to worry about some crazy person randomly shooting everyone in sight.
I miss a simpler world without so much hatred and ugliness.
I miss people being nice to each other.
Click to expand...


Subscribed!!!!! Well said - except for a phone with a party line :)
 
I don't think it has as much to do with where we live. A lot of what Elizabeth said seems to be going on all over this world. Thankfully, there are some exceptions. A little piece of paradise, if only we could find it.
 
ElizabethB said:
I miss civility. I miss chivalry. I miss good manners.
I miss seeing children actually play outdoors .
I miss fairytales and pretend. I miss imagination .
I miss a world that believes in a higher power.
I miss quite. Time with no electronics. I miss a phone with a party line.
I miss gravel roads. I miss having acres of fields and woods as a backyard.
I miss being pretty instead of being a Senior.
I miss being young and thinking nothing bad would ever happen to me or anyone I loved.
I miss silly things like bell bottoms, mini skirts, macrame, "love beads ". Hip huggers, maxi skirts, hot pants., "go go boots ".
Dressing for success to take a plane. Actually enjoying a plane ride.
I miss going to a public place and not having to worry about some crazy person randomly shooting everyone in sight.
I miss a simpler world without so much hatred and ugliness.
I miss people being nice to each other.
Click to expand...

We're babysitting 3 of our grandys, 5 through to 10, my wife went nuts at them yesterday, it was sunny outside and all three were on I pads or phones. My wife took them and hid them. Then sent them outside. I went and had a look 15 mins later, boys were playing in dirt with dump trucks. The girl was in her playhouse with the dog.
I grew up with paddocks all around and a stream running about 5 mins away. Kids these days huh.

Russ
 
cookieee said:
After Elizabeths beautiful post, I feel silly saying this. But one of the things I miss is the clanging bell/music of the "Ice Cream Man." Does he still come around in your neighborhood?
Click to expand...

We get ice-cream vans here - they play recorded 'jingly' music - just the same as it was when I was a kid! One thing that hasn't changed.
 
morning glory said:
We get ice-cream vans here - they play recorded 'jingly' music - just the same as it was when I was a kid! One thing that hasn't changed.
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On the occasion I have been in Canberra during a suitable time period, I too have heard said 'jingles and watched the parents' look of despair .
 
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I've never lived anywhere that had an ice cream van, though I will say, when we lived in Cambridgeshire, our neighborhood did have an early morning milkman on his little electric milk float, making deliveries while it was still dark. I miss that little whirr sound and the tinkling of the bottles.
 
In NOLA, there is a taffy man that is carrying on his families business in a horse drawn cart and he has a hand operated bell.
 
You all are so lucky to still have the ice cream man, milk man, taffy man. I hope they never go away. At least my grandkids had an ice cream man for a little while, but I doubt their children will ever see one.
 
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