At the ripe young age of 73 and after completing three years as a priest and twenty five years as a deacon and more than 40 years as a teach I find myself asking many questions about the state of our life today versus the 40’s and fifties.
It is true that technology has made major advances in our lives but I also believe that we have lost a great deal as well. We can see world events as they happen and not in a News Reel at a movie theater days later. We can communicate with people on the other side of the globe instantly. We see pictures and videos immediately after we take them and can send them to friends across the globe within minutes of their taking. We have explored space and discovered cures for polio, tuberculoses, Measles and chicken pox. We have had some great advances but we have also lost a lot.
As a child we had to walk to school, for me the distance was about a mile and a half. We also walked home for lunch and back again and then home at the end of the day. That meant we walked 6 miles every day and then we would also engage in games in the neighborhood. Is that the reason we did not have so many overweight young people back then?
I remember that all our meals were cooked at home from vegetables grown in our own yard or delivered by The Green Grocer. There were no micro waves, convection ovens, instant meals or fast food places. We had our milk, butter and eggs delivered by Kennedy’s and Hood and bread, cakes and pies were often baked at home or by a neighbor and if bought it came from a local baker.
Weekends were family time and we would either have a house full or visit other members of the family. Neighbors had block parties and neighborhood cookouts. Holidays were family and neighborhood events. Sunday began with church and it did not matter what denomination you belonged to every person in the neighborhood went to the church or in the case of our Jewish neighbors, to synagogue on Friday evening and often on Saturday as well. Many Catholic churches had a daily mass attendance that was greater than what some Sunday masses have now.
Most stores were not open on Sunday which meant families had time to get together and bond.
Gang violence was almost unheard of and the worst thing young people did was to sneak a cigarette in the rest room or take a sip of dads beer. Hearing about a child bringing a gun to school or worse yet, killing someone was unconscionable.
Neighbors looked out for one another and I remember rationing during WWII neighbors shared with each other to make sure all had food enough for their family.
Parents never disputed a teacher when their child was found to have broken a rule of failed to bring tan assignment but usually supported the teacher completely and when it was an infraction the child received not only the punishment of the school but another from the parent.
Most public meetings and often sporting events began with a prayer by a clergy member of one denomination or another.
Professional sports were just that, sports that people played because they enjoyed playing them, and not the big business they have become making tickets out of reach for many families. Babe Ruth, DiMaggio, Lou Gehrig, Jackie Robinson, Bobby Orr and Ferdinand (Fernie) Flannon never even dreamed of the salaries that today’s players expect.
When you went shopping the store clerks were courteous, knowledgeable and stores usually had a policy of “The customer is always right”. Made in America was the tag on most clothing.
I had the pleasure of seeing the original performances of THE KING AND I, OKLAHOMA, and many other Broadway shows, went to the circus, the Ice Capades, Ice Follies, Hockey Games, The symphony, Operas and other cultural events often. I can not afford to attend even one of them a year now.
Music & Art were a part of our curriculum in grammar school with the basic subjects of Reading, Math, Science, Grammar, Spelling, Writing, Geography and History. Schools had at least two if not three field trips a year to museums, historical places, and cultural events. These were at little or no cost and included in the school budgets.
So much has changed and as I have said previously but I am not certain that all the changes have made our lives more sociable, friendly and affordable.
People have little time because many have to work two jobs just to make ends meet.
Families rarely get together on a regular basis, People have little time to attend church weekly and certainly not on a daily basis.
I feel greatly blessed to have lived in those times and to have experienced all that I have. I am blessed to still be in contact with friends I knew in the first grade and my youth.
Students I had more than 40 years ago still keep in touch with me.
God has blessed me with many memories that I hold fondly in my heart and I worry and pray for our young people today for they face many challenges we never had to face and I believe are greater than those we did face and overcame.
The time is now for us to all reflect back on what we have lost and try to reclaim those things that made us the great nation we were that every other nation looked up too.
The time is now for us to return to a God loving people, not afraid to express and live our faith.
There is but only one God, One Creator, by what ever name you desire to honor or call him/her.
We are all children of God and everything in creation belongs to God. God made us the caretakers of this planet when as Geneses says "God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground." So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground." Then God said, "I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food." And it was so.
Genesis 1:26 - 30 |
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