I am posting, again, very late.  No, Chevy, I didn't take my benadryl!  I'm bad.  I was talking to Kathy and having a good time and we didn't even realize what time it was.  Heh...imagine that!

I'm feeling better tonight.  I think it is all the moosetracks icecream I have consumed over the past two days.  It has healing properties and makes you emotionally stable again.  I'm now out of the icecream therapy, therefore, I must get on with my life I suppose.  I can't keep eating icecream like a freak.  That brand of therapy would have some bad side effects, eventually. 

Yeah, I have been through the denial stage, the bargaining stage,  the grieving stage, and I am pretty much in acceptance now.   I don't like it one bit, but that's the way it has to be, I guess. 

Enough about that...

I have spent too much time cyber windowshopping for a few items today and have really enjoyed it.  Who could have known, back in the day, that we would be able to do all of this on a computer?  Remember when you had to fill out an order form and write a check and mail it out?  Then wait wait wait....

Our lives are so much more convenient now.  It's just amazing to think back to when I was a child (as I turn up my thermostat)...

We didn't have central air or heat....we had a fireplace and a woodburning stove.  We had to take turns carrying coal and wood in after school.  Whoever didn't do that had to feed the cattle.

We never did have cable.  We had four channels if you counted public broadcasting.  Guess what?  We survived. 

We grew all our veggies, much of our fruit, and all of our meat (except for chicken).  That, my friends, is a lot of hard work.

In my bedroom, which was upstairs, it would be incredibly tempermental.  We lived in an old farmhouse and since we had the heat set up the way we did, it would be crazy upstairs.  I can recall having to sleep on the floor downstairs in the summer because it would be blazing hot upstairs.  Likewise, in the winter, I have woke up before breathing frost.  But...I lived! 

When I was little we had a party line on our telephone.  Several of our neighbors shared the same phone line and we couldn't talk if someone else was on already.  You would pick up the phone and hear talking and would have to hang up.  It was great!  NOT!

No touchtone telephone, no VCRs for a long time, no CD players.  No lots of stuff.

But you know what?  We were pretty happy kids and grew up to be pretty decent adults.  Sometimes less is more, especially where kids are concerned.  I know for a fact that our kids are spoiled rotten and have more toys than any child should legally be able to possess.  They watch cartoons anytime they want...hehehehe...now me?  I had to wait until Saturday mornings to see some cartoons.  Remember that?  Saturday morning cartoons?  Everyday is Saturday morning here!  And they don't appreciate cartoons like we did because they see them all the time.

How about soda pop?  We were allowed to split a 16 ounce glass bottle of 7 up on occasion.  Remember the glass bottles you saved and took back for a deposit?  Now, you see kids going around guzzling 24 ounce plastic bottles of pop all by themselves!  What??!!!  My mom would have threw a fit had I thought about drinking the whole 16 ounces of pop!  Geesh!  But, again, kids get so much pop now that it is not a treat...it's viewed as normal and almost a necessity.

I remember when you had to dial 0 for an operator to get fire, police, or ems....not 911.  That was back when we still had operators and not automated bullcrap.

I learned to cook on a World War I era Chamber's gas stove.  My mom still cooks on that thing.  It is cast iron and white enamel.  No electric stoves for me, thanks! 

There was no supersizing things back then.  As a matter of fact, when I was really small we didn't even have a McDonald's in town.  We did, however, have a Burger Chef.  Does anyone remember Burger Chef?  We didn't go out to eat often.  It was a treat and when you went you didn't graze on 2 lb  burgers and a box of 1000 french fries.  You had a normal amount...which seems very small now.

No leaf blowers...just cheap child labor with rakes.   No round hay balers...just the stupid square baler we had to follow around and pick up the bales and throw them onto the truck.  Then we had to get them into the barn.  That was not fun.  I hated that.

No cell phones.  No call anywhere you want plans for your phone....only long distance and it was like .50/minute to call the next town over!

No city water...only a well.  They still have that well and it's the best water you will ever drink.  I miss that water!  No sewer hookup, only a septic tank.  Shoot, we even had an outhouse up on the hill.  That was pretty gross.

We had ONE window unit air conditioner in the dining room...and that was it.

Oh I could go on and on and on.  What can you all remember from when you were growing up?  Do you think that kids have way too much now?  Do you think that is better or worse for the kids? 

I'm going to bed....I'll talk at you all later.