Funny, I had been daydreaming about something like this. Early memories, my extended family spendingevenings playing cards, having dinner, talking.
Yes, I have a lot of the same kinds of memories of spending time with a lot of aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents out in the country. I spent a lot of time with one of my grandmothers who knew a lot about plants, herbalism, etc... and I would get up and go out with her at dawn to watch the ducks and geese near our cottage, pull in the "night lines" to see if we had caught catfish, and then walk in the fields collecting things like rose hips for tea. We never had a tv at our summer place... just played games, put jigsaw puzzles together,... and my grandmother and great aunts liked to recite long, interesting poems or sing songs... probably songs that they learned as girls. And they would sometimes make taffy for taffy pulls... It's kind of idyllic looking back on those times... carefree... forest for miles in every direction...
I sometimes think about how different times would have been even in as recently as the early 20th century. I've spoken to older local farmers about how things used to be. People used to help at each other's farms... barn raisings, threshing bees, doing various tasks that required a gang of people. They always talk about the "big suppers" that would be "put on" after the work was done.
People were also much more "into" playing musical instruments, conversation, poetry recitals, going for "evening talks", playing parlour games, etc... before the 50s. Kind of interesting how, when reading novels from the Victorian period, the characters always going for walks or visits, writing letters, or just getting together. Both of my grandmothers told me that that was how life "used to be" when they were young.... everyone doing things and less separation of the generations in social situations.... |
