I always have a flood of memories at this time each year. When I was younger, this was the perfect time for staying out all day long, into early evening. Summer hadn’t quite lost its grip, the air was still hot, but just a little bit cooler in the early evening and time spent outside and in the barn was wonderful. Just before school would start back (back then we went back to school at the end of August), I’d be outside all day and once school started back, I was in the barn or in the pastures from the time I got home until the lightning bugs came out. That meant it was time to go in.
This time of the year brings back memories of long past days. A time when my curfew was lightning bugs. My parents didn’t call my cell, they yelled my name. I played outside, not online. We said the blessing before every meal. We didn’t text people at the dinner table, we talked to each other. If I didn’t eat what mama cooked, I didn’t eat. ~Unknown
A few days ago, I was around some young people (Tweens) and each of them had a device in their hands. None of them were paying attention to each other or to their surroundings. They were all either texting, surfing or talking on their phones/devices. A beautiful young girl sat down next to me, her fingers moving quickly over the keys of her phone’s keypad.
I asked her, “Have you ever seen a lightening bug”?
She looked confused and said, “A lightning bug? What’s that”?
I said, “Oh, never mind…I can see you are really busy”.
I wasn’t surprised. My how things have changed. When I was twelve, I would not have dreamed of having a device-run society the way we have now. It seems so cold.
I would go in when the lightening bugs came out and if I happened to be a little late, Mother would call me in and she only had to call me once.
And when we all sat down to eat, nobody touched a fork until the blessing was said.
We were the kind of family that solved all the world’s problems around a table. Every single meal. It was nothing for us all to sit around the table and talk for a couple of hours after the meal was over. I loved that. It was wonderful bonding time. My husband and I still do it with my parents.
What did we talk about for that long? Everything! Our lives. We actually knew what was going on in each others’ lives. School, church, friends, animals, farm stuff. We talked about everything because back then that is how we actually communicated. There was no such thing as cell phones and texting.
And oh my the food we had! My mother and grandmother are still the two best cooks I know. Mama could make a cake of cornbread that would make you cry it was so good. They took great pride in everything they cooked. We had our Church’s homecoming the last Sunday of August each year. It always included a “singing”. We would have gospel singing and lunch on the grounds of the church. Mama became famous for her chicken and dumplings and each year people fought over them! I’m smiling about that.
And there was never any such thing of us saying, “I don’t like that” or “Can I have something else”? First of all, we all grew up eating fresh vegetables so there wasn’t a lot we didn’t like. But there was more to it than that. We respected the fact that Mother and Mama (our name for our grandmother) had cooked it for us and we would never not eat it. That’s just the way it was.
I am so grateful for my childhood. I grew up in a time that just seemed a little gentler, a little more kind, less device-friendly and more people-friendly. I feel blessed for my roots, I feel blessed for who and what I grew up with. I know that my upbringing, my childhood have a lot to do with who I’ve become. I am so grateful.
Sending you blessings of love and gratitude from Sterrett, Alabama!
Charity
Copyright © Charity M. Richey-Bentley 2018
Leave a Reply