Back Then...

I was six years old. It was the last day of 1st grade and I was walking with a friend to her house. It had rained and the water was running down the street along the gutters. Watching ants struggling to cross the water I wanted to help them. Telling my friend that if I could only change into an ant I could tell them how to get to safety... to build a bridge or ride over on a leaf. There was such compassion for them but they were totally unaware of my concern as they went their own way and struggled. Kind of like humans as God watches, I suppose.

Bits and pieces come back to me of early childhood and hot summers in southern Illinois - like summers being scorching hot one day and sometimes equally cool the next. Hot was O.K. but I didn't like the cool days even though there was no air conditioning back then for relief from the heat. People managed - they just moved slower.

I remember:

•Milk in only glass bottles.

•Women wore hats to church. (I never liked that and apparently few of my generation did because we put them out of style)

•Girls in jeans - not allowed in school - only dresses & skirts.

•Men wore suits and ties to church.

•People who had a car had only one.

•Moms were mostly stay at home moms.

•Smoking was considered cool and it was just tough if you didn't think so.

I decided that the smell wasn't worth it.... often wondering why a woman smoker bothered wearing perfume. Stale reeking smoke always won out.

•Radio shows were popular. Cisco Kid, Hopalong Cassidy, The Lone Ranger, The Shadow, and others.

*Television pictures were only black and white and often needed adjusting. When I was small I knew just one family who had a T.V. !

Popular thought on morals has changed dramatically. I remember someone talking about Hosea of the bible being told by God to marry a prostitute and it was said that there were very few virgins in Hosea's time since Israel had turned so far away from God. At that time I couldn't believe that any society could be quite so - fallen. Little did I know. It's always been happening, though.

Revival (turning to God) - slipping - falling away. The book of Judges in the O.T. is full of it.

Evil - consequences - repentance - Next generation - it starts all over again. It does show something, though. Repentance is personal. It's not inherited.

I'm told there was a major revival in the Victorian days. Suppose that's why the very word seems to mean "proper" or "modest"? Just a guess. There have been other revivals. Funny how we can see the inside of the heart - on the outside - even if we don't say anything!