When There Were NO Computers, What Did We Do?

Part Three:

One of the things we liked to do most was "Play House". Whenever we could get a brother or a cousin to play the Dad role, that was nice. That meant we could have a complete family with kids and dolls and stuffed animals. Our favorite place to play house was under the big plum bushes near the end of our pasture. We had a cherry tree, some plums, and some blackberry bushes all growing in a small grove. It was under these bushes that we worked and cleaned, removing twigs and debris and ending up with a beautiful mud floor that got

Carla and me at Grammie's and Grampie's

hard-packed by our feet and swept faithfully every play day. Of course, the boys got tired of the cleaning and comforting crying dolls and teddy bears. So they would leave the mothers to tend to the home and children and go off hunting or playing cops and robbers.

We spent a lot of time at Grammie Muriel's and Grampie Ellery's. We lived down over a small hill from them and so we couldn't see their house less than a half mile away. On one side of our grandparents was Uncle Lawrence's family -- and that was three cousins. On our side of Grammie's and Grampie's house was Aunt Iola's family -- and that was two more cousins. I was the eldest cousin and found myself often being "too old" for what was going on. But Andrea was only two years younger and the two of us were best friends and more like sisters than cousins. We had so much fun -- things like dressing cats up in doll clothes and taking them for rides in the doll stroller. Our creativity was only limited by the limits of our imaginations. 

I remember life being SO peaceful for the years that I was an "only child". All my toys were beloved and kept in good shape. Mom was my constant companion and spent time playing games with me and including me in much of her day. When I was 5 1/2, God sent me a little sister and I adored her. Then in the following 3 years came two brothers -- and I adored them, too. Often blessings are accompanied by sacrifice -- and in my case it was great sacrifice. My nearly pristine stuffed animals and dolls became victims of my siblings ... mostly brother number one! It was heart breaking to see things like a stuffed bunny ripped out under his arms or a doll with her hair cut almost totally off. But even then I knew that people were better than stuffed toys and so I rather quietly endured the trauma. 

It was necessary for me to think back and have a little empathy for the clumsiness of little children. After all, I had broken the two front teeth from my mother's one and only baby doll. She had graciously allowed me to play with her and when I was using the thermometer from my "Nurse Kit" to take the doll's temperature it got stuck!  When I pulled the thermometer from the doll's mouth, out came the teeth. Mom was heart broken. Growing up in the depression meant life without many luxuries and so her doll was cherished. And I have always sorrowed over ruining her!

We always had enough to eat and we dressed in hand-me-down's a good share of the time. We were warm for the most part. That is, we were warm except on winter mornings before the stoves were turned up and the skim of ice was melted in the water bucket kept by our kitchen sink. By today's standards, we were poor, but we didn't know it. We were happy. 

We manufactured our own fun and we knew little of what it meant to be entertained. We entertained ourselves. If there was nothing else to do, we would lie on the hay in the barn and watch a spider diligently build a web. And we loved to see them kill the flies they trapped. It was amazing to watch them wrap the murdered flies in a silken blanket -- a burial shroud. 

Chores were always part of our lives. There were house chores and there were barn chores. I preferred the barn. There were usually pigs to feed, cows to feed and water, chickens to care for, eggs to gather. In the garden we pulled weeds, helped harvest the produce, and had tasks related to preserving enough food for the following winter. We were a team. We survived together, and we usually did so happily. Though I absolutely hated dealing with the flatware when we washed the dishes. NO, we didn't have a dishwasher. Everything went into a pan of warm, sudsy water and scrubbed clean. That was one person's job. Another would take the washed and rinsed dishes and wipe them dry. Someone tall enough to safely reach the cupboards put the stack of clean dishes away. 

God was uppermost in our lives. We talked about Him and about the Bible. And we talked to Him. We prayed at every meal and at bed time. I remember the lengthy prayers of little siblings who didn't know what else to say, so there was quite a list of, "God bless Mommy and Daddy . . . God bless [this one and that]" until they couldn't think of anybody else. And when they finished blessing the people they would sometimes start in on the animals. Another long list was "Thank You. . ." It was because of those times, we learned that God is real and that He loves to hear and answer prayer. 

All of that beats TV and the internet! Many times I have said this and I will say it again: I am SO thankful for growing up in a Christian environment and a loving family. And that is why I consider myself wealthy -- rich in good memories and in knowing my Lord and Savior. I have an amazing future waiting for me, blessings that my effort could never obtain. And if I had all the money in the world I could never purchase salvation. It is the gift of God's grace. 

Life Without Computers and The Like -- Chapter Two

Dear Grandchildren,

Last time I talked about life as I first remember it. The home where my immediate family lived had more

My Mom and Brother Brian

modern conveniences than our grandmother's and grandfather's house. I recall moving into our home on "the main road" (US 1) in Littleton. It is unclear where we moved from, but it was definitely exciting to be in our new house.

The house had been purchased by my parents and moved about 1/2 mile to the small farm they bought from Grammie Ruth's Aunt Lillian and Uncle Howard Graham. The house sat on blocks at first across the driveway from a rock foundation where the farm house was before it burned. I am not sure just how long we lived in our house on blocks, but it was for a few years.

We had electricity, but no running water. Having electricity meant we had lights in all the rooms, a refrigerator for keeping our perishable food supply, an electric washing machine for agitating and cleaning clothing and a power-driven wringer for getting the excess water out of the laundered items. There were lights in the barn where we had varying numbers of cows, calves, pigs, chickens, and turkeys, so no oil lanterns were needed in our barn! Near the house was our water well with a hand pump. On the other side of the barn was our outhouse -- a two-seater. And, yes, there was a Sears catalog there!

At night and on cold days we listened to the radio. There was music and news, yes. But the thing we liked the most was to listen to the stories. We gathered around the livingroom and waited for one of the adults to tune in the radio. It made strange sounds until the dial was set just right and then it was ALL ears! One program was "Dragnet" with Officer Joe Friday. He always caught the bad men. Then there was Boston Blackie. I don't remember what show he was on. We listened to the "Inner Sanctum". I don't remember much about the stories, but I remember the creaking door that sent chills up my spine. I think there were monsters -- scary, but funny to some. We liked Abbot and Costello -- so funny, always! And there were more. Some of those shows made it to TV a few years later.

We liked to be out-of-doors more than anything. Some of the games we played would not be politically correct today. We played "Cops and Robbers" and "Cowboys and Indians". Those were games that were maybe a take-off on the game of "Tag". Basically we chased each other around pretending to be shooting each other. Boy, would that get us into trouble in the 21st century. We played things like "Kick The Can", "Hide and Seek", "Frozen Tag", and "Alley Over". The only need for real sporting equipment for that kind of game was a ball for "Alley Over".  That was a great game at school, too.

We had clubs with rules. And sometimes children got into trouble with parents or grandparents for making a girl ONLY club or a "No Girls Allowed" play house. Saw horses, planks, tires, just about anything became construction material for our creations! Oh, yes -- we had to put things away, but we turned that into fun, too.

Of course, we played baseball and soft ball in the pasture; we played croquet; and we liked to play horse shoes, too. We loved to play "house" and that was really a role play game. It was fun being the baby and bawling like one. The girls liked to make "Mud Pies" -- it was just stirring up dirt and water and putting it into our tiny cake pans or some other substitute. Sometimes we would decorate them with wild flowers. Grammie Muriel was famous for letting us go to the hen house to gather a few eggs to stir into our mud concoctions. (She rarely said "no" to us but when she did, she meant it!)

What about rainy days? OH, they were great fun. We put our swim suits on during down-pours and played in the mud puddles. On really hot days, we made shelters under the trees and then begged for crackers and milk or some other goody so we could sit in the shade and have a picnic. Another favorite was to get a banana, climb up into a tree, sit on a branch and pretend to be monkeys eating our fruit.

We liked to climb up on a tractor and pretend to drive it. And we loved to go out and pet the cows. Sometimes we even laid on the grass and rested our heads on a nice, warm cow who was placidly chewing her cud. The hay mows were awesome places to play and hide -- and so were the bins of oats being stored for the hens and pigs.

 Every yard had a sand/gravel pile and we used to make awesome roads with the toy graders and run the dump trucks over them to pick up loads of gravel to create new landscapes to go with our network of roads.

So what about life without computers and TV?  Somehow I think childhood was a lot richer in certain ways. Our great and delicious fun knew no bounds except the limits of our own creativity and the inability of  the adults to always see why we needed to do this or have that!

To be continued. . .

How Did We Live Without Computers?

This year, Grampie and I will have our 71st birthdays. Now, to clear the air, I should say my birthday comes FIRST. According to your grandfather, that makes me WAY older than he. And when I say "five months", he replies, "5 months and THREE days". Oh, well! I am not going to live that down. So maybe I should embrace it and tell him I am older AND wiser. What do you think?

What was life like, growing up in the 1940s and 1950s? How could we have had any fun without computers, televisions, and very few battery operated toys? What did kids do in the "olden days", anyway? You must wonder. So I'll give you a brief tour of life for us "back then".

First of all, I remember when my grandparents had NO electricity in their home. Their lights were mostly oil burning lamps which gave out enough light to do evening chores. It was hard to read by their light, though. They cooked their food on a wood burning stove that had a tank on the side for warming water. And, speaking of water, they had a cast iron hand pump installed by their sink and so they were able to pump water from the well by pumping up and down on the handle. It worked quite well.

With no electricity, what did they do to keep their food from spoiling? Well, they had an icebox in the shed (an unfinished room off the kitchen). In the winter, they would go to the lake and cut out blocks of ice for use in the icebox. So how did they keep the blocks of ice frozen from one winter to the next? They stacked the blocks on the ground and covered them with a thick covering of sawdust. The sawdust pile was always wet from melting ice, but the cold ice blocks kept it cold under the sawdust that insulated them from most of the warmth of the spring, summer, and fall air.

They canned (or jarred) most of our food from the garden and some of our meat. This lined shelves in the basement for use year-round.

In my earliest years, most of our food was home grown. I can still remember the big barrel of molasses, the sacks of flour, and the sacks of sugar my grandfather carried in. The flour and sugar sacks were made of cloth and that cloth was used to make aprons, back quilt blocks, or to make other clothing. Nothing was wasted. It was always too hard to get. Besides, there was no dump accessible to us back then, so things were recycled as much as possible. What little that was discarded was burned in the back yard in a 50 gallon drum or dumped in a heap in a back field or in the woods.

And what about taking a shower? They didn't have one. Every day we had warm water, soap, a wash cloth, and a towel. We washed up and then threw the water out the back door or down the sink -- but the sink drained out back anyway so if it was easier to throw it out the back door than go to the sink, that is what we did! On Saturday night we took a bath in order to be extra clean for going to Church the next morning. We had galvanized steel tubs that sat on the kitchen floor near the wood stove. Hot water was taken from the tank on the wood stove and poured into the tub. This was usually too hot for a bath, so it was adjusted with cold water from the hand pump at the sink. The curtains were pulled in the room for privacy and everyone stayed out of the kitchen until it was their turn. Everybody used the same water and when it started to cool off, a little more water was taken from the tank on the stove and poured into the tub. If the tub was too full, some water was dipped out before the warmer water was added. After the bath, the water was dipped out and thrown away until the tub was not too heavy to carry and then the rest was taken outside to be dumped.

And laundry? They did it by hand. There was a "scrub board" that sat in the wash tub for rubbing off dirt. A boiler of water with some bleach was on the wood stove for the "whites". After they were in the very hot water, they were fished out with a large wooden tool used for that purpose. Washed clothes were put in a tub of cold water for rinsing and then they were put through a wringer. This consisted of two rubber rollers a foot or more long and a handle for cranking. The clothing was fed in between the rollers and the excess water fell on a drip pan and back into the tub. Once wrung out, the clothes were put into a basket and carried outside to the clothes line. There was a wooden clothes rack to stand near the stove on freezing and rainy days and a folding rack attached to the wall over the stove. On those days, wet clothes could dry inside. We liked the smell of our sheets after they dried outside. And towels? Before the day of the electric (or gas) dryer, towels and face cloths were rough.

I don't think they had time for computers or TV. And this is only the beginning.

Thus ends chapter ONE.

God Sticks To His Word

It is so important for Christians to read the Bible for ourselves. Part of the reason is that there are false teachers and we must beware of them. Some of them are like wolves in sheep's clothing. And some of them are just sincerely wrong. It is very possible for any of us to be deceived. 

Remember how Jesus said that He was going to send another comforter to us? That is the Holy Spirit, who would indwell us and lead us into all truth. We can trust Him to teach us and to warn us when we see or read something. Even so, believers can take some bypaths and we do not always understand perfectly. We still are human and we are weak. However, I believe if we are faithful to our study of the Word and asking God for wisdom, He will teach us what we need to know. 

In Acts 17 the people from Berea were admired because they were constantly searching the Scriptures to confirm what they were being taught. "Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true." (verse 11 - NIV) We have advantages over them because they only had the Old Testament -- we have the entire Bible, the revelation of God to us in writing. 

The reason I entitled this little blog "God Sticks To His Word" is because some Churches and some prominent individuals are deviating from the clear teachings of the Bible. Some of us are caving in to relativism and to political correctness. And while some believe their re-interpretations are compassionate or loving, they are forgetting that God is not only loving. He is HOLY and He is JUST and He is IMMUTABLE (does not change). There are more and more instances where professing Christians are embracing the thinking of this world system (which is, in essence, opposed to God -- His enemy). 

The Bible says:

Malachi 3:6 "I the Lord do not change."

Heb.1:10 "And, Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thine hands... and they shall be changed: but thou art the same. . ." (quote of Psalm 102:25)

Hebrews 13:8 "Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever."

It is not my purpose here to discuss particular sins. The list of offenses against God is long. Some of them are obvious to us, and others are less visible. But let me just say that the Bible teaches that we have ALL sinned and come short of the glory of God. His standard is Jesus and NONE of us can claim to be as good as He is. In fact, the Bible says there is no good thing in any of us. When we look at each other, we might see different traits that we admire -- but even those things are inferior to Jesus and His altogether perfection. When we come to know Christ, He imputes HIS righteousness to us. So our record in Heaven is clean. A background check up there would reveal no wrong doing. It is by HIS grace that we are saved, but it is on HIS merit and not on our own. 

God does NOT overlook sin, though. He took a huge mountain of sin from every believer and threw it away, never to look at it again. And while he has great compassion toward us, He expects Christians not to settle down and think that anything goes now that we are in His forever family. NO! If we love Him, we will want to KEEP His commandments, not violate and excuse them. We aren't to do that in ourselves or on behalf of anyone else. We are to repent when we fall. See I John 1:9 (if we confess our sin, He is faithful and just to forgive our sin and to clean us up again). So we must turn away from our sin and apologize to God for it (repent) as often as we need to and that will probably be often. Examples: lose our temper; lie; be rude; put ourselves first; disrespect someone -- and more. (Read I Corinthians 6)

Bottom line, grandchildren: God's opinion is the one that counts. It is an admirable thing to listen to the teachings of others. That is usually very helpful. But check it out in the Bible. GOD is never wrong. 

Why Go To Church, Anyway?

There are more and more professing Christian people these days who do not attend worship services regularly and do not support a Church or spend much time with other Christians. We wonder why. Perhaps it is because they do not see the need for it. Maybe it is because they are upset with someone at the Church. We hear lots of reasons and lots of excuses, but it makes us sad. 

We would like to talk to you about that, but first please read this important teaching from I Corinthians 12, which tells us that the human body is a picture (or an analogy) to show us the importance of being together with other Christians in the Church:

Beginning in verse 25, it says, "The way God designed our bodies is a model for understanding our lives together as a church: every part dependent on every other part, the parts we mention and the parts we don't, the parts we see and the parts we don't. If one part hurts, every other part is involved in the hurt, and in the healing. If one part flourishes, every other part enters into the exuberance. You are Christ's body -- that's who you are! You must never forget this. (From THE MESSAGE).

What does that say to you? It tells me that the body cannot function right if the foot is in the livingroom, the hand is out in the yard, and the head is downtown. All the parts need to be working together. And every part is necessary. Christians NEED each other! 

Recently some people have said some things that I would like to share with you: one lady said, "staying away from Church because it is full of hypocrites is like staying away from AA because it is full of alcoholics. That's the whole point!"  I think she had a great way of saying that nobody is perfect. We all need God and His grace because we are all sinners who need His help and salvation. And, of course, we need each other. 

Another person said that if God has taken you to a place where the Church has a lot of problems, maybe it is because that Church needs you. Maybe they need you to encourage them, pray for them, and help them to grow "in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ." 

Grampie said we have to listen to what the Bible says and we have to decide whether or not we are going to be obedient to the Lord. He did say that we are not to forsake the assembling of ourselves together. Some do that, but we should not. 

From time to time in our lives, Grampie and I have had our tough times of discouragement, sorrow, illness, and disappointment. We have always been encouraged by God and from His Word. But we have also been blessed by friends who come along and say things like, "I am praying for you." Or they give us a hug or send a note just letting us know they care. 

By placing us in the Church -- the community of believers -- God has blessed us with a spiritual family to share our happy times and our grief. We know that we never walk alone. Jesus is always there and so are His people. 

We want to encourage you to find a Church where you can worship the Lord with others. There isn't a perfect Church here on earth, but someday God will purify us. Then the nagging of our old, sinful nature and the temptations from the flesh and the devil will be gone forever. We will be free at last! And so will all the other people down here who are not perfect yet. 

The world NEEDS Jesus and He is our best friend. We can tell them about Him individually, and as a Church. Let's get busy with the job He gave us to do! 

Each For The Other

On August 27, 2013 we reached another milestone in our life together. It was the fiftieth anniversary

of our wedding. It is hard for us to even imagine that it has been a half-century since we pledged our love and commitment before God, "each for the other, and both for the Lord." The very thought of it is very precious to us. Why? One of the reasons is the fact that we are both totally convinced that it was GOD who brought us together for His own purposes -- and, family, all of you were included in His plans. One by one, He sent you our way -- and each one of you is a greater blessing to us than you can begin to imagine.

We have had a lot of joy over these fifty years and we have also experienced some sorrow. Those are among the elements of life. We have known that this life together has been winding down all along, but at this point in our lives we are more keenly aware of that fact than ever before. As I have put it, we are "ripening for the great harvest". One of these days -- maybe very soon or maybe a decade or more -- our stay on this earth will be over. People often say, "they've gone to a better place." Sometimes that is very meaningful and sometimes it just seems like the right thing to say just to comfort ourselves when a loved one or a friend dies.

More than anything in this life, Gramp and I want you to know that life will never be "over" for us. We have a gift of God, which is amazing. We have eternal life, not in these bodies but in the spirits that live in our bodies. Once our spirits were dead, but NOW by the grace of God through faith in the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus we are alive forever more. We know that when we go HOME to God, those of you that are still here will have sorrow. But the Christian does not sorrow the way others do, who have NO hope of life beyond what we know right now. The Christian has joy, even in sorrow, knowing that we will meet again and be together forever. What a wonderful, amazing, and secure knowledge that is!

Our most fervent prayer is that our circle will not be broken and that each and every one of YOU will live together with our Lord and with us in Heaven. Read these words carefully from the Bible. If you are a believer, rejoice in them! If you are not, I pray the eyes of your spirit will be open to see what God has done for you.

"For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus."  From Romans 3

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." John 3:16

^"He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God." John 1:11-13

 ". . . if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved."    Romans 10:9-10

 ". . . by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them."
Ephesians 2:8-10

   

A Hug From Nearly 50 Years Ago

October, 2013
This past week I was up to Grammie Ruth's at Cary Lake in Littleton. One day I was doing some things with her bookshelves and her files and I came across a square, flat box. This reminded me of the boxes that used to hold lovely, lace-bound handkerchiefs for ladies. And sure enough! Inside, wrapped in tissue, were three lovely ones. They were the fashionable kind that women carried to Church or other dress-up occasions. Also in the box was a delightful Christmas card addressed to my mother. It was signed, "Dallas".

Here I held in my hand a Christmas card and gift from my mother-in-law to my mother that was probably given and received in 1963 -- the year that Gramp and I were married. The thing that took my breath was a simple message on the back of the card, "thank you for giving me a wonderful daughter." I cannot even begin to tell you how much that sentiment meant to me. It was a difficult wait for Gramp to come in from hunting. I could hardly wait to show him the long-forgotten treasure.

Now let me say that our parents grew up in the times of the Great Depression. Therefore, they wasted nothing and they didn't start using anything "new" until the old was no longer useful. I remember my Mom using clear nail polish to stop the runs on her nylon stockings. And she STILL washes out plastic sandwich bags to be used over and over. Those are just two examples of her frugality.

So often her children have opened a new package of towels or a new set of drinking glasses or some other gift just to be sure she used them. But she still keeps some of her new treasures in their boxes or puts them on a shelf where they wait to be used and enjoyed. It is a habit from childhood poverty and the 1930s that has never totally gone away.

But in contrast to my consternation in the past, this time I was happy to find the unused gift in the security of a collection of old photos and composition books. I was thrilled to receive this high compliment from my mother-in-law, a lady who also grew up with ideas like, "don't praise them too much or they will be 'stuck up'". Of course, I knew she loved me -- she said she did. But I am so glad she thought I was "wonderful" -- and more than that, she thought of me as a daughter. She only had three sons. Her one daughter did not survive to be born. I am SO glad God gave me the opportunity to help fill one corner of the void that she felt forever from the time she learned she had lost a little girl.

This find touched Gramp's heart, too -- it was like a little visit from her. It was like a hug and kiss.


PS: I took the box into the room where my Mom was sitting and I told her I had found something I would like to have if it was ok with her. And, of course, it was!