WHATEVER HAPPENED TO...

I am in serious jeopardy of dating myself with this post - but I have been thinking about my words from my last post, reflecting on what went wrong with us as a society, and somehow it led to this...

Whatever happened to...

I am sure any one of us old enough to have lived over 50 years - okay - busted - over 60 yrs plus can finish that sentence in any number of ways.  In fact it would be a hoot, if you all could add to this list by making a comment here on my blog - wouldn't it  be awesome to see what we come up with?  And this is not limited to us old geezers either, the world changes so fast that even the young could contribute to this one.

So - Whatever happened to neighbourhood corner grocery stores?  Remember those?  Where the store owner was the butcher, who knew every kid's name in the community.  He charmed the Mom's when they stopped in to get some fresh meat for the supper meal, he joked with the Dad's when they went to pay the tab once a month, and he slipped the odd free candy in the neighbourhood child's tiny little paper candy sac, with a pat on the head, and the words " You be good now".  This was the favourite "hangout" for neighbourhood kids.  Any day of the week ( except Sunday) you could see a pile of bikes lying on the ground in front of the door while the children were inside, going up and down the candy isle, trying to choose how to spend the 5 cents they clutched in their small hands.

Whatever happened to school uniforms?  When I was a child, even public school children wore a school uniform.  Girls wore black tunics with the school crest sewn to the front.  Every August we took a trip downtown to Eaton's Department store to order a new school uniform before school started in September.  It wasn't always a brand new uniform that we got though - Eaton's encouraged patrons to trade in a uniform that any child had outgrown, so if your parents were tight for money, you still got a uniform that fit you, for a much reduced price... What genius!  Every child wore the same uniform, regardless of their parents social status... one less stress taken away from a child on the school playground!

Whatever happened to elevator operators?  Speaking of Eaton's and every other very large department store with more than one floor ... when you stepped on an elevator to go up or down, there was a woman or a man standing there with a uniform, hat and white gloves by the control panel of the elevator.  "Going UP" or "Going down" were the first words you heard.  You would tell the operator what floor you wanted and away you would go.  Every floor was announced and a patron's request was never forgotten.

Whatever happened to games ? like  Evey, Ivy, Over....  Knock on Ginger;  Jacks;  Pin the tail on the donkey; Musical chairs; The Hokey Poky; Marbles in the snow?  Every childhood game - these and many many more, required a group of children to play them.  There was no solitary game playing, children played in groups.  They socialized in groups.  Children "Called On" each other, and if that child was not yet ready to come outside and play, his friends were allowed to wait quietly in the living room or on the front steps.

Whatever happened to Sunday family dinners?  Make plans for Sunday?  Not likely, first you went to church in the morning, you could play outside in the afternoon, but then everyone got dressed back up in their Sunday best and met at Grandma's house, or an aunt or uncle's house.  It was a rotation that went on year round, someone in the family always had Sunday dinner, and everyone else always attended.  Family get togethers were not left to "Special Occasions" like Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter... every Sunday was a special occasion and family was what made every Sunday special.

Whatever happened to clotheslines?  Remember those barbaric looking structures that stood in every woman's back yard, and was filled and refilled for days at a time?  You could look across the fences all across the street and see clothes flapping in the breeze.  The best part of those structures was presented to you when you tucked into bed at night.  You could close your eyes and smell the sun.  Try as they have, no company has ever produced that scent yet - the scents keep getting stronger and stronger making our clothes smell worse every time we dry them... perhaps they need to wash some clothes and hang them outside to dry - then crawl in bed and go to sleep... to get it!

Whatever happened to walking to school every day with your friends?  There were creeps lurking when I was a child, just as there are today.  But all the kids met on a corner and walked in a group to school, and the same back home again.  Along the way we talked, we laughed, we even sang songs... and definitely in the spring, out came the marbles and we played all the way home, sometimes for hours.

Whatever happened to CGIT?  Those of you who are not from Canada will maybe not know what this is.  Canadian Girls In Training was an organization. much like Brownies and Girl Guides, geared towards pre-teens.  I couldn't wait to wear their signature white blouse with the sailor collar, and blue silk scarf tie.

Whatever happened to TV Variety shows?   Do you remember them?  Good clean entertainment for everyone in the family.  Shows that families looked forward to watching together every week.  The Ed Sullivan Show, The Andy Williams Show, The Red Skelton Show, The Carol Burnet Show.  Surely there are entertainers today who are talented enough to pull off a show like this?  Music, dance, comedy...well maybe not, thats a tall order indeed... and I'll bet it just wouldn't pay enough...

The absence of some of these things may seem trivial - but small things are not always small things.  When you take away the corner grocery store, you take away the opportunity for the community to  be a community.

When you take away a school uniform, you leave opportunity for freedom of expression - yes - but you also leave opportunity for superiority, jealousy, you divide the classes into another form of class... one that is not desirable unless you are at the top.

When children no longer play as friends on their streets and playgrounds, they no longer have confidants, buddies, the opportunity to choose a best friend, one they very well may know for the rest of their lives.

When you take away clotheslines, you lose the sun in your laundry, but you might also lose a short neighbourly chat with the woman next door in between loads, a chat that might lead to a cup of tea and a restful few moments talking with someone like yourself with concerns such as yourself.

When you lose organizations like the CGIT, and Girl Guides, you lose the opportunity for children to learn values that are common to all mankind, some which might not be taught in the home.  You take away experiences that some children might never get to experience anywhere else,  like singing Christmas carols to patients in a hospital, delivering hampers to the needy...

When you lose TV shows for the whole family - you get what we have now.  Shows filled with violence, profanity, greed, challenge, unkindness, unfairness, selfishness, and more...

Whatever happened to... Our World?

Discuss...