I'll never say never, but it will be a cold day in Hell before I go on
Face Book. My friends are those people I've known for years and call
them or drop around to visit. I do claim a number of email
acquaintances, including Miriam, Roger, Bob, Charlie, Penny, Frank and
a number of others whose names snuck to the back of my brain. But
most of what I write is what I'm feeling at the moment. If I stretch
the facts a bit...well, tough! But talking about Christmas Letters!
There was a time when I said I'd never torture folks with Christmas
Letters. I had a couple of aunts who used those letters to shame us
who were not Believers. And they loved to brag about their "personal
relationship" with Jesus. I figured that was fine and good for them,
but they were fooling themselves if they thought they'd bring me and
my folks to our senses.
But after Cathy and I moved into our house, in 1995, I began writing
an annual letter. I suppose I might have staged some events in a
favorable light, but mostly it was just catching folks up on our
activities...letting them know that we were still hanging around.
Carl Jarvis
On 7/12/19, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
A lot of people use Facebook to present an idealized picture of themselves
and their families. After all, that's what Facebook is, a place for public
advertisements. It's like the Christmas letters people send each year. Those
letters are never true representations of what has actually been going on.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Friday, July 12, 2019 2:54 PM
To: blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [blind-democracy] Re: The Good Old Daze
Mother taught my two sisters and me how to darn our socks at an early age.
She also taught us to do simple mending. While I can't do justice to a pair
of slacks, I can put patches on jeans or old work pants, and get a few more
miles of wear out of them. Even old jeans can be cut into patches which
protect the knees when weeding the garden. Cathy and I taught the kids to
do some of the basics, but not to the degree our mother's taught us. My
kids are basically frugal...although they like to joke and call me Cheap!
I personally believe that we made a sad mistake, believing that making life
easier was the same as making life better. My mother and grandma wrote each
other at least twice a week, and I remember the joy mother received each
time she sat down to read the latest news from home. I never feel that sort
of happiness on the faces of people today, as they read their Face Book
messages.
Carl Jarvis
On 7/12/19, Miriam Vieni <miriamvieni@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
This is absolutely wonderful. I do wish that I could send it to
everyone. My contribution is that my very smart, tech savvy young home
health aid mentioned that there's a tiny rip on the quilt that covers
my bed, apparently caused by Madeline's claws. I asked if she knew how
to mend a rip and she said that she never repaired any rips in
clothing. If there is a small tear in something, she just throws it
out and buys a new one. I have memories of my mother darning my
father's socks. My home health aid works 2 jobs to make ends meet.
She's 27. So I asked my 47 year old daughter if she ever mends rips in
clothing and she doesn't either. But of course, this dream of
convenience and a world in which all one's needs will be met by
artificial intelligence, a world in which you never repair anything
old, but always replace it with something new, has been sold to us by
the same people who convinced us that we could only preserve our nation's
honor by ruling the world.
Miriam
-----Original Message-----
From: blind-democracy-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx On Behalf Of Carl Jarvis
Sent: Friday, July 12, 2019 11:30 AM
To: blind-democracy <blind-democracy@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [blind-democracy] The Good Old Daze
Maybe we should consider "Returning to America's Greatness".
Checking out at the store, the young cashier suggested to the much
older lady that she should bring her own grocery bags, because plastic
bags are not good for the environment.
The woman apologized to the young girl and explained, "We didn't have
this 'green thing' back in my earlier days."
The young clerk responded, "That's our problem today. Your generation
did not care enough to save our environment for future generations."
The older lady said that she was right our generation didn't have the
"green thing" in its day. The older lady went on to explain:
Back then, we returned milk bottles, soda bottles and beer bottles to
the store. The store sent them back to the plant to be washed and
sterilized and refilled, so it could use the same bottles over and
over. So they really were recycled. But we didn't have the "green thing"
back in our day.
Grocery stores bagged our groceries in brown paper bags that we reused
for numerous things. Most memorable besides household garbage bags was
the use of brown paper bags as book covers for our school books. This
was to ensure that public property (the books provided for our use by
the
school) was not defaced by our scribbling. Then we were able to
personalize our books on the brown paper bags. But, too bad we didn't
do the "green thing" back then.
We walked up stairs because we didn't have an escalator in every store
and office building. We walked to the grocery store and didn't climb
into a 300-horsepower machine every time we had to go two blocks. But
she was right. We didn't have the "green thing" in our day.
Back then we washed the baby's diapers because we didn't have the
throw away kind. We dried clothes on a line, not in an energy-gobbling
machine burning up 220 volts. Wind and solar power really did dry our
clothes back in our early days. Kids got hand-me-down clothes from
their brothers or sisters, not always brand-new clothing. But that
young lady is right; we didn't have the "green thing" back in our day.
Back then we had one TV, or radio, in the house -- not a TV in every
room.
And the TV had a small screen the size of a handkerchief (remember
them?), not a screen the size of the state of Montana. In the kitchen
we blended and stirred by hand because we didn't have electric
machines to do everything for us. When we packaged a fragile item to
send in the mail, we used wadded up old newspapers to cushion it, not
Styrofoam or plastic bubble wrap. Back then, we didn't fire up an
engine and burn gasoline just to cut the lawn. We used a push mower
that ran on human power. We exercised by working so we didn't need to
go to a health club to run on treadmills that operate on electricity. But
she's right; we didn't have the "green thing" back then.
We drank from a fountain when we were thirsty instead of using a cup
or a plastic bottle every time we had a drink of water. We refilled
writing pens with ink instead of buying a new pen, and we replaced the
razor blade in a razor instead of throwing away the whole razor just
because the blade got dull. But we didn't have the "green thing" back
then.
Back then, people took the streetcar or a bus and kids rode their
bikes to school or walked instead of turning their moms into a 24-hour
taxi service in the family's $45,000 SUV or van, which cost what a
whole house did before the "green thing." We had one electrical outlet
in a room, not an entire bank of sockets to power a dozen appliances.
And we didn't need a computerized gadget to receive a signal beamed
from satellites 23,000 miles out in space in order to find the nearest
burger joint.
But isn't it sad the current generation laments how wasteful we old
folks were just because we didn't have the "green thing" back then?
Please forward this on to another selfish old person who needs a
lesson in conservation from a smart ass young person.
We don't like being old in the first place, so it doesn't take much
