The power is out and my first instinct is to flip the
switch. Down, up, down, and up again.
Nothing! The roar of water in the dishwasher is silenced, the dryer
tumbles to a stop, my vacuum is mute in my hand, and the discomfort of
perspiration moistens my clothes as the air conditioner is quiet. I can do nothing but sit down and wait for
the household appliances to come alive.
I ponder all the modern conveniences that electricity and
gasoline have brought into our lives and daydream of times long past and how
our ancestors carved America out of the wilderness without any of them. They
lived and survived with limited means in the areas of:
Travel:
Bouncing around in covered wagons, stagecoaches, buckboards, and by foot or on horseback.
Laundry:
Wash pans, scrub boards, & clotheslines when the sun was shining kept clean
clothes on their backs.
Comforts:
Wood stoves for warmth in the winter; hand-held fans created a breeze in the
stifling summer heat.
Cooking:
Large kettles and iron skillets cooked home grown vegetables and game over
fireplaces and campfires.
Lighting:
Oil lamps and candles would give off faint light in a dim corner.
Contact:
Gossip was shared by word-of-mouth and current events were read in newspapers.
Messages:
A quill pen and an ink well put words to paper to share news with family and
friends. Our documents of
freedom: the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, and our Constitution
were immortalized this way.
Leisure:
Plays, square dances, rodeos, barn raisings were the height of a social
atmosphere.
Ease:
Climbing stairs to the second story and above gave everyone a healthy heart.
Production:
After cutting down trees and splitting logs, hammers and hand saws, and backbreaking
work over long days, slowly built the family dwelling.
Farming:
More tree cutting to clear a field; then plows, hoes, hand planting and
harvesting fed the family with a little extra to barter with neighbors.
Healthcare:
Home remedies that cured any ailment imaginable.
Sanitation:
Boiling water over the fire gave a hot bath, whether it was needed or not.
Mail-order catalogs inspired big dreams and then were used in the family
outhouse for other purposes.
We’ve
come a long way since then and I for one am very thankful for the conveniences
we enjoy in these same areas:
Travel:
We now zoom across the country and around the world in airplanes, trains,
automobiles, motorcycles, and RV’s in a fraction of the time.
Laundry:
We add soap & push a button for clean clothes; add a fabric sheet &
push a button for dry clothes.
Comforts:
We can be as warm as we want during the winter; no chopping wood with an ax in
the snow, and just as cool in the summertime with the turn of a knob.
Cooking:
Stoves, microwaves, dishwashers, trash compactors, garbage disposals keep us
well fed and our kitchen clean.
Lighting:
No more smell of oil or burning candles. Lamps and light bulbs brighten our
nights.
Contact:
Telephones, cell phones, and the internet busily whiz our thoughts and words to
others twenty-four hours a day. Oh, we still have newspapers but they are now identified
as slanted toward the left or the right and we read whichever one we believe.
Messages:
Computers are the present and future and they are being designed ever smaller
and compact.
Leisure:
Movies, television, and radio bombard our senses so that our mind has little
time to neither comprehend nor digest what is being seen or said. Thank God we
can still enjoy the plays, the square dances, and the rodeos.
Ease:
Elevators and escalators move us to our destination without lifting a foot,
hence the health problems and early demise of an immobile society.
Production:
A generator on the job site powers the tools that get the job done; saws whiz
through lumber and nail guns hold it all together. Does anyone know how to swing
a hammer anymore?
Farming:
Planting and harvesting machinery bring in our crops and get them to market
just in time for our dinner table each night but God is still the sole source
of the seed, the sun, the soil, and the rain.
Healthcare:
Prescription drugs and medical equipment take care of what ails us but our
lifestyle, our fast food, and
our stressed out lives are probably the cause of most of our ailments.
Sanitation:
Ah, TOILETS!!! Indoor plumbing!!! Turn the faucet and we have a hot bath or an invigorating shower. Add soap, push a button, and we have clean
clothes. A jiggle of the handle and our toilet flushes, a swish of the brush
and it’s clean!
I would not have liked nor would I probably have survived
a life lived as my grandparents or great-grandparents but I am here because of
their determination and sacrifice. My great-grandparents desired freedom in a
new world and determined to cross the seas from Poland, England, and Ireland to
come to America. They determined to cross the country in covered wagons to
settle in Kentucky, Arkansas, and Oklahoma. They also met and married Native
Americans of Choctaw and Cherokee descent, which is now in my blood.
