How Things Used To Be

How Things Used to Be

You hear people say it all the time. "Those were the days", they say. When you're young you don't think you'll ever say it. That's probably because, when you're young, you don't understand what the phrase means. I recently started saying, "Those were the days". I also recently turned fifty, so I guess the phrase means more to me now than it might have some years ago. I think of the phrase when I think of how different things used to be.

There were days I remember when I was in school. The teachers had no problem keeping order and discipline in our classrooms. Kids who misbehaved were disciplined by sitting in the corner, or if the infraction was serious enough, they were sent to the Principal for a firm application of his fraternity paddle. Kids didn't continue to act up in schools and parents didn't sue the schools for disciplining their children. This took place in a rural society where little boys were not expelled for trying to kiss little girls and almost all of the boys carried pocket knives because both of those things were pretty much expected. Teacher strikes were things that happened in the big cities. My academic career was never interrupted for a teacher's strike until after I finished junior college. The biggest difference is that back then actual learning was possible for the kids who cared to apply themselves. Those were the days.

I start to think of those days when I look at our churches. There were very few churches of over 1,000 members then. Even the least popular churches were at least forty percent filled on an average Sunday, but that still only represented about 100 to 250 parishioners in the bigger churches. The most common question about religion back then was, "Where do you go to church?" Today the question is, "Do you go to church?" Were we more devout back then? I don't think so, but there seemed to be more consciousness of morality then and more of a sense of propriety. Those were the days.

I think of those days when I go into the outdoors, as well. Then, rivers were safe to wade in cutoffs and tennis shoes. Now the same rivers we used to wade and fish in Northeastern Illinois are polluted to the point that they smell like a container of floor stripper. Then, you could go fishing in a park and people would generally have the courtesy to keep their voices down when they walked by the place where you were fishing. Now, children are taught that they have an inside voice and an outside voice and that the outside voice is allowed to be as loud as they can make it, which they do whenever and wherever they get outside. Maybe our wildlife isn't really disappearing as quickly as we think. Maybe they just don't like our outside voices. Fishing was also a different sport then. People went fishing as a pastime or to put food on the table then. There was no thought of making tens of thousands of dollars for catching more fish than somebody else over a couple of days. Fishing was fun, not a job. Those were the days!

I think of those days when I try to take my family camping. Back then, with a tent, a car and few bucks a night, you could camp your way to just about anywhere. Try finding a tent spot now in most campgrounds in America. They are almost non-existent. Camping doesn't mean camping anymore. It means parking. Campgrounds have become RV parking lots, the tent spots replaced with gravel, cement or asphalt pads to keep the air conditioned mobile cabins from becoming mired if it should rain. On one particular trip, our family got our routine of pitching camp honed to the point where we could set up the tent, put the bedding in place and have supper cooked within twenty minutes. Then we would drift off to sleep with only our sleeping bags and the floor of the tent between us and the ground. Dawn would usually find us awake, enjoying the cool and peaceful surroundings as bacon and eggs sizzled over our campfire. Nothing has ever tasted better than those breakfasts. Those were the days!

Do I mean to say that I think we should return to those days? I don't think it's possible . First of all, America isn't the same now as it was then. There was more of a sense of innocence then. I think people were more courteous then. I think our society considered right and wrong less ambiguous concepts then. But then again, as I have been saying, those were the days!

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