Simple

     Some times have you ever noticed that it’s the really simple things that make you happy?  I can remember growing up and every Sunday the family would get together at our home or my aunts and have a big dinner together.  This was when I was really young, but I remember it very well.  At least when I was smaller and before we all began to “grow up” and have our own agendas for the day.

     I can remember setting on the front porch and idly talking about any number of topics while we rocked in various rhythms in our chairs.  Us younger kids would take turns sitting on the ice cream churn while my Dad or uncle would turn the crank, making ice cream for after our meals. You knew it was time to let someone else have a turn sitting on the machine because your rear-end would start getting cold as the ice cream began to freeze.

     Of course, it was a simpler time also.  We didn’t have a great threat of terrorism back in that day.  Nor did we have the “fear” that a neighborhood riot would break out at any moment.  The really “big” problem was if your favorite baseball team was going to win the game that day or not.  I know, we still have THAT terror hanging over our heads, but it was different then.  When the summer sun hit your face you just felt a wonderful filling all over.  And right when you were starting to think that the sun was getting a little bit too warm for you to continue sitting there, a cooling breeze would begin to slowly ruffle the leaves and then pass gentle across your arms, and legs, and your face and you would feel much better than before.

     And that was also the way it was throughout the conversations we would have.  When you got the feeling that the words were getting a little bit heated, someone would come up with some comment that had absolutely NOTHING to do with the subject being discussed, but it was just “natural” enough to make everybody pause and then breakout in a good belly laugh.  I sometimes had wondered if an uncle, or aunt or cousin had been “assigned” at each gathering to provide just the needed comment at the right time to keep the comments “light” and to avoid any unnecessary arguments or disagreements while we were all there.

     When I consider those comments:  I would have never guessed how much talking a person could do on any particular subject without knowing too much about the experience or even actually talking about what had happened to make the subject worthy of any time length of discussion.  Just for one example:  We could be sitting; enjoying a brief moment of silence while someone was deeply in thought about what should be our next topic of consideration.  Then my Uncle Gene (or someone else would say:  Remember when Billy (that is one of my cousins) failed that math test in the fifth grade?  Then everyone would immediately start “chiming” in with their comments.  Now that math test was something that had happened several years and NO ONE (in our group) was there when it happened be (except my cousin and the teacher), but ALL had their comments on WHAT had happened and WHY!  And these conversations continued until we got the call that dinner was ready and we should be getting ourselves in to the table if we wanted to get anything to eat.

     And after the meal was over there was the “assigned” crew for that day who would clean the table and put all the “left-overs” away for another time.  The rest of us got to go back to our rocking chairs, rest for awhile, and then begin the stories again.  That was a happy time for me to remember.

     Probably one of the other most enjoyable times was on those cool summer evenings when we would get together in the backyard and sit around in the swing eating cold watermelon.  We could cut off a nice sized slice of the melon and my sisters and I would see who could spit the seeds the greatest distance.  We never really cared who won; we just liked spitting the seeds.  And before we would know it we would begin spitting the seeds at each other and finally my mother would make us stop.

     Those were simpler times.  Times when we didn’t have the many pressures that exist in today’s world.  Certainly times that we would like to travel back to on occasions and let our minds enjoy, once again, the pleasures of a by-gone generation of events.

QUOTE TO CONSIDER

THOUGHTFUL GEM

"If anything, the past teaches us that

we need to make changes to improve the future."