The Olden Days

Walk down an old main street.  Look beyond the age, wear and tear, dirt, weather, disrepair of the buildings and look for the day of it's glory.  Picture the people who walked the sidewalks you walk.  Envision the dirt or brick roads.  When you go into the stores that line an old town main street there are still the creaky wooden floors, some still have the tin ceiling.  What was this shop when it was first built?  Who lived in the apartment above?  What must life have been like for those who lived in and around the town.  People like my grandparents walked those streets in their youth.  They lived on the farms that skirted small town USA. 

I talk to my grandparents about the olden days.  My Grandma was born in 1921 she will be 93 in January and my Grandpa in 1916, he will be 97 in November.  They were farm kids.  My grandpa was a fortunate boy and able to go to school and graduate from high school.  My grandma has always been so proud of the fact that she was able to go to school through the 8th grade.  How times have changed.  These days Grandma remembers more of her youth then she does last week.  She talks about playing dolls with her sisters at the old farm house.  Even at 92 years old I can see the young girl in her face when she remembers something or she looks at a picture of her and my Grandpa that hangs on the wall.  There is still an innocent girl that has never left her face.  She has the sweetest smile.  My Grandpa was in WWII, he worked for years in a boat factory and is the epitome of a man of his era.  He didn't cook or clean.  He is the man of the house.  He's frustrated that his body is old and his mind is 30.   He talks about time as a young man.  The jokes and pranks that he and his brothers would play on his sister.  Both Grandma and  Grandpa affectionately remember something "mother" use to do.  Whenever they tell stories about their mothers I can see them as young children.  The years wash away from their faces.  I am so blessed to still have them both and try to soak up the olden days every time I see them.  This month they will celebrate 71 years of marriage.