Me, my 4 siblings, cousins, and my grandparents.
As a grandparent of the 21st century, there are so many things I wish my grandchildren — and even my children — could experience, but they never will. Times have changed and with the changes, life affords our children and grandchildren so many wonderful opportunities and new challenges. Advanced technology, affordable transportation, and new lifestyles make the world seem a lot smaller today than it seemed when we were kids.
But I believe the rapid pace of the world, cell phones, computers, ipods, ipads, iphones, itouches, e-readers, and lots of other technological advances rob our children of really seeing the world in the way it was meant to be enjoyed.
Thinking about my childhood compared to my children’s and my grandchildren’s childhoods brought back a flood of memories – many that my grandchildren will never believe. I pondered some of these things and through a moment of nostalgia, I found myself longing for simpler days. But more importantly, I found myself fervently wishing that my grandchildren could experience some of these things.
No, I didn’t walk 10 miles to school every day, uphill both ways. And I never had to saddle the horses to pull the wagon to town, or haul buckets of water from the creek! But there are some incredible memories of my childhood and growing up in the country. There are things I experienced that I know they’ll never experience, but I wish they could — for just a moment.
- Walking out to gather fresh eggs for my grandmother in the late afternoon, feeling the cool crisp breeze across my face as I carefully stepped into the hen house and filled the wicker basket to overflowing.
- Sitting around the small black and white television set as we watched man take the first step on the moon — amazed and in awe. We just knew that we’d be wearing metallic spacesuits and protective gear to usher in the 21st century!
- Skipping rocks on the pond behind our house as our dad sat quietly on the bank fishing for tiny brim and sneaking in an occasional nap.
- Taking turns at the hand-cranked ice cream churn as we anticipated the delicious homemade ice cream like only momma could make.
- Catching a whiff of the woody aroma as we turned the pages of the encyclopedias to find descriptions and pictures of things we’d never seen.
- Sniffing the rawness of the fresh hay as it was piled into the barn for the animals, and watching the huge silo fill up with the earthy harvest in the fall.
- Climbing the old apple tree in the backyard with limbs mysteriously moving in every direction, and rushing in with a bucket full of apples just in time for my grandma to make the best apple pie you’ve ever eaten.
- Watching my momma roll out homemade biscuits and washing the tops with melted butter.
- Riding our bicycles for hours down dirt roads, around fenced pastures with beautiful majestic horses, and around by the muddy pond where we found plenty of frogs and yes — even a few harmless snakes.
- Laying in bed at night with the windows open and the sounds of crickets chirping softly through the screens, watching the moonlight shadows dance across the room.
- Watching my grandmother sitting in her rocking chair, her apron draped around her knees and a bushel of fragrant fruit beside her, as she slowly peeled the fresh, juicy peaches and dropped them gently into a metal pan – occasionally slipping me a piece.
- Running next door to my grandparent’s house to sit with them in a creaky wooden rocking chair on the front porch in the early evening hours as the stars sparkled above and the moonlight draped across the porch — as we simply watched an occasional car or truck pass by, and listened to my grandma and grandpa talk about the crops, the weather, and what was going on at church.
- Catching lightning bugs in a jar with a lid pierced with jagged holes and using them for lanterns to light our way back home from grandma’s house at bedtime.
The ’60s seem so far away now, but the memories are still so vivid. The times we spent in rural southwest Virginia growing up were some of the best times of our lives, but we didn’t know it at the time. Reflecting on those years and how we lived compared to our children and grandchildren today are worlds apart.
I am thankful that our children have a better style of living, but I also regret that they never get to experience so many of those simple things in life. I recall my granddaughter visiting us at our home in Goochland, where the skies seem bigger and brighter than they do in Short Pump, or Glen Allen, or Richmond, or Chesterfield. She looked up at the shining stars and then with a child’s excitement she said, “Gigi, you can even see the stars from your house – you are so lucky!”
Yes, Emma, I am lucky. I am lucky that I lived my childhood during a time when life was a little bit slower and people had a little more time to enjoy visiting, talking and being together. I’m lucky that I lived my childhood in a place where even the simplest of things was a treat to me and my 4 siblings.
And I’m lucky that I live in a robust, growing, and incredibly awesome place today on the fringes of the capital city of our state where commerce, business, techonology, education, arts, entertainment and more are right at our fingertips.
There are plenty of personal childhood experiences I only wish I could share with my grandchildren for a moment. I just wonder how they will reflect on their childhood when they have grandchildren. I can only imagine that their world will look a lot simpler to their grandchildren too.
I guess they’ll be the lucky ones then.
