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Each generation attempts to make things better for its children. Often it’s a mistake to do just that. A case in point can be seen at any parking lot of any high school in the country. Junior often has his own “wheels” by the time he is 16 and is — if we are really honest with ourselves — not ready for that kind of responsibility. Of course, many 16-year-old boys or girls are responsible human beings. But all too often they are not and the results, unfortunately, can be seen in the statistics any given day of the week.
Yes, we spoil our children. It’s hard to do so otherwise, when the simple facts are that each generation receives the gifts of the world around us as we progress in all kinds of new technology. When I look back at my childhood, I have to laugh at the huge amount of “things” our home — and everybody else’s for that matter — did not have. Yet we somehow “managed” to get through those terrible times during the Great Depression.
Right now I own a dozen pair of shoes and umpteen clothes. As a young girl, I had only one pair of sensible shoes, one or two dresses, a skirt and a few blouses. I guess I’m trying to make up now for those former lean, lean days so long ago. I know you’ve all heard that story before — but it needs repeating — at least once in a while. Even if it is only to remind the younger generations that life can be tough, and sometimes cruel or downright terrible. Once in a while, getting a little hungry can teach a lot of lessons to people who have been spoon fed their whole lives, especially for those who think having a meal without something akin to a t-bone steak is being deprived.
We keep hearing about our current generation of obese children, and the authorities all seem to be scratching their heads wondering why this is happening.
Hello! Kids today are sitting hour upon hour watching television, using it for those games that everybody seems to own. Or they are sitting in front of computers answering e-mails, “surfing the web”, talking endlessly on their own cellular phones, or doing whatever else you can think of that can be done with the latest electronic device. Not that computers and television are necessarily bad things. They aren’t, but like everything that becomes a standard “necessity” in any household, the problem is how they are used or misused.
In my day when I got home from school where “surprise, surprise,” I had to walk to both ways — I did my homework and chores. Then, and only then, did I go out to play. You know, jumping rope with my girlfriends, attempting a game of softball with the boys from down the block, or just talking face to face while taking a long walk with my friends Lorraine and Joanne. We didn’t have computers, cell phones, or even a television. If you can believe it, radio was just in its infancy. Ah, yes, radio. The evenings of sitting around the living room with the family listening to programs like Amos and Andy, Jack Benny, or “The Shadow Knows.” Best of all, early in the evening we had “Little Orphan Anny.” And if you were lucky enough to have saved enough of the right coupons from products you bought to earn a decoder ring, you were able to decode the secret messages in the radio program.
My mother and grandmother had to work to help make ends meet, and my grandfather was too ill to do much around the house. My sister Jean and I had the additional chore of getting dinner ready. There wasn’t any t-bone steak in any of those meals. I remember buying a meat product you wouldn’t see in your local supermarket, at least not too often. We purchased breast of lamb for ten cents a pound, and sautéed it with a little onion, salt and pepper, fried or boiled some potatoes, and had a green vegetable of some sort. This was usually string beans, but not the kind that you bought frozen, which we didn’t have at the time. These were the kind of fresh beans you had to pull the “strings” off before they were cooked. Eggplant and tomatoes were also staples, because in those days — they were cheap. Often we had meatless meals. To this day eggplant and tomatoes are favorites of mine, especially deep fried eggplant or sliced tomatoes simply dusted with salt and pepper.
Lessons were learned early in those days. We walked to school; we exercised and did our homework without a computer. Our entertainment was simple, either listening to the radio or playing games or cards. There was little else, and we simply didn’t know that we were really missing anything. So tonight when I sit down to a nice dinner of pork chops, fried rice and fresh broccoli, I will try to be a little more grateful. And I will think about the nights when dinner was sometimes just a plate of warm tomatoes and milk gravy on toast.
Edna Van Leuven is a Churchill County resident.
Yes, we spoil our children. It’s hard to do so otherwise, when the simple facts are that each generation receives the gifts of the world around us as we progress in all kinds of new technology. When I look back at my childhood, I have to laugh at the huge amount of “things” our home — and everybody else’s for that matter — did not have. Yet we somehow “managed” to get through those terrible times during the Great Depression.
Right now I own a dozen pair of shoes and umpteen clothes. As a young girl, I had only one pair of sensible shoes, one or two dresses, a skirt and a few blouses. I guess I’m trying to make up now for those former lean, lean days so long ago. I know you’ve all heard that story before — but it needs repeating — at least once in a while. Even if it is only to remind the younger generations that life can be tough, and sometimes cruel or downright terrible. Once in a while, getting a little hungry can teach a lot of lessons to people who have been spoon fed their whole lives, especially for those who think having a meal without something akin to a t-bone steak is being deprived.
We keep hearing about our current generation of obese children, and the authorities all seem to be scratching their heads wondering why this is happening.
Hello! Kids today are sitting hour upon hour watching television, using it for those games that everybody seems to own. Or they are sitting in front of computers answering e-mails, “surfing the web”, talking endlessly on their own cellular phones, or doing whatever else you can think of that can be done with the latest electronic device. Not that computers and television are necessarily bad things. They aren’t, but like everything that becomes a standard “necessity” in any household, the problem is how they are used or misused.
In my day when I got home from school where “surprise, surprise,” I had to walk to both ways — I did my homework and chores. Then, and only then, did I go out to play. You know, jumping rope with my girlfriends, attempting a game of softball with the boys from down the block, or just talking face to face while taking a long walk with my friends Lorraine and Joanne. We didn’t have computers, cell phones, or even a television. If you can believe it, radio was just in its infancy. Ah, yes, radio. The evenings of sitting around the living room with the family listening to programs like Amos and Andy, Jack Benny, or “The Shadow Knows.” Best of all, early in the evening we had “Little Orphan Anny.” And if you were lucky enough to have saved enough of the right coupons from products you bought to earn a decoder ring, you were able to decode the secret messages in the radio program.
My mother and grandmother had to work to help make ends meet, and my grandfather was too ill to do much around the house. My sister Jean and I had the additional chore of getting dinner ready. There wasn’t any t-bone steak in any of those meals. I remember buying a meat product you wouldn’t see in your local supermarket, at least not too often. We purchased breast of lamb for ten cents a pound, and sautéed it with a little onion, salt and pepper, fried or boiled some potatoes, and had a green vegetable of some sort. This was usually string beans, but not the kind that you bought frozen, which we didn’t have at the time. These were the kind of fresh beans you had to pull the “strings” off before they were cooked. Eggplant and tomatoes were also staples, because in those days — they were cheap. Often we had meatless meals. To this day eggplant and tomatoes are favorites of mine, especially deep fried eggplant or sliced tomatoes simply dusted with salt and pepper.
Lessons were learned early in those days. We walked to school; we exercised and did our homework without a computer. Our entertainment was simple, either listening to the radio or playing games or cards. There was little else, and we simply didn’t know that we were really missing anything. So tonight when I sit down to a nice dinner of pork chops, fried rice and fresh broccoli, I will try to be a little more grateful. And I will think about the nights when dinner was sometimes just a plate of warm tomatoes and milk gravy on toast.
Edna Van Leuven is a Churchill County resident.
