I’ve heard the expression “good old days” very often and always in a positive connotation. This triggered my desire to look back to discover whether they really were so good.
Let’s see now what I remember. Remember that I’m an old woman, so it will take me a while.
We had electricity in our house in Dogpatch, which we had not had in our previous home. When we moved in, we could only turn on the kitchen light as the light bulbs had been removed by the previous owners. That was an unexpected, unwelcome surprise.
There was just one black phone in our house (imagine!) and one black and white television. There were no programs on during the daytime. Instead, one could look at the test pattern of a native man with some music playing behind it. Boring!
Oh, we had one radio too. It was in the kitchen where Mom could listen to it while busy with household tasks.
We had an outhouse, as many people did at that time. We got used to it. I have to admit that I enjoy the four-piece bathroom we have now.
I was the only one who had my own bedroom, that is until my little sister Liesje was old enough to share my double bed. That was normal at the time in most homes. My three bothers shared the largest bedroom. My parents slept in the other bedroom.
For months after we moved to Dogpatch village, we had no running water. A well was dug by Dad and some friends. Dynamite was used to get down further as digging with a shovel was hard work in the clay and impossible in the rock.
So when the well was deep and the water came in, pipes were laid bringing the water into the kitchen sink. Huge step forward for our family!
My brothers brought in the wood every day and earlier on Mondays – laundry day — for the cast iron stove. Then an enormous kettle with water would be put on the woodstove to heat until the water was hot enough to do the wash.
Mom used a scrub board to make sure that the clothes were clean, as all women did at that time. With freezing hands, the whites were hung on the long clothesline outside, of course.
Before dark the clothes were retrieved frozen stiff as a board and hung on lines across the kitchen to dry, where they dripped on everything as they were melting. So much fun! So what was better in the “gold old days?” Not doing laundry, that’s for sure!
We all walked to school and back. This kept us healthy and that was a good thing. We had no car and most other people didn’t have one either. This old woman wants to tell you something else – we had strict curfews! Very strict!
Another thing - why do some male teens wear their pants so low that I can see their underwear? I don’t understand that at all – and that their mothers allowed them out of the house like that. Don’t get me started on ripped jeans! High fashion? $200 for ripped jeans and people pay that to be in style? Mothers in the good old days would never have allowed their children to go out the door dressed like that, as it would have shamed them.
They would have ripped those jeans off their kids and patched them, more than once if they needed it. Shaming their mom was just not done. Respect of parents was expected and given.
In many ways, life was simpler then. We just accepted the life we led. We had lots of fun outdoors, without adult supervision I might add.
I remember my brothers and their friends lighting a small fire. Everyone brought a potato from home to be roasted in the campfire, and they were delicious! No permits were required!
My conclusion? Yes, some things were better, but others were not.
Erna de Burger-Fex is a writer and retired teacher.
