We are finally opening up slowly from our pandemic lockdown. This has been an unprecedented and very unnatural few months to get through. But I think that we all have made it. There is still an unknown factor in this process with the Covid-19 virus itself. Will it disappear? Can we control it with an as yet undeveloped vaccine? Is there an ever-present chance of re-infection on a mass scale? No one knows. We can only hope for the best. The style of living has changed drastically for all of us. Our daily lives have slipped back to a time when life was simpler. Our present technology is still with us, but everything else has slowed until it seems that we had less choices, especially in events outside of our homes. Some decades ago we didn’t go out as much to restaurants and for shopping and for entertainment. We went out, but not nearly as much as we have now experienced. I was born in 1941, so I remember those times.
Even though I was very young I remember living through the Second World War. Times were tough. Necessities weren’t always available when you needed them. Everyone lived more in a day to day existence. The time passed with work schedules and mealtimes. The technological advances we now have were non-existent, at least in their present forms.
I remember when I dialed the rotary telephone, the ominous busy signal and the lack of an answer machine. In fact, when we lived on a farm for a while, we had a party-line crank phone. You cranked it to get a dial tone that alerted an operator who would place your call (or not) if the line was busy. And when you did get through there might have been people listening in to your conversations. It was just something that entertained the bored or the busybody. Listening.
I remember when the ice-man brought blocks of ice for our ice box. It worked until it started melting and the drip pan had to be emptied and you needed more ice. The ice man would return.
I remember when the coal man brought a load of coal to our basement window and dumped and shoveled the coal into the coal cellar. Coal dust everywhere. And then someone would have to shovel the coal into the furnace and shake the rods that held it and hope there were no “clinkers.” These could be a real source of frustration. Also, the ashes had to be shoveled out of the furnace periodically and taken outside to a disposal. All of this meant that you had heat in the house, and hot registers that the heat came out of into each room. Careful you don’t burn your feet.
I remember when the junk man came in a truck to empty the trash cans. Not much different now except for the disposables like paper products. Most people had large cans or steel drums that worked as incinerators. Outside, we burnt these disposables periodically in a place that was safe from setting fire to something else like a garage or shed. There were a lot of ashes in the air at times, especially when the dry leaves in the fall were raked into large piles and set on fire. Safely, usually. An alternative to trash pick-up was to dig a large hole in your backyard and insert the trash and cover it up in layers. When you got to the top, plant grass or plants of some kind. They grew very well.
I remember when most people had gardens with many vegetables, fruits, and herbs growing seasonally. This was followed by canning parts of the harvest for the winter months. This process of growing and harvesting and canning took a lot of time but it also saved a lot of money. The local grocery was for meats and paper goods unless you were lucky enough to grow chickens (for meat and eggs), ducks, turkeys, etc. But someone had to prepare these fowl for the table. A messy process. Trees were also important, and their fresh fruit was always delicious. Apples, pears, peaches, cherries, etc, were great for pies, cobblers and canning. We baked.
I remember when we had a cornfield which took up maybe a quarter of an acre. Great fun as a playground when you are young. And again, the corn itself was delicious. But also a lot of work like all of the above. Our time was allocated differently toward different priorities. Day to day survival. And there is so much more to remember about those times which were simpler but sometimes just as stressful as now. What kept us sane then?
I remember the big bands that entertained on the radio and at dance halls. They thrived through the war years. Their recordings were listened to on 78 rpm records. And these same recordings with the bands and instrumental soloists and singers are still listened to today. The musicians are mostly gone, but their music which was romantic, entertaining, nostalgic even then, and even inspirational lives on. Songs that were written then are still meaningful even now. As we once again regain our way of life we will remember years later these times and the music that coincided with them. It still keeps us sane. Music.