88 Years of Living

Wow.....I feel as though I have been away for quite awhile. I haven't had the time to keep in touch as much as I would like to between travel and working on and in both my businesses.

I did have a great evening on August 30th though when I spent the evening with my Mother in Law . The occasion was the celebration of her 88th birthday. 88 years old or young depending upon how you want to look at it. She is really an amazing woman and I love to hear her talk about the old days.

She grew up in the same town I work in. Believe it or not it is quite small only about 1 square mile. And it was probably smaller 70 years ago ...the population count I mean...and yet it had 3 of what they called department stores along with the butcher and the grocer and the banker. Everyone it seems raised their own poultry or hunted for it. Many people had a cow or two and most of the surrounding area was farmland.

She loves to tell me stories of who owned which shop and what is there now. A simple life but they had lot's of fun she'll say as she relates the parties and recreation they took part in.

I stop and think about it as I run to the Dunkin Donuts for my afternoon coffee and pull up to the drive through window at one of the banks now in town. Yes we still have the butcher but no department stores.

We are still very small town but I love to visualize what it was like when my Mother In Law was living here. I love to hear her stories of being a young bride married to my Father in Law who was in the service. How during war times they had no money or silverware. For quite sometime they shared one spoon which is now framed...because of the memories it holds.

88 years of living has brought many changes. More so than I have probably witnessed because of the huge strides in technology that have been made in the last 50-60 years. For me I prefer to talk to someone who has lived through history than just watch it on TV.