Since the beginning of time we have loved to be entertained. Great amphitheaters in ancient Rome and in ancient Greece attest to this fact. Since time began there have been story tellers and before television and movies there were traveling shows. It was not only entertainment but education. We learn the most when things are presented by way of entertainment.
I remember as a child that my daddy's father, “Grandpa Mc”, we called him, would sit on the porch with us kids after he was done working in the garden and tell us stories. He was so much fun, some were true and some were for sport, like the time he told us that if we could kiss our elbow, we would change into a boy. My sister and I tried so hard to kiss our elbow. He told us that when he was small he was a little girl until he kissed his elbow, of course we believed him. He roared with laughter watching us try this impossible task. On the side porch, they had a long shelf with water faucet and pan where they washed up when they came in from the garden. One day Grandma Mc took her false teeth out and laid them on the shelf. My sister and I were amazed, we did not know you could take your teeth out. Grandpa said, girls everyone can take their teeth out, you have to catch hold of them with a firm grip. He and grandma nearly died laughing at us trying to take our teeth out that day. They lived next door and grandpa always had time for us. If he wasn't working the garden, he was filing saws and we sat on the work bench while he did this because he had lots of stories to tell us kids.
My dad also loved to tell stories. Once when we were going to visit one of his sisters, Uncle James , his brother and young wife rode with us. On the way there we passed a stone house. Daddy said that they had built the house out of special growing rocks. It was a tiny little house when first built, but through the years it had really grown. He was teasing us kids but Aunt Irene fell for it too. For years we watched that house grow, every time were drove past it, daddy would say; "Boy that house has grown since we were here last." My sister and I could really see it growing, or so we thought. Daddy really got a big laugh the day we called his hand because we had learned that rocks do not grow.
There was a lesson in the old stone cottage. He taught us to speculate, to think before accepting things at face value. The power of suggestion is very strong and when used in the right way it can actually help children learn. Convincing a child that he or she is smart can do wonders toward making them believe in them selves. They can reach new heights because they believe they can. Tell a child he is dumb and he will be, because that is what he believes, therefore he will never try as hard and never be the best that he could be.
Sometimes I think that life was just better way back when things were so much simpler, and people helped people, and everyone knew their neighbors for miles around. It was fun being a kid back in the day when we entertained ourselves.
When I was a young bride, I took my husband’s Granny Russell grocery shopping every week. Each time we passed a house with a TV antenna she would say; “Just look at the devil’s horn sticking up out of that house.” I did not know at the time how wise a woman she was in that speculation. Even though I watch television everyday of my life, I know that granny was right; a lot of bad things have come into our hearts and minds by way of it.
A BETTER DAY
By: Lillian Carol Russell
When I was a kid, what fun we had,
Visiting folks with my mom and dad.
It’s something people just don’t do anymore,
It takes too much time, it’s such a chore.
Twelve kids in daddy’s family and five in my mother’s,
And we visited each and every of the sisters and brothers.
Daddy got in from work and we hopped in the car,
During the week we never traveled very far,
Always a pot of coffee and friendly chat,
Then daddy said; “Come on girls, it’s time to scat.”
With so many cousins there was always a lot to do,
Playing games, having fun and we did some chatting too.
I often wonder how we had so much time back then,
Enough to work, grow a garden and visit with a friend?
Week-ends we’d visit his siblings far away,
Most often we went for the night to stay.
No television in our home back then and life was good,
People cared for each other the way that they should.
Not many conveniences way back then,
But you never had to lock your door, there was way less sin.
The devil has us by the throat it really seems to me,
We welcomed him in you know, he came by way of TV.
Philippians 1:13,14 This one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press on toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
