By Staff
I sometimes wonder what it would have been like to have lived back in those "good old days" of no electricity or even running water.
Of course, your bathroom would have been way out in your back yard in a small little building called an outhouse. Which never had to be flushed.
If you wanted a Saturday night bath, you would heat your bath water on top of a stove and you would bathe in one of those round wash tubs.
I believe gas was put in houses before electricity and people had gas lights which were not very bright like ours today.
Your morning toast was probably made on an old-fashioned outfit that you set over one of the burners of the gas cooking stove.
Some people without gas lights had kerosene lamps which I'm sure didn't give off much light.
Water was brought into the house in bucket filled from a pump out in the yard.
Clothes were ironed using old six-pound flat irons that were heated on top of the stove.
Just what would kids of today do if they didn't have their electronic games? They could do like others did back in the old days - read lots of books, work jigsaw puzzles and play dice and card games.
Here are some wonderful things that came along after I was born in 1930: television, radar, fluorescent lights, disposable diapers, Army Jeeps, ice makers, tape recorders, Scotch tape, instant coffee, ballpoint pens, credit cards, FM radio, microwave ovens, wash and wear clothes, air conditioning, automatic car shifting, dish washers, clothes dryers, lasers, contact lenses, frozen food, VCRs, computers and, of course, Burger King and McDonald's.
My wife added penicillin, automatic pin-setters, word processors, panty hose and guys wearing earrings, ha ha.
I know that in the hot days in the middle of August, it was always called "dog days."
It was also at this time the lakes used to clean themselves, or as some would say, be in "bloom." Lakes were not fit for good swimming at this time.