The older one gets, the more reflective he (or she) becomes especially as regards the days of his youth when literally everything was new and in retrospect mostly ‘good’ in a comparative sense. This was especially true for one slightly older than I am who recently recounted to me an incident that pretty well, at least by today’s standards, cast some doubt about the validity of the often quoted statement of the ‘good old’ days past.
We were talking about the weather and specifically about the ever present weather reports on television, seemingly taking most of the air time, apart from commercials, on the typical news programs. He recalled that when he was a boy his only weather ‘report’ was from his personal observations. The sharecropper family lived in the ‘dark’ ages compared to living today with multimedia sources available 24/7 and under certain conditions, on demand. He had none.
When he lived on the farm, there was no such weather event ever described as a hurricane. Sure they then had similar weather conditions with strong winds, but he never recalled the unusually devastating destruction routinely reported like phenomenon today. He stated that such weather conditions were simply reported as summer gales, never a destructive force identified with a proper noun. And he remembered an incident that happened during one of these summer occurrences.
His family lived in a typical tenant dwelling, basic housing with no unusual conveniences even for his day. The house was unpainted, no insulation and certainly not weather tight. There was no underpinning and when the wind got up, the inhabitants were well aware of its presence. They were poor in a third world way not like the way the poor is identified today. There was a summer ‘gale’ raging that night and the family, while not terrified, was certainly anxious and had gathered in one of the two bedrooms for protection but mostly for family support. Conditions like this were rare but had happened before so they were prepared to ride it out. And amidst all this, a loud knock on the front door startled them. Who could possibly be out in this menacing weather?
The nearest neighbor lived a short distance from their home. And this home was even more primitive than theirs so the storm was even more threatening to them than to his family. They were in a more disadvantageous position than his family since both of them was very old and additionally, the wife was blind. The one rapidly knocking on the door was the husband, desperate for help.
As his father pushed opened the door, he noted the rain at this time was in sheets and the storm was raging. There stood his neighbor, frightened and soaked with rain. He was invited to come in, but he initially refused since he said that his wife needed help more than he did. And where was his wife?
Despite the distance, the ravaging elements, his diminishing stamina, the man had brought his terrified wife to the only sanctuary he knew, to his good neighbors’ home. That in itself was remarkable considering the obstacles he had to overcome, but there was one other fact that was unusually extraordinary.
You see, he had no method of transportation save one, a wheelbarrow.
He had loaded his wife into its bed and despite the livelihood of failure; he persevered to bring his wife to relative safety.
And you thought you had it bad when during a storm, your electricity went off… briefly.
So these were the (so called) ‘Good’ Old Days?
Love conquerors all.
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Bill Lee, PO Box 128,
Hamer, SC 29547
