Jeri

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Username:: elderjane
Name:: Jeri
Location:: Oklahoma City, OK
Birthday:: 03/27
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Southwestern Woman

Life & Events > Relationships > Feeling Nostalgic

Feeling Nostalgic

I find myself longing for a time when we were not alienated from nature. When houses had front porches with swings and
we sat outside and visited with our neighbors on summer nights when the moon was bright and the air was soft and
warm.

The fragrance of roses and honeysuckle drifted around us and
we shared lemonaide and iced tea. On other occasions we
all got together for fried chicken and home made ice cream.

Now we are all locked in our houses with alarm systems and
are unaware of the small tragedies and dramas going on around us. We are cautioned to call 911 if an unlicensed
handy man shows his face. I don't like this kind of world
where everyone has guns and empathy and compassion are in
short supply. I exercise reasonable caution but I refuse
to be a part of this paranoia. I will still help when
I can and over comfort when it is called for.

posted on Jan 13, 2017 11:13 PM ()

Comments:

I hope someday all 50 states will have legal recreational marijuana so we stop getting these dopers who move here for the pot and can't find or keep jobs so they turn to burglary and theft.

comment by troutbend on Jan 16, 2017 10:06 AM ()

I hope so too and if not that at least medical marijuana It is a lot less harmful than the morphine they dose terminal cancer patients with
and they can enjoy food since it quells the nausea. It is also helpful
with other diseases that I am not so up on.

reply by elderjane on Jan 17, 2017 8:54 AM ()

That's exactly how I would describe the small town where I grew up, reading it, I'm walking at dusk along Massachusetts Ave to where it intersects with Fifth Street - Doc and Dorothy Reuter's house.

comment by troutbend on Jan 15, 2017 8:36 AM ()

I spent hours on the front porch swing with my boyfriends. got my first
proposal there.

reply by elderjane on Jan 17, 2017 8:56 AM ()

I live outside on of those towns Harriet speaks of. We don't have neighbors close enough to hand out like my parents did in Middle Village, but the positives of this place surely outweigh the negatives. I think it was Ray Kurzweil (computer genius among other things now department head at google) who said in an interview recently that the world is actually a much better place that it was X number of years ago. Crime in this country is actually down in most places, health is up, comfortable living is up, etc. What has actually changed is our immediate access to information (mostly negative). It's certainly true in my world. Although I understand how people who live with locked doors and alarm systems see it differently.

comment by jjoohhnn on Jan 14, 2017 12:15 PM ()

You live close to nature, just as we did when we lived on the farm. It
makes a difference. I like being free of the burden that having farm
animals imposed. It wasn't fun to deliver a calf at 3 a.m. or to mother
one whose real mother rejected it. However, the minute we left Oklahoma City, I always breathed more freely. I will never regret the move because I got to spend my son's last years three blocks from his house. I treasure the time I had with him. The last six weeks of his
life, I stayed with him every day.

reply by elderjane on Jan 15, 2017 7:10 AM ()

I think people carry their own era with them, and their kids often recreate what they loved when they get older. I know my sister's in-laws are like that, kind of old-fashioned in their ways. And I remember a man who always took his dates out to get root beer floats, always at smaller, less modern shops and delis. It became a thing, and his girlfriend liked it.

comment by drmaus on Jan 14, 2017 8:11 AM ()

Going out for root beer floats is a charming idea. When the kids were
little, we used to walk to the dairy queen for ice cream, accompanied by
our siamese scolding us all the way. She herded the children away from
the street. I miss those sweet days.

reply by elderjane on Jan 14, 2017 9:54 AM ()

I think there may be some small towns that still enjoy these pleasures. Even in the big city, we had small town pleasures. In Chicago on a hot summer night, they opened the fire hydrants and the kids played in the water pouring out. I thought that was Heaven. When I look back, though, I am amazed my mom let me out without a leash. There were perverts around, and derelicts. But I got to recognize the dangerous ones. It was a different kind of education than what got in other places. When I look up the old streets on Google, they're all gone, replaced by ugly concrete updates.

comment by tealstar on Jan 14, 2017 5:28 AM ()

When is progress not really progress? I think we desperately need a sense of community now. I am glad you had the pleasure of being a child
where you could roam free even though it sounds scary in retrospect.

reply by elderjane on Jan 14, 2017 6:49 AM ()

and when kids can be outside playing from dawn to dusk and not end up on a milk carton. or have child protective services called on their parents.

reguards
yer its not the world we knew pal
bugg

comment by honeybugg on Jan 14, 2017 4:53 AM ()

Kids used to play, they weren't welded to their phones and computers.
Maybe that is why there are so few good books lately. Imagination has
deserted us.

reply by elderjane on Jan 14, 2017 6:53 AM ()

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