The older I get, the more I see time differently. When I was younger, I rushed more. Today? I’m somewhat content to slow down and pace myself slower.
Between work, church, and family, I always worked side jobs. My favorite was mowing yards. There was a season of life I mowed five yards every Saturday morning. I would make about $100, which was the extra we needed to survive. Of course, I wore my mowers out quickly. Gasoline wasn’t always cheap. And I sweated gallons! Yes. Gallons. But the mindless activity kept me in spending money, and much trimmer than I am today.
Today? I mow five acres about three months out of the year. Grass isn’t a focus. I don’t want a lawn; I want a yard or a pasture and only mow when it looks shaggy.
Life’s different these days.
In my younger years, I lived with clunkers. $200 cars that would last months or a year and then I’d toss them away and find another $200 car. There were a dozen or so of those.
Today, my truck is nearing 22 years in my possession since it was purchased new in 2003: nearly 400k miles and only a few dollars spent on maintenance items.
Yes. Life is different. What it was like then is not like it is today. What I got away with there would not be tolerated here. I wish for more yester-year experiences in the modern times of 2025. Though life today is different and somewhat better, there are still yesteryear experiences I want to have today.
Family Reunions. Weekend trips. Camping trips. Let’s go to Ace, Murvaul, or Livingston! Picnics. Road trips just because you can and not because you must. Game nights. Backyard washers instead of horseshoes. Digging out ancient dumping grounds for treasures (bottles). BB guns. Pocket knives. (I just read about what’s legal with knife carry here in Washington – might as well leave them at home.) Little League and Cub Scouts, Go Carts, Motorbikes, Roller Skates! No shoes unless you have to. Enjoy riding in the back of a pickup truck on a vacation or weekend trip. I remember Sunday dinners at home with church folks between morning and evening services. Riding bicycles just about anywhere we wanted to, and sprucing them up to make them a bit more rugged. Playing all day but home by dark. My first driving experience and finally owning my first car. Picking up soda bottles for their deposit and then buying candy, gum, or BBs. Simpler cars with 3-on-the-tree or 4-on-the-floor and no electric gizmos.
I must caveat this thought. In modern times, we may have considered ourselves poor, but we always had what we needed. We never lived without, even if we shopped at Goodwill, dug up trees along the road to plant in the yard, or picked up soda bottles for gas money. Those were good times, even when we stocked up on canned biscuits on sale days to have bread throughout the month. (10 cents per can!) I see the hand of life given to me by my parents as a reflection of their lives, provided by their parents, and so on. Life is bleak only if it’s genuinely bleakly lived. But we had a family. Love. Food. Roof. Clothes. Toys. And gasoline in the tank. It didn’t get much better!
This could be a near-endless list. But we focus on the here and now instead of the there and then. Today, I’m reversing the trend. I think I’ll live in my memories for a while.
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