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REMEMBER WHEN... It took 3 minutes for
the TV to warm up?
When a quarter was
a decent allowance? You'd reach into a muddy gutter for a penny?
You got
your windshield cleaned, oil checked, and gas pumped, without asking, all for free, every time? And you didn't
pay for air? And, you got trading stamps to boot?Laundry detergent
had free glasses, dishes or towels hidden inside the box?
It was considered a great privilege to be taken out to dinner at a real restaurant with your parents? They
threatened to keep kids back a grade if they failed. . and they did it! No
one ever asked where the car keys were because they were always in the car, in the ignition, and the doors were never locked? Lying
on your back in the grass with your friends?
and saying things like, 'That cloud looks like
a... '? When being sent to the principal's
office was nothing compared to the fate that awaited the student at home?
Basically we were in fear
for our lives, but it wasn't because of drive-by shootings, drugs, gangs, etc. Our parents and grandparents were a much bigger
threat! But we survived because their love was greater than the threat as well as summers filled with bike rides, Hula Hoops, and visits to the pool, and eating Kool-Aid powder with sugar. And with all our
progress, don't you just wish, just once, you could slip back in time and savor the slower pace, and share it with the children
of today.
The Flour Sack
Colleen
B. Hubert
In that long ago time when things
were saved,
When roads were graveled and barrels were staved,
When worn-out clothing was used as rags,
And
there were no plastic wrap or bags,
And the well and the pump were way out back,
A versatile item, was the flour
sack.
Pillsbury's Best, Mother's and Gold Medal, too
Stamped their names proudly in purple and blue
The
string sewn on top was pulled and kept;
The flour emptied and spills were swept.
The bag was folded and stored in
a sack
That durable, practical flour sack.
The sack could be filled with feather and down,
For a pillow,
or t'would make a sleeping gown.
It could carry a book and be a school bag,
Or become a mail sack slung over a nag.
It made a very convenient pack,
That adaptable, cotton flour sack.
Bleached and sewn, it was dutifully worn
As bibs, diapers, or kerchief adorned
It was made into skirts, blouses and slips
And mom braided rugs from one
hundred strips
She made ruffled curtains for the house or shack,
From that humble but treasured flour sack!
As a strainer for milk or apple juice,
To wave men in, it was a very good use,
As a sling for a sprained wrist
or a break,
To help mother roll up a jelly cake,
As a window shade or to stuff a crack,
We used a sturdy, common
flour sack!
As dish towels, embroidered or not,
They covered up dough, helped pass pans so hot,
Tied
up dishes for neighbors in need,
And for men out in the field to seed.
They dried dishes from pan, not rack
That
absorbent, handy flour sack!
We polished and cleaned stove and table,
Scoured and scrubbed from cellar to
gable,
We dusted the bureau and oak bed post,
Made costumes for October (a scary ghost)
And a parachute for
a cat named Jack.
From that lowly, useful old flour sack!
So now my friends, when they ask you
As curious
youngsters often do,
"Before plastic wrap, Elmer's Glue
And paper towels, what did you do?"
Tell
them loudly and with pride don't lack,
"Grandmother had that wonderful flour sack!"
a thank you to Susan Grant
History of Education in America (A few interesting facts)
1600's
"old Deluder Satan Act " The 1647 legislation stated ignorance as a Satanic ill to be avoided through the education of the country's young people. It required every
town having more than 50 families to hire a teacher, and every town of more than 100 families to establish a "grammar
school". Failure to comply with the mandate would result in a fine of £5 (about $25.00). In 1647, the "old
Deluder Satan Act " required that every Massachusettes town of at leat 50 households hire a teacher of reading and writing.
Towns with a hundred or more households had to operate a grammar school as well. The colonists were mainly concerned
that children learned to read and write to "possess a knowledge of the Scriptures." The Puritans sought
to create a literate population to ensure that, as the law put it, "ye ould deluder, Satan" could not use illiteracy to "keepe men from the knowledge of
ye Scriptures." Teacher's Resume & Pay It wasn't hard to become a teacher in those days. Anyone who could read or write
was allowed to teach, as long as they believed in the Church, were loyal to the Crown and kept out of trouble. Often the schoolmaster
had to do other things in the town, too, such as digging graves, running errands or leading the choir. Colonial schoolmasters
were not paid very much and sometimes received a cow, a pig, apples or some other food for their teaching. In winter,
the teacher's fee was sometimes paid with wood for the school fireplace. Children who didn't bring their share of wood
had to sit in the coldest part of the room! After the students learned their alphabet, they then learned to read from the Bible and the Book of Psalms.
A school master put an ad in the paper to say he taught "writeing
and spilling."
In 1690, the New England Primer was published and became a popular
beginners textbook and was still in use a hundred years later! The Primer taught spelling, religion and the alphabet.
The boys who learned the New England Primer could go onto another school to learn more. Some boys at the age of 11 went
to college and the boys that were rich went to college in England.
1700's
Even in Williamsburg, Pennsylvania in 1774, there were still few
schools. So, many parents taught their children to read and write at home using a bible and a hornbook. A hornbook was
a wooden board with a handle. A lesson sheet of the ABCs in small and capital letters, some series of syllables and often,
the Lord's Prayer, was attached to the board and was protected by a thin layer of cow's horn. Wealthy children had a tutor (always a man) teach them privately. Some boys went to grammar school and sometimes
even college but never girls. Girls were given lessons on how to run a home.
1800's Children worked until November when the harvest was over and then they went to school. Schools were only open
in the winter and summer. The children had to plant and plow in the spring and help harvest in the fall. Students of
all ages were in the same class. Some of the younger students were three or four years old and other students were sometimes
older than the teacher! The students weren't grouped by age; they were grouped by what book they were using. They
all worked together on the same subject. Sometimes the students were given
a Reward of Merit, which showed them that they had done well. It was an honor to receive this certificate because
paper and printed materials were scarce on the frontier.
Most teachers didn't get paid very much money. They received $4
to $10 a month. A lot of teachers had to " board round", meaning they had to live with their students.
In 1904, children were supposed to go to school until the age of 16;
however, most kids never finished the 8th grade. They went to work in factories, farms and coalmines to help their families.
Some went to high school and a few went to college.
 25 Things About to Become Extinct. 25. U.S. Post Office
They are pricing themselves out of existence. With e-mail,
and online services they are a relic of the past. (refer to #9) Packages are also sent faster and
cheaper with UPS. 24. Yellow Pages
This year will be pivotal for
the global Yellow Pages industry. Much, like newspapers, print Yellow Pages will continue to
bleed dollars to their various digital counterparts, from Internet Yellow Pages (IYPs), to local search engines
and combination search/listing services like Reach Local and Yodel Factors like 20 an acceleration of the
print 'fade rate' and the looming recession will contribute to the onslaught. One research firm predicts
the falloff in usage of newspapers and print Yellow Pages could even reach 10% this year -- much higher
than the 2%-3% fade rate seen in past years. 23. Classified
Ads
The Internet has made so many things obsolete that newspaper classified ads might sound like just another
trivial item on a long list. But this is one of those harbingers of the future that could signal
the end of civilization as we know it. The argument is that if newspaper classifieds are replaced by free
online listings at sites like Craigslist and Google Base, then newspapers are not far behind them. 22. Movie Rental Stores
While Netflix is looking up at the moment, Blockbuster
keeps closing store locations by the hundreds. It still has about 6,000 left across the world,
but those keep dwindling and the stock is down considerably in 2008, especially since the company gave up a quest
of Circuit City. Movie Gallery, which owned the Hollywood Video brand, closed up shop
earlier this year. Countless small video chains and mom-and-pop stores have given up the ghost already. 21. Dial-up Internet Access
Dial-up connections have fallen from 40%
in 2001 to 10% in 2008. The combination of an infrastructure to accommodate affordable high speed Internet connections
and he disappearing home phone have all but pounded the final nail in the coffin of dial-up Internet
access. 20. Phone Land Lines
According to a survey from the
National Center for Health Statistics, at the end of 2007, nearly one in six homes was cell-only and, of
those homes that had land lines, one in eight only received calls on their cells. 19 Chesapeake Bay Blue Crabs
Maryland's icon, the blue crab, has been fading away in
Chesapeake Bay. Last year, Maryland saw the lowest harvest (22 million pounds) since 1945.
Just four decades ago, the bay produced 96 million pounds. The population is down 70% since 1990, when they first did
a formal count. There are only about 120 million crabs in the bay and 200 million are needed for a sustainable
population. Over-fishing, pollution and invasive species get the blame. 18. VCRs
For the better part of three decades, the VCR was a best-seller and staple in every American household until
being completely decimated by the DVD, and now the Digital Video Recorder (DVR). In fact, the only remnants
of the VHS age at your local Wal-Mart or Radio Shack are blank VHS tapes these days. Pre-recorded VHS tapes largely
are gone and VHS decks practically are nowhere to be found. 17.
Ash Trees
In the late 1990's, a pretty, iridescent green species of beetle, now known as the
emerald ash borer, hitched a ride to North America with ash wood products imported from China. In less than a
decade, its larvae have killed millions of trees in the Midwest , and continue to spread. They've killed
more than 30 million ash trees in southeastern Michigan alone, with tens of millions more lost in Ohio and
Indiana. More than 7.5 billion remaining ash trees currently are at risk. 16. Ham Radio
Amateur radio operators enjoy personal (and often worldwide) wireless communications with each
other and are able to support their communities with emergency and disaster communications if necessary, while
increasing their personal knowledge of electronics and radio theory. However, proliferation
of the Internet and its popularity among youth has caused the decline of amateur radio. In the past five
years alone, the number of people holding active ham radio licenses has dropped by 50,000, even though Morse
Code no longer is a requirement. 15. The "Swimming Hole"
Thanks to our litigious society, swimming holes are becoming a thing of the past. '20/20' reports that swimming
hole owners, like Robert Every in High Falls, NY, are shutting them down out of worry that if someone
gets hurt, they'll sue. And that's exactly what happened in Seattle. The city of Bellingham
was sued by Katie Hofstetter who was paralyzed in a fall at a popular swimming hole in Whatcom
Falls Park. As injuries occur and lawsuits follow, expect more swimming holes to post 'Keep out!' signs. 14. Answering Machines
The increasing disappearance of answering machines
is directly tied to No. 20 our list -- the decline of landlines. According to USA Today, the number of homes that only
use cell phones jumped 159% between 2004 and 2007. It has been particularly bad in New York; since
2000, landline usage has dropped 55%. It's logical that as cell phone usage rise, many of them replacing
traditional landlines, that there will be fewer answering machines. 13. Cameras That Use Film
It doesn't require a statistician to prove the rapid disappearance of
the film camera in America. Just look to companies like Nikon, the professional's choice for
quality camera equipment. In 2006, it announced that it would stop making film cameras, pointing to the shrinking
market -- only 3% of its sales in 2005, compared to 75% of sales from digital cameras and equipment. 12. Incandescent Bulbs
Before a few years ago, the standard 60-watt (or, yikes, 100-watt)
bulb was the mainstay of every U.S. home. With the "green" movement and all-things-sustainable-energy
crowd, the Compact Fluorescent Lightbulb (CFL) largely is replacing the older, Edison-era incandescent
bulb. The EPA reports that 2007 sales for Energy Star CFLs nearly doubled from 2006, and these sales accounted
for approximately 20 percent of the U.S. light bulb market. And according to USA Today, a new
energy bill plans to phase out incandescent bulbs in the next four to 12 years. 11. Stand-Alone Bowling Alleys
Bowling Balls. US claims there are still 60 million Americans
who bowl at least once a year, but many are not bowling in stand-alone bowling alleys. Today most new bowling
alleys are part of facilities for all types or recreation including laser tag, go-karts, bumper cars, video
game arcades, climbing walls and glow miniature golf. Bowling lanes also have been added to many non-traditional
venues such as adult communities, hotels and resorts, and gambling casinos. 10. The Milkman
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, in 1950, over half
of the milk delivered was to the home in quart bottles, by 1963, it was about a third and by 2001, it represented
only 0.4%. Nowadays most milk is sold through supermarkets in gallon jugs. The steady decline in
home-delivered milk is blamed, of course, on the rise of the supermarket, better home refrigeration and longer-lasting milk.
Although some milkmen still make the rounds in pockets of the U.S. , they are a dying breed.
9. Hand-Written Letters
In 2006, the Radicati Group estimated
that, worldwide, 183 billion e-mails were sent each day. Two million each second. By November
of 2007, an estimated 3.3 billion Earthlings owned cell phones, and 80% of the world's population had access to
cell phone coverage. In 2004, half-a-trillion text messages were sent, and the number has no doubt
increased exponentially since then. So where among this gorge of gabble is there room
for the elegant, polite hand-written letter?
8. Wild Horses
It is estimated that 100 years ago, as many as two million horses were roaming free within the United States.
In 2001, National Geographic News estimated that the wild horse population has decreased to about
50,000 head. Currently, the National Wild Horse and Burro Advisory Board states that there
are 32,000 free roaming horses in ten Western states, with half of them residing in Nevada. The Bureau of
Land Management is seeking to reduce the total number of free range horses to 27,000, possibly by selective euthanasia.
7. Personal
Checks
According to an American Bankers Assoc. report, a net 23% of consumers plan to decrease
their use of checks over the next two years, while a net 14% plan to increase their use of PIN debit. Bill
payment remains the last stronghold of paper-based payments -- for the time being. Checks continue
to be the most commonly used bill payment method, with 71% of consumers paying at least one recurring bill per
month by writing a check. However, on a bill-by-bill basis, checks account for only 49% of consumers' recurring
bill payments (down from 72% in 2001 and 60% in 2003). 6.
Drive-in Theaters
During the peak in 1958, there were more than 4,000 drive-in theaters in this country, but in 2007
only 405 drive-ins still were operating. Exactly zero new drive-ins have been built since 2005.
Only one reopened in 2005 and five reopened in 2006, so there isn't much of a movement toward reviving
the closed ones. 5. Mumps & Measles
Despite what's
been in the news lately, the measles and mumps actually are disappearing from the United
States. In 1964, 212,000 cases of mumps were reported in the U.S. By
1983, this figure had dropped to 3,000, thanks to a vigorous vaccination program. Prior to the introduction
of the measles vaccine, approximately half a million cases of measles were reported in the U.S. annually,
resulting in 450 deaths. In 2005, only 66 cases were recorded. 4. Honey Bees
Perhaps nothing on our list of disappearing America is so dire; plummeting
so enormously; and so necessary to the survival of our food supply as the honey bee. Very
scary. 'Colony Collapse Disorder,' or CCD, has spread throughout the U.S. and Europe over the past
few years, wiping out 50% to 90% of the colonies of many beekeepers -- and along with it, their livelihood.
3. News Magazines and TV News
While the TV evening newscasts
haven't gone anywhere over the last several decades, their audiences have. In 1984, in a story
about the diminishing returns of the evening news, the New York Times reported that all three network evening-news
programs combined had only 40.9 million viewers. Fast forward to 2008, and what they have today
is half that. 2. Analog TV
According to the
Consumer Electronics Association, 85% of homes in the U.S. get their television programming through cable
or satellite providers. For the remaining 15% -- or 13 million individuals -- who are using rabbit ears
or a large outdoor antenna to get their local stations, change is in the air. If you are one
of these people you had to get a new TV or a converter box in order to get the stations which will only be broadcast
in digital. 1. The Family Farm
Since the 1930's,
the number of family farms has been declining rapidly. According to the USDA, 5.3 million farms
dotted the nation in 1950, but this number had declined to 2.1 million by the 2003 farm census (data from the
2007 census is just now being published).
A LICK AND A PROMISE 'I'll just give this a lick and a promise,' my mother said as she quickly
mopped up a spill on the floor without moving any of the furniture. 'What is that supposed to mean,'
I asked as in my young mind I envisioned someone licking the floor with his or her tongue. 'It means that I'm
in a hurry and I'm busy canning tomatoes so I am going to just give it a lick with the mop and promise
to come back and do the job right later." 'A lick and a
promise' was just one of the many old phrases that our mothers, grandmothers, and others used that they probably
heard from the generations before them. With the passing of time, many old phrases become obsolete or even
disappear. This is unfortunate because some of them are very appropriate and humorous. Here is a list
of some of those memorable old phrases: 1.
A Bone to Pick (someone who wants to discuss a disagreement) 2. An Axe to Grind (Someone who has a hidden
motive. This phrase is said to have originated from Benjamin Franklin who told a story about a devious
man who asked how a grinding wheel worked. He ended up walking away with his axe sharpened free
of charge) 3. One bad apple spoils the whole barrel (one corrupt person can cause all the others to go bad
if you don't remove the bad one) 4. At sea (lost or not understanding something) 5. Bad Egg
(Someone who was not a good person) 6. Barking at a knot (meaning that your efforts were as useless
as a dog barking at a knot.) 7. Barking up the wrong tree (talking about something that was completely the wrong issue with
the wrong person) 8. Bee in your bonnet (To have an idea that won't let loose) 9. Been through the mill (had a rough time
of it) 10. Between hay and grass (Not a child or an adult) 11. Blinky (Between sweet and sour as in
milk) 12. Calaboose (a jail) 13. Catawampus (Something that sits crooked such as a piece of
furniture sitting at an angle) 14. Dicker (To barter or trade) 15. Feather in Your Cap (to accomplish a goal.
This came from years ago in wartime when warriors might receive a feather they would put in their cap for defeating
an enemy) 16. Hold your horses (Be patient!) 17. Hoosegow ( a jail) 18. I reckon
(I suppose) 19. Jawing/Jawboning (Talking or arguing) 20. Kit and caboodle (The whole
thing) 21. Madder than a wet hen (really angry) 22. Needs taken down a notch or two (like
notches in a belt usually a young person who thinks too highly of himself and needs a lesson) 23. No Spring
Chicken (Not young anymore) 24. Persnickety (overly particular or snobbish) 25. Pert-near
(short for pretty near) 26. Pretty is as pretty does (your actions are more important
than your looks) 27. Red up (clean the house) 28. Scalawag (a rascal or unprincipled person) 29. Scarce
as hen's teeth (something difficult to obtain) 30. Skedaddle (Get out of here quickly) 31. Sparking
(courting) 32. Straight From the Horse's Mouth (privileged information from the one concerned) 33. Stringing
around, gallivanting around, or piddling (Not doing anything of value) 34. Sunday go to meetin' dress (The best dress
you had) 35. We wash up real fine (is another goodie) 36. Tie the Knot (to get married) 37. Too
many irons in the fire (to be involved in too many things) 38. Tuckered
out (tired and all worn out) 39. Under the weather (not feeling well this term came from going
below deck on ships due to sea sickness thus you go below or under the weather) 40. Wearing your 'best bib and tucker' (Being
all dressed up) 41. You ain't the only duck in the pond (It's not all about you) anonymous
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