The Good Old Days

A dear friend recently posted on social media how he missed the good old days and meant it. I do for sure and for a few reasons. Looking back and fondly remembering happy times in our lives is good. I think it brings smiles to our faces and warmth to our hearts. 

When my dad was my age, he had a teenage daughter, 4-year-old son, loving wife, and the whole world ahead of the family. Raising some cattle, keeping the garden tended, working full time, and planning for the future were just a few of the things that kept life interesting. 

My dad worked for the telephone company almost all his adult life. He ran lines, climbed poles, and dug ditches in his telephone career. When pagers came out, he was a supervisor and had to carry it all the time. When call forwarding was created, he and one of his buddies had their pagers forwarded to their home phones so he didn’t have to carry the pager anymore. 

Dad usually had a company truck to drive and I remember going to his office sometimes when mom couldn’t pick me up from daycare. I spent a lot of time at the bank with my mom after school too. 

It wasn’t uncommon getting a call in the middle of the night that a cow was out on the road. We would have to get up and get her back in and fix the fence by truck headlights. Some things form the good old days never change, and fixing a fence in the middle of the night is one of them - but pickups definitely have better and more lights to see at night. 

It was a time when there were no computers or cell phones, we had 3 or 4 stations on the TV from the antenna. The entertainment was being busy outside and playing in the dirt. Many farm kids cut their teeth on driving the hay truck while everyone else was able to throw bales on the trailer. 

I remember my mom would get up, make breakfast for everyone, and then get ready for work. She would get home from work, do chores around the house and outside, and then make supper. My sister almost always had basketball practice or cheerleader practice. 

I remember football games in the fall when the air was crisp. Getting up early on a Saturday morning to head to a jackpot show. This is a time when we fitted cattle for every show. Pulled leg hair, did tails, and all the works. 

This was a great time. One that was experienced by many people. Life seemed so busy, yet simple. I remember on summer nights sitting in the back yard under shade trees because it was cooler than in the house. My childhood house was a 1940’s farm house with no central heat or air. Window A/C in the living room, water cooler in the kitchen, and there was a Dearborn heater in the living room that ran on gas. 

Cable TV didn’t run to the country and we never knew the difference.  We had a record player, radio, TV for local news and weather. Mom read a lot of books, and there was always plenty of work to do around the farm. I do miss the good old days. I miss my entire family being together.  I miss sitting in the backyard eating my mom’s homemade ice-cream. I miss the laughs and smiles we had from my crazy sister. 

Life wasn’t always rosy. The good times far outweighed the bad. Focusing on the good times is what we all should do. Not everyone had it easy growing up. We build our lives from the times that were tough to make it better today. We remember the times that were good to drive ourselves to create more good times. 

There are plenty of good times to still be had in life. No matter what age. We have to forgive our sins of the past and the sins of others against us. It is never about forgetting those bad times, it’s about taking those experiences and making it better for today. 

There are plenty of mistakes I have made in the past. Those mistakes, I’d like to think, have made me a better person. It should you too and reflect unto the children close to us. We teach history to learn what not to do in the future. May we take our bad days and learn, so we can have the simpler times of the ‘good ol days’ to reflect on and smile.

“Start taking each day as if it will be the good old days, because it will be before you know it.” Jeremy Workman