![[SeMissourian.com]](http://www.t-g.com/images/nameplate.png)
|
|
Fair ~ High: 76°F ~ Low: 48°F |
|
Days Gone By
Posted Wednesday, December 31, 2008, at 3:04 PM<< Previous | Read comments | Respond | Email link | Next >>
Reading my dear friend Kelly's blog on seeing Walmart closed down on Christmas Day got me to remembering my childhood when town would almost completely shut down on Sundays and the main holidays, Christmas Thanksgiving and Easter Sunday. Whether you believed then or believe in those days or not, you would shut down in respect of those that did. You would go to church and have dinner on the grounds and fellowship all day or just sit on the front porch with family and sip iced tea. Makes me long for places like Mayberry or Walton's Mt. We are always hustling and bustling and not taking time to remember. There was a episode of Andy where they were told to relax and they got more busy than ever. Go and visit family and have some iced tea a remember the good ol' days. Thank you Brother Kelly for loving the same things I do, God and family and yes even country. Front porch friends are always the best, though today we will go set on the couch. Thoughts from the Crossroads, Home of the Old Time Preacher Man. Comments Showing comments in chronological order [Show most recent comments first] |
A man getting to the roots of his faith.
Hot topics New Pharaoh?(212 ~ 11:58 AM, Nov 7)
Return To The Pulpit!
A Few Thoughts
He Came, He Went, He Will Come Again!
Dear Mr.Obama
|
![[Feed icon]](http://www.t-g.com/images/icons/feed-icon-14x14.png){kind=icon}
Yes Michael, I remember those days too. You don't see nor hear about these great things anymore. We used to go to someone in the family's house every Sunday after church, for a gathering, with lunch being cooked by whom ever we were visiting. Those were the days when God and family came first. The world is moving too fast. People don't take the time to sit on the front porch and visit for fear of losing time from making that dollar. I'm not saying that we don't have to work to keep up our families but we need to take time out to reflect on what is most important in our lives,(GOD and FAMILY) in this order.Thanks Michael, for making me remember and God bless you.
no need to miss mayberry and walton's mountain.
they are make believe places that only ever existed on tv shows, and i am sure you can purchase the old episodes to watch to your hearts content.
I know they don't exist in real life, but they are patterned after real places and real times.
I do have T.V. Land and do watch them as often as possible.
"but they are patterned after real places and real times."
no michael, they are not.
they are sanitized, fantasized versions of a time that never was, in a place that never existed.
Mayberry is based on Mt. Airy North Carolina and the characters are based on people in Andy Griffith's life.
And FYI My grandfather lived during that time and he told me the same stories.
Sure the ideal of a sheriff with no gun may be stretched but it is the meaning.
I can remember when we used to sleep outside on the porch all night and parents would not worry.
Leave windows open all night.
Now we all stay behind locked doors and shut windows.
It may not have been true to you , but to my family, they lived it.
My grandparents could have doubled for the Beverley hillbillies or the Walton's or the ones in Mayberry, don't tell me about the time that never it was because I know different.
I will even have to agree with you on that also Michael.
I even remember when Shelbyvile had a feel a lot like Mayberry.
I may have been young but I remember when the first wal-mart type store came in (1966 I believe)and starting "drawing" the business off the town square.
Wal-mart changed the face of everyday America as much as anything I have seen.
I seen quite a few Oppie's on our town square back when it was the place to be.
Amen Michael, I'm old enough to remember some of those times too, and these shows pretty much tell the story of back then. You didn't have to worry about someone breaking in your home. Most of the time you house was like Grand Central Station, with all the company that came thru it in a day's time. Everyone was welcome there. Today no one visits like used to , they have too many others things more important (or so they think it is )Again, I say , stick to what you believe in and don't let anyone try to tell you differant. This world would be a lot better off if we could live the live of the Waltons, not this hurry up mess we live in now. God bless you Michael.
I might further add that Wartrace and Bell Buckle were dead ringers for Mayberry in the 1960's and even into the early 1970's.
I think Mayberry, Barney, Aunt Bea, Oppie and Andy hit home so well with most Americans that it became the success it was and unbelievably still is today.
We may deam about Mayberry today but it indeed was a realty just a few short years for a large segment of todays population.
"but they are patterned after real places and real times."
no michael, they are not.
they are sanitized, fantasized versions of a time that never was, in a place that never existed.
-- Posted by lazarus on Thu, Jan 1, 2009, at 10:49 AM
No lazarus, you must have missed this precious time period before you were brought back to life.
Mayberry was everyberry for a period of time.
Just because you missed it does not mean it did not exist.
"I even remember when Shelbyvile had a feel a lot like Mayberry."
sure, as long as you pretend that black people didnt live in squalor, and could go to school, eat in a restaurant, or even use a restroom just like anyone else.
and we can also pretend that people didnt beat their wives and/or children with impunity, because everyone wanted to mind their own business.
we can even act like incest wasnt a dirty little secret around shelbyville & bedford county back then.
but, pray tell, which mayberry character was eddie mcgee?
America will always haved the black mark of slavery and segregation of black and whites.
People did beat their wives and or husbands and children then as they do now.
And sometime people do need to mind their own buisness.
Everytime a child gets spanked for someting they deserved, the parents get investigated till they are old and gray.
Incest , well that speaks for itself, it is wrong according to God's word the same as other sexual immorality.
If it isn't one man and one woman married, thenit falls in that group.
I never said times were perfect, just a tad bit better in my opinion.
If people caught for incest, rape, and murder, and other crimes were dealt with accordingly and not spend years in court doing appeals, maybe ,just maybe things would get better.
Maybe if when a person was caught or convicted of a crime, he was whipped, or hung up as in those days it would deter others from doing it.
No they get 3 hots and a cot, education and health care paid for by us.
Isn't it great that people who have made mistakes can be given the help they need to turn their lives around?
We could kill off all our imperfect people,warehouse them for the rest of their days,turn them loose with the same problems that caused them to offend in the first place or we could give them the means to put their transgressions in the past and try to become constructive members of society.
Some will have more luck with that than others but we are obligated to offer them the chance and the necessary resources.
In the secular realm,that means health care,education,food,shelter and basic human rights.
In the spiritual realm,it means showing love,providing justice and a sense of purpose and giving them the means of renewing their souls.
We cannot write off even the worst of us if we want to have mercy and hope and the chance for an abundant life ourselves.
If we choose to treat others with neglect or cruelty,we may discover we are condemning a person unfairly.
At the very least,we are setting the standard by which we will be judged.
If I'm to see a criminal put back on the street due to overcrowded jails,I'd prefer that they have had counselling,lost any drug dependencies,learnedbasic life skills and have a healthy support system and a way of supporting themselves before they get released into regular society.
I don't want to be put at risk or have to pay for revolving door prisons because we were too cheap,heartless or lazy to repair what problems we could fix and increase these people's chances of succeeding with a fresh start.
If we pay close attention to the residents of our pounds and prisons,we'd,at least,have a better idea of who could be rehabilitated with the right care and who would always be a danger to himself and others.
As for t.v.,I'm sure the real life counterparts of Mayberry,Walnut Grove,Walton's Mountain,etc. were no more idyllic than the real Los Angeles,New York City,Chicago,Washington,D.C.,Tombstone,Dodge City,Abilene,Waco,Dallas,etc. were corrupt and deadly cesspools.
The truth is,some of us were fortunate enough to live the lifestyle of Opie,Laura and Mary-Ellenjust as some of us lived in the world of Scout and Jem Finch,Willie Starr,Mick Kelly -or even Little Bill of the Cosby Kids or Ralphie of A Christmas Story.
We can ignore the poetic license taken in these portrayals if we take some lessons from them in what kind of truths we want to create for our lives.
Do we want to be the kind of parents Andy Taylor,Ma Ingalls,Ruth Miller and Steve Douglas were?
Do we want to have the same kind of small town solidarity found in Mayberry or Walton's Mountain?
Or do we want to emulate "Married With Children",the "Mama's Family" skits,the Stepford movies or have the Mom from Futurama?
We can find reality in our popular culture and we can develop values that will determine what kind of reality we'll choose for our own lives that might be reflected in the next generation's fiction.
I have no problems with second chances, but with some it is obvious,they could have a 1000 chances and still do it.
Some crimes such as murder and pedophilia, one chance is it, why spend all that money to prove some sort of "mental defect"?
It is a defect all right, one implanted by Satan himself.
Mom from Futurama, haha.
"Maybe if when a person was caught or convicted of a crime, he was whipped, or hung up as in those days it would deter others from doing it."
Um, you do realize, of course, that many of the people who were whipped and hanged in Shelbyville (and most other places) weren't actually tried and convicted, right?
Yeah, I know that, but criminals have nothing to fear anymore, a slap on the wrist , and back on the street.
On Days Gone by....
A while back I came across a quote that meant a lot to me... sure seems to fit the topic :)
Happy new years and Happy memories to you all!
"I remember the events of those days more clearly than those which have happened recently, for what we learn as children grows up with the soul and becomes united to it." - Irenaeus
Amen and Amen....
You also got a good spanking every now and then too. If you were to drunk to drive, the cops took you home. You did not have to lock your car when you went in the store. People were honest and cared about what others thought about them. Oh but how times have changed.