When I started this blog a few years ago, The Simple Life seemed to be a good theme. 10 years ago we moved to the country from town.  Everything seemed like it was going to be so simple. As I sit here this morning and look back over my 73 years on this earth, I wonder if it is so simple. As I was growing up in the late 40's and 50's, it was simple.  Our phone hung on the wall.  You had to turn a little crank to get "central", the operator.  When she answered, yes it was always a she, you gave her a number  She would then ring that number and the person would answer.  At the same time you could hear other phone being lifted up.  Everyone was on a party line.  It was like morse code.  Longs and shorts.  Ours was  longs.  If it was 1, 3, or 4, it was our neighbors.  The coffee shops of today don't hold a candle for being gossip starters like the old party line phone system.
Electricity came to our part of the world in 1946-1948.  Don't really remember that part.  I do remember the outhouse and chamber pots under the bed, Saturday night baths in a big tub in the middle of the dining room floor.
TV didn't enter my world until 1957.  What a day that was when Dad brought home that Sylvania, I believe.  Wasn't much for variety.  1 station, 2 if we went out and moved the antenna by hand.  Wasn't much channel surfing.  Our main entertainment came on Saturday when we would go to town.  Us and most of the county!  Women shopped and visited, exchanged recipes,etc.  Men would go to the pool hall for some spit and whittle time, swap a few lies, talk about the weather.  Complain if it was to dry or to wet or to hot or cold.  Women weren't allowed in the poolhall, so when they were ready to go home, they would tap on the window to try get someone's attention.  Smoke was usually so thick you couldn't see in.
I went to a one room country school for 8 years of elementary school.  No kindergarten.  We went to school from September to the middle of April.  We had to help our parents get the crops in.  The school was a community gathering place during the school year.  Big Halloween party with bonfire, roasting hod dogs and marshmallows. 

We lived in a world where pictures were only take on cameras.  Our phones  either hung on the wall or on a table, not in our pocket.  I never even lived in a house with A/C until I was out of the service. Families got together for Sunday dinners often, not just at Christmas, Easter and Thanksgiving. 
 All the modern conveniences don't make life simpler.  Maybe easier.  We have lost our privacy.  We can't even be sure that big brother is not watching us all the time.  Everything goes at breakneck speed, even people.  Always in a hurry.  A pandemic has spread around the world in only 2 months. We are moving  way faster than we can keep up with!

I don't think life is simpler now than it was even 10 years ago.  We need to stop, take a deep breath and take a good look around us.

God Bless-johnnyb