Okay, this is kind of depressing but it all works out fine in the end. This just would not leave my mind for half of last night. I don't claim to be a prophet on the future, and we can hope we never look back and call these days "Hard Times", except for so many they already are that it seems safe to say it. Maybe I should've kept this to myself, but I wanted to share...
Kids, do you remember what we used to call the “good old days”, before the Hard Times came?
Remember how we had those grocery stores, where you’d walk in and there was aisle after aisle of food? Most of it in cans and boxes, but also fruits and vegetables from all over the world. And meat, meat of all types from thousands of farms across the world.
Why, there was even an entire aisle just of breakfast cereals. A hundred different types of cold, crunchy cereals that were pre-baked so we just added milk to them. They came in o-shapes and banana shapes and even leprechaun shapes! With little tiny things called marshmallows to make them sweet. And some were chocolate. People actually ate chocolate for breakfast back then, can you believe it? Now it’s so expensive and rare; we never did grow our own chocolate in America so it‘s always been imported. My, how I miss chocolate.
And coffee. There used to be all these different types of coffee also imported from overseas. We used to go pay $4 for a cup of coffee sometimes. And some people did it everyday! All the while owing thousands of dollars in debt on those credit cards we used to have, we’d go “treat” ourselves to deal with the stress of that. Boy, weren’t those the days.
And remember the others stores we called Target and Wal-Mart? It was so hard for you two, standing in the toy aisles they had there, to be aware that all those shiny colorful plastic toys were actually made by child slaves in other countries. You loved to play with those things, didn’t you? And they had whole collections of things for sale like Littlest Pet Shops and Beanie Babies. Daughter, I remember you just couldn’t resist another plastic animal set every other week when you got your allowance.
And son, you sure loved those video games we had back then. You could spend hours just sitting there poking a little plastic stick at a screen, trying to beat the game. What was that little stick called? It even had a name. Oh yes, a stylus. Now we’re so blessed to have a pencil to write with.
It's so funny to think of now, but we used to drive our cars to all those places. We’d drive even just the four blocks to the library sometimes. If it was cold or dark out, or often even on sunny and perfectly beautiful days we’d drive those four blocks. I don’t know if we were lazy, or if we did it just because we could. I know I was sure out of shape back then! Too much sitting at the computer, or riding in a car. The computer, that’s a whole ’nother thing I’ve got back here in my memory. One time I wrote a whole book on that old computer I had. Just deleted into space, though, didn’t want anyone to read it as I recall.
The library we drove to, now that was brand new when you were both about ten years old, and right in our neighborhood so we felt so lucky. I believe they opened it right before the Hard Times came. It was so beautiful, filled with books and computers and even those things we used to have, DVDs, that we could play on the TV screen at home. They had a fancy architect design that library, and it was all glass windows and light. Do you even remember they actually had a moving belt to put your book returns on, and a computer voice to tell you how to do it. Too funny! They kept that library open as long as they could, but pretty soon there was no one left who would work there for free, and all the electric gizmos started to fail, and anyway it was so hot in there in summer and no windows would open, and too cold to even keep the place open in winter once the natural gas started to go. No money to heat and cool the place even if we had still had access to the power. What a shame, what a shame.
But you know, it hasn’t been all bad has it, since then? I was often afraid you two would go off to college and leave home for good as so many in my generation did. I dreaded the thought of not seeing my grandchildren often, of not being part of your lives. Now you’re both so close to home and we have such a good life helping each other out.
That global climate change we all feared so much really slowed down when none of us could afford to drive our cars anymore. Florida never did end up completely under water, and neither did your grandparents’ place in the Tidewater area of Virginia. I had been worried about that some, as I recall. The terrible storms, flooding and hurricanes and fires, happened so much less after the Hard Times started. And boy all that pollution and the brown clouds over the cities here in America and in China and other places just disappeared when we stopped making plastic toys and stuff. The birds started coming back, too, and other animals that we thought were extinct for good. What a blessing that was.
And oh yes, I remember kids had been getting so sick back then, with things we called autism and A.D.D. and deadly food allergies and other strange diseases we hadn’t figured out yet. Well, so many of those things went away once most people got outdoors more and were growing much of their own food. I think they said it was the Vitamin D levels that went back up after that. If I remember right, I had something called “fibromyalgia” back then and that got so much better too when I started living a more physical life.
Of course, we were lucky. Your dad has always been handy, and he could work at so many things once the schools closed and he lost his teaching job. And we both knew how to bake bread and cook from scratch and do basic sewing. Can you believe now that many, many people had no experience with those things?! And me, I could knit and make the herbal medicines to help folks once the clinics were no longer around.
I remember it wasn’t the easiest thing for you two to change your lives, but since everyone around us was either doing that or starving, you soon saw it was important. You were at the perfect ages to start pitching in, and I’m really not sorry that your lives of “leisure” were cut short. I think we all feel better these days, don’t we? And our music, the music your dad taught us to make, that really got us through the harder moments and lifted our spirits.
We have great neighbors and friends that helped each other out in those hard times, and I was actually glad when your uncles and Papa and Grandma came to live near us. It was nice to be close to family again, and to help each other out. And luckily after just a couple difficult years we could go visit daddy’s family on the train again and wasn’t that fun?
We all survived, and we all did fine, and it wasn’t the worst thing in the world to happen.
Kids, do you remember what we used to call the “good old days”, before the Hard Times came?
Remember how we had those grocery stores, where you’d walk in and there was aisle after aisle of food? Most of it in cans and boxes, but also fruits and vegetables from all over the world. And meat, meat of all types from thousands of farms across the world.
Why, there was even an entire aisle just of breakfast cereals. A hundred different types of cold, crunchy cereals that were pre-baked so we just added milk to them. They came in o-shapes and banana shapes and even leprechaun shapes! With little tiny things called marshmallows to make them sweet. And some were chocolate. People actually ate chocolate for breakfast back then, can you believe it? Now it’s so expensive and rare; we never did grow our own chocolate in America so it‘s always been imported. My, how I miss chocolate.
And coffee. There used to be all these different types of coffee also imported from overseas. We used to go pay $4 for a cup of coffee sometimes. And some people did it everyday! All the while owing thousands of dollars in debt on those credit cards we used to have, we’d go “treat” ourselves to deal with the stress of that. Boy, weren’t those the days.
And remember the others stores we called Target and Wal-Mart? It was so hard for you two, standing in the toy aisles they had there, to be aware that all those shiny colorful plastic toys were actually made by child slaves in other countries. You loved to play with those things, didn’t you? And they had whole collections of things for sale like Littlest Pet Shops and Beanie Babies. Daughter, I remember you just couldn’t resist another plastic animal set every other week when you got your allowance.
And son, you sure loved those video games we had back then. You could spend hours just sitting there poking a little plastic stick at a screen, trying to beat the game. What was that little stick called? It even had a name. Oh yes, a stylus. Now we’re so blessed to have a pencil to write with.
It's so funny to think of now, but we used to drive our cars to all those places. We’d drive even just the four blocks to the library sometimes. If it was cold or dark out, or often even on sunny and perfectly beautiful days we’d drive those four blocks. I don’t know if we were lazy, or if we did it just because we could. I know I was sure out of shape back then! Too much sitting at the computer, or riding in a car. The computer, that’s a whole ’nother thing I’ve got back here in my memory. One time I wrote a whole book on that old computer I had. Just deleted into space, though, didn’t want anyone to read it as I recall.
The library we drove to, now that was brand new when you were both about ten years old, and right in our neighborhood so we felt so lucky. I believe they opened it right before the Hard Times came. It was so beautiful, filled with books and computers and even those things we used to have, DVDs, that we could play on the TV screen at home. They had a fancy architect design that library, and it was all glass windows and light. Do you even remember they actually had a moving belt to put your book returns on, and a computer voice to tell you how to do it. Too funny! They kept that library open as long as they could, but pretty soon there was no one left who would work there for free, and all the electric gizmos started to fail, and anyway it was so hot in there in summer and no windows would open, and too cold to even keep the place open in winter once the natural gas started to go. No money to heat and cool the place even if we had still had access to the power. What a shame, what a shame.
But you know, it hasn’t been all bad has it, since then? I was often afraid you two would go off to college and leave home for good as so many in my generation did. I dreaded the thought of not seeing my grandchildren often, of not being part of your lives. Now you’re both so close to home and we have such a good life helping each other out.
That global climate change we all feared so much really slowed down when none of us could afford to drive our cars anymore. Florida never did end up completely under water, and neither did your grandparents’ place in the Tidewater area of Virginia. I had been worried about that some, as I recall. The terrible storms, flooding and hurricanes and fires, happened so much less after the Hard Times started. And boy all that pollution and the brown clouds over the cities here in America and in China and other places just disappeared when we stopped making plastic toys and stuff. The birds started coming back, too, and other animals that we thought were extinct for good. What a blessing that was.
And oh yes, I remember kids had been getting so sick back then, with things we called autism and A.D.D. and deadly food allergies and other strange diseases we hadn’t figured out yet. Well, so many of those things went away once most people got outdoors more and were growing much of their own food. I think they said it was the Vitamin D levels that went back up after that. If I remember right, I had something called “fibromyalgia” back then and that got so much better too when I started living a more physical life.
Of course, we were lucky. Your dad has always been handy, and he could work at so many things once the schools closed and he lost his teaching job. And we both knew how to bake bread and cook from scratch and do basic sewing. Can you believe now that many, many people had no experience with those things?! And me, I could knit and make the herbal medicines to help folks once the clinics were no longer around.
I remember it wasn’t the easiest thing for you two to change your lives, but since everyone around us was either doing that or starving, you soon saw it was important. You were at the perfect ages to start pitching in, and I’m really not sorry that your lives of “leisure” were cut short. I think we all feel better these days, don’t we? And our music, the music your dad taught us to make, that really got us through the harder moments and lifted our spirits.
We have great neighbors and friends that helped each other out in those hard times, and I was actually glad when your uncles and Papa and Grandma came to live near us. It was nice to be close to family again, and to help each other out. And luckily after just a couple difficult years we could go visit daddy’s family on the train again and wasn’t that fun?
We all survived, and we all did fine, and it wasn’t the worst thing in the world to happen.
Comments
Namaste
Makes me think about how lucky we are to have moved towards a simpler life around simpler people. Where we will be able to weather any financial storms, mostly at least.
But it makes me sad to think of so many who are unable to move away. After all, if we all 'moved away' we wouldn't have some of the great things about modern living. And these folks will/might be hit hard. So many just don't have the resources, ability, or opportunity to live differently.
We think of moving sometimes to other parts of the country, and yet in the end always think that we are lucky to be in one of the areas that can make it through something crazy like that ... we have good soil, fresh water, and temperate climate. Can't imagine moving to a place that probably couldn't make it (like arid areas who rely on outside water right now, etc.).
Interesting concept.