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Health & Fitness

A Long Gone Land

There are two new additions to our clan, Cashton and Laila, both born within weeks of each other on opposite ends of the U.S.

I doubt if their paths will ever cross, but who knows, fate is whimsical, and life is ever changing.

However, since the odds are rather strong at this moment, and while I have sent each what I hope was an appropriate welcome to our 2014 world, I would like to leave them something else.  Perhaps an insight into what life was life for their Great Grandmother in the land they will view several decades from now as "Once Upon A Time."

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Ellen Quinn King, my Maternal Grandmother, their Great Great Great Grandmother, and my sons' (their Grandfathers) Great Grandmother was not blessed with old bones and had departed this earth early in my childhood.  While she had 13 children, there were only 4 Granddaughters, and at this moment, only my Great Grandchildren are the current descendants.

I wonder how she would feel after giving birth to seven sons and six daughters to know there are only two new members in 2014.

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However, this story is for them, the two new arrivals, so let me begin to tell them about life in that long gone land of once upon a time.

They both may find these things difficult to believe in 2034, but I can assure them they were true.

There were stores.  All those boarded up empty buildings once held stores, filled with merchandise, and employees who assisted customers.  The internet shopping was a relatively new experience, yet many people still walked or drove to stores and purchased items.  There was even a bakery, a shop that baked and sold breads, cakes, cookies, all made fresh daily.  Sometimes the aroma from the baking filled the air outside the shop if you walked by early in the morning.  Often our children would walk up to the bakery on a weekend morning and buy two loaves of fresh white bread for breakfast.  On special occasions they bought doughnuts, muffins and sometimes cinnamon bread.  That was before it was illegal to sell fattening foods.

There was also a wonderful building, we called a library, and it was filled with books.  Printed books with hard covers, and readers were allowed to borrow them, bring them home and after finishing, return them to the library. The library was a home away from home, filled with activities, but the main purpose was to provide reading material.  E Books were beginning to become popular, but many avid readers still believed in holding a printed version rather than looking at a computer screen.  As soon as a child learned to read, his parents brought him to the library, and he was given a library card.  I remember always having mine in my wallet, but that was before all the libraries closed.

Most people had conversations.  A conversation was a face to face chat not a text or a twitter or notation on Facebook.  The Smartphones were in their infancy, but most of the older generation preferred actually speaking to friends and family rather than using an electronic device.  I rather doubt it is still a popular method of communication, but it was lovely, absolutely lovely.

When someone was ill, we went to a Doctor's office, and he examined us, checked our symptoms and made a diagnosis.  He knew our names and medical history, and often treated our children.  Medical care was provided regardless of age or infirmity or ability to contribute.

And amazingly, there were many elderly people.  They were still visible driving cars, shopping in the stores, visiting the libraries, and contributing to society.  There were no death panels or limitations on an aging population or those with disabilities.

And there were many children.  Some families had four even five.  There were no government restrictions or limits on family size during those years of The Land Of Once Upon A Time.

And we did not always know the whereabouts of those who shared our love and lives.  Cell phones were in use, but sometimes families only spoke once a day if they did not share the same household.  Often they only communicated every other day.  There was more independence and less reliance on constant communication.  Surveillance was not a routine part of our lives as yet.

There was more than one political party, and people were not fearful of identifying their beliefs, including those in a Higher Power, or what was then called God.  There were Christians, Jews and Moslems, all observing their own faiths.  Each one had many believers in a Divine Being, above and beyond the State.  And there were churches, temples, and mosques of many denominations, and some people attended service on Sundays; others on Saturday.

Occasionally, we still spoke our thoughts aloud without fear.  Admittedly, the climate was changing rapidly, and political correctness was beginning to limit opinions, and resulting in hypocrisy.  Some views were not popular, but the Constitution was still the law of the land, and there was something called The First Amendment.  Perhaps you can still read about it.  It gave people The Right To Free Speech.  But that was ever so long ago, before your time.

There were also newspapers, printed daily with news (local and national) and advertising on soft paper pages.  They were either delivered to homes, or sold in one of the stores that, of course, are now closed.  Some people were beginning to read the news on the internet, and newspapers were beginning to lose readership, and a few were closing.  Several years earlier the same thing had happened to magazines.  A magazine was a collection of essays, opinions, advice, usually printed on glossy paper with interesting photographs.  For decades, they were popular, and people actually gave subscriptions as gifts.  However, most of them had gone out of business before 2020.

But that was ever so long ago in The Land Of Once Upon A Time.

I thought one day when you are quite a bit older, perhaps one or maybe both of you might enjoy reading about a time and place I fear will not even be remembered.

It was called America!


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