The Good Old Days?

Today was Pioneer Day at Old Settler's Park. We had never been before, but after seeing it this year, I am sure we will be back. It was a really unique experience. The folks running it were there in period wear and had brought all sorts of relics and neat old things to look at. People were doing things like "the olden days" and were very well educated about their subject matter. It was a great way to celebrate the American pioneer spirit, learn some history, and reflect on what the good old days were really like.

Sydney was really enjoying the butter churning. She had a hard time letting other kids have a turn. Halfway through, though, her daddy pointed out, "If we really lived in the bad old days, Syd, I would make that your job and then you would hate doing it because you would have to."

Sydney also got to make this simple rag doll. I heard some woman talking to her husband, saying, "See back then kids would play with anything." Well, yes, they would. They also had less time to play (see above mention of chores), grew up faster, had a shorter life expectancy, and truth be told, today's kids (even though we like to call them spoiled and over indulged) will also play with just about anything (think of the fun times with boxes on Christmas Day).

This is Sydney playing with the chalkboard in the one room school house. You know the one: where all the kids listened and obeyed because they knew better than to talk back to a teacher and even though they could only get school'n during the winter months, you would still be amazed by what they could learn. Why an 8th grade test from back then would be a challenge for any of us to pass today. Of course, that's because it was a test of rote memorization of facts, important literature passages and mental arithmetic. With books being available for the everyman, we don't need to memorize Shakespeare in order to enjoy it at home, we have calculators, and thanks to the internet, have little need to memorize much of anything. As for the behavior... how many children were in that little one room school house? Eight? Twelve? Even if I believed that children were so much better behaved back then (which I really don't), I could easily explain away the difference on teacher to student ratios.

I'm a history major. I love learning about the way things were back then. I do occasionally have some nostalgia myself for those good old days. But mostly, I think the more you learn about history, the more you have to enjoy sitting at your computer, in the air conditioning, posting digital pictures for folks all over the country to see instantly, and just be glad you live in the good old now.