A Blast from the Past

Before I give up the writing of this blog completely, I have been thinking of some old stories from my life that my grandchildren would like to hear. They have no idea what life was like in the late 1940's and through 1999. Or what it was like on January 1, 2000 (Y2K) when we thought the world would end or at the very least all technology would go to black. Nothing happened but it was stressful. Us older individuals couldn't imagine we would live to see the world as it is today. 

 This was our family picture from 1951. People dressed up. In the 1950's women wore dresses. My mom wore house dresses and aprons. I remember up until the 1960's women very rarely wore pants. It was 1966 when the pantsuit was debuted. I remember my grandma wearing pants to go fishing once in a while, but she almost always wore a cotton house dress. Looking back on it, she probably wore my grandpas pants so she didn't get her dresses dirty when they were fishing. Women did not have several pair of pants. Men and women did not wear athletic shoes. It wasn't until the 1960's when I remember getting white Keds. They were tennis shoes and were about the only shoes of that type people wore. We started to wear pedal pushers (today they are called capris), we wore shorts and even blue jeans on occasion. Times were changing. Men did not wear blue jeans in the 1950's but wore slacks and dress shoes. The kids can't believe I had to wear dresses to school. When you knelt down the hem had to touch the floor. No short skirts were allowed. I think that changed in the late 1960's and 1970's, but in 1965 when I graduated those were the rules. The boys had to have their shirts tucked in, wear belts and slacks. We definitely had a dress code. I grew up right on the edge of a fashion change. Now anything goes.

Food was also different many years ago. Food was real and rarely did anyone have an allergy to nuts or gluten. As food companies tried to make bigger profits, they added color, fake flavors and highly processed oils. Additives were added to animal feed for quick growth and weed killer put in the soil for higher yield. In the 1950's hardly anyone went out to eat. We ate at home. McDonald's started back then but it was a big deal. All the other modern fast food restaurants didn't exist. In fact as gross as it sounds my dad hunted squirrels, rabbits, deer and clunked frogs for meat. I can't imagine eating that stuff now, but that was part of our diet. Believe it or not, I can remember when pizza parlors opened up. Now pizza is as common as bread.

There was no such thing as a shopping mall. There were a few stores like Sears, hardware stores. grocery stores, pharmacies, a dime store and general all purpose stores but a lot of people ordered out of catalogs. The mail order catalogs like Montgomery Ward and Sears were how we got our clothes. The United States postal service was dependable back then. Now it takes more than a week to mail something two miles, if it arrives at all.

Grocery stores gave out something called Green Stamps. After every shopping trip we would put the stamps in books. When we had collected enough books, we would travel to Illinois and trade in the books for household goods. My parents got a television, table lamps which I still have, and a variety of other things for the house. While in Illinois we would buy a case of Oleo margarine. The margarine was white and it contained a orange button that would be kneaded into the oleo to make it yellow and look like butter. Wisconsin, the dairy state, didn't allow margarine so a lot of people went to Illinois. Looking back it had to be very unhealthy, but it was cheap. I felt really rich when we were able to buy "real butter". 

Entertainment was different too. Of course there were no smart phones or computers. Imagine having to look things up in an encyclopedia or another reference book. We didn't even have a television until I was around 8. The TV channels came on at 4pm and went off at midnight (maybe even earlier). There were only a few major TV networks with news programs and variety shows.  People went to the movie theater to see movies. Then came DVD's and CD's and now you can stream almost any movie at anytime. 

There are so many examples of how things have changed in the past seventy years. I never thought I would live to see what has happened. It was all science fiction. Buck Rogers from around 1930 was about space travel and communication devices. All imagination that could never happen. I remember having to read the book 1984 by George Orwell and big brother watching us. 1984 was 42 years ago. Good lord. Now big brother watches and listens to us everyday.

I can't even begin to remember all the differences in my lifetime. It boggles the mind. The kids now days can't identify with any of this. I don't even know anyone over the age of five that doesn't have a smart phone. Some children have them by the time they go to kindergarten. They are most peoples' entertainment. I hate it but I am one of them. If I forget my phone, I almost panic. We didn't even have answering machines and caller ID was an extra cost that wasn't necessary. We managed and even lived to tell about it. No wonder everyone has anxiety. We didn't know everything about everything, so life was calmer. Maybe it's a good thing I am old. My brain is full.

Back To Kefir After Nine Years

On September 10, 2014 (12 years ago) I wrote an update about the Kefir I drank to get my probiotics. https://www.thecabincountess.com/2014/09/update-of-my-kefir-miracle.html  This link and the links included in this blog tell about what happened, when I started and how I got into kefir. I shared grains with others and was very into it for a long time, but then life took over. In 2017 I froze some of these grains to take a little break. Supposedly frozen grains can last from six months to a year. As with most kicks I get into these days, I forgot about them. I still took probiotics but none were as good. I was going to order more but never did. https://www.thecabincountess.com/2012/12/the-miracle-of-kefir.html

Fast forward to my refrigerator fiasco. When the refrigerator failed, I had to clean out the old one. Lo and behold, there in the bottom of the freezer was a bag that contained my frozen kefir grains. These grains were almost nine years old. 

Most of the old stuff I found got thrown away and I almost threw them away, but decided to add milk and see what happened. I read that these grains could take up to ten days before you could tell if they were dead. To my surprise, by the 2nd day they were active. I tossed the first couple days of kefir in case it tasted like freezer, but after that the kefir has been delicious. 

I have learned something from this. I only make what I can drink in a few days. As the grains increase in size and amount, I can freeze a few and share with who ever wants to monkey around with doing this. Most people don't want to do it, so they accumulate. The rest I can feed to the animals or toss. I was always worried about getting rid of them and made so much more kefir than I could drink. It got to be overwhelming so this is a game changer. If I get sick of doing it, I will can put more grains in the freezer for an undetermined amount of time. For now this is great. 

This is totally off the subject and a little aside. When the men delivered my refrigerator, one of them saw my Big Foot wind chime. He asked if I ever see Big Foot out here. The other guy said he was from the city and never saw a property like mine. I guess we take so much for granted. I didn't know if I should laugh or if this person was serious. I should have greeted him with this hat. That would have really made him wonder.