FAMILY HOME EVENING

FAMILY HOME EVENING

   The following might be a conversation of two young boys after a Family Home Evening the night before.

   Steve---Hey,“Will”-- do you ever have weird Family Home Evenings at your house? We had one last night and I am not sure if it was ‘who could tell the tallest tale or who could tell the biggest fib. My Dad said it was about reminiscing and it was all true—but I have to wonder?

   Will--- Ya we have those kind of get togethers at our house, once in a while. I really don’t think they mean to fib. I think maybe they just get wound-up and then get carried away.

   Steve--- Well my Dad called it reminiscing (or whatever that word is?) He said we were going to talk about when he and my Mom were kids about our age.

It was actually kind of fun after we got into it. We talked about most people not having cars then, I guess my Mom and Dad didn’t? Some did not have refrigerators. They kept things cool by putting them in a wood box covered with burlap and let water drip on it all the time, and then my Dad says in his big voice—and of course no one had even heard of a Micro wave.

   Well my Mom even talked about her brother milking a cow with his bare hands and actually squirting the milk right out of the cow into her mouth. How disgusting would that be?

   My Dad had put out some old scrapbooks, old journals and picture albums on a table in the front room. We talked about them and the fact they were keepsakes. Then I think my Dad really stretched the truth or maybe to a great big fib? He told us that sometimes they only took maybe, 15 or 20 pictures a year. Then they would take the (he called it film) out of the camera and send it back east someplace and then in 10 or 20 days they would get some pictures back. Can you imagine living without your Camera/Phone? I think I would die if I could not share my pictures and “selfies” everyday with my friends.

   I guess my Mom thought my Dad was getting more story time than she was so she told us one she remembered VERY WELL.

   The town she lived in only got the mail twice a week and you had to go to the Post Office to pick up your mail. She chuckled and told us it was always her job to go get the mail. She said she rode a horse to the Post Office and back and a lot of the times the horse would leave a little “pile” for a calling card, and it was usually by the side of the Post Office building.

   Steve and Will laughed and laughed and thought that was really funny.

Will said they had never had a FHE on the reminiscing stuff, but sometimes they talked about stuff like that when they were just sitting around someplace as a family.

Will---My Dad has to tell his favorite story every time we get together like that. He always has to remind us that he had to walk two miles to school and two miles back home every day and it was uphill both ways. Of course then he lets out this big laugh so we will know he is exaggerating a little!

   Steve--- Well, see if you believe this one. They had a bowling alley with only two lanes and my Dad worked there sometimes. They were not automatic where machines do everything. The bowler would throw the ball and then someone in the pit would move any pins that fell on the alley and then pick up the ball and put it on a wooden chute and send it back to the bowler. Then after two balls he had to set up all the pins (by hand) and send the ball back again. He said sometimes he worked there for a LONG evening and he would get paid .30 cents. Toward the end of the game you were usually tired and quite a few times fingers or thumbs would be mashed between the ball and the return chute. I can’t even imagine doing something like that.

   Steve--- We had a fun night. I did not think it would be at first but we all had fun. As the evening went on my Mom told us about penny post cards. They were called that but actually it cost .02 cents to mail them. But you could mail them to any place you wanted. You did not put them in an envelope. You just wrote the address on one side and wrote a message on the back. Of course anyone who saw them could read everything you put on it.

   And my Dad had to remind us that he paid .25 cents a gallon for gas, but it was not very often they had that much extra cash. Of course they did not have a car either so when he did buy gas it was usually to share with someone else.

   It was getting late and we had not had our treat yet, so my Mom told us she had one more story and she would get the FHE treats.

   She had a job most of her life from the time she was 16 years old. However one of the most interesting ones was as a Telephone Switchboard Operator. In those days most of the telephones were on party lines. That means there were 4 to 8 people with the same line. If the operator rang once it was for one person, and if she rang twice it was for someone else and so on-----. Of course the interesting part was that ANYONE on the party line could pick up the phone and listen in to anyone on that line. And then the Operator could listen in to ANYONE on any phone in town. Steve said he asked his Mom if she ever listened and she said, “Of course Not.” Then she put her finger up to the side of her head like she was thinking and said, “or did I once?” Ha Ha.

   Well the boys laughed, and when they told their friends about their reminiscing FHE, all their friends laughed also. I think a few conversations were started with “Can you believe”, or “I would die if I had to live like that.”

   If this little blog reminds you of some of YOUR times, maybe you are about the same age I am. If you think one of your friends would like it—Share it.

Wallace R. Baldwin—7 April 2016