Those Were The Good Old Days

When I was just a little girl I sat at Grandma's knee
And listened to her tell the tales of how it used to be
And now that I'm a grandma I find to my surprise
My little ones look up to me with wide and wondering eyes

For my days are as strange to them as Grandma's was of old
And they simply cannot comprehend the stories I have told
No kleenex then to blow our nose, no paper towel invention
And we used that big thick catalogue for what - I dare not mention

And when winter winds grew chilly we raced to the outhouse fast
For we bounced and jiggled in our home as long as we could last
We didn't go to doctors much, for when anyone got sick
We used old family remedies and we got better quick

A mustard plaster on our chest, vicks pushed up our nose
I'm telling you we went to bed a smelling like a rose
Mama put that big rock in the oven and there it stayed all day
Gathering heat for our little feet as we'd sleep the night away

And that big old number three tub across the kitchen floor
Put there every Saturday night for six or eight or more
The littlest always got it last and I was one of those
Freshly starched and hanging there, our Sunday homemade clothes

They heard of every Sunday morn when sacrament was passed
How everybody took a sip of that one big heavy glass
And baptism day was different then, we'd freeze and we would shiver
Not adorned in all white clothes and they dipped us in the river

Now "Shaves and Haircuts six bits" was a saying true
We traded an egg for a sucker, five cents bought an ice cream cone too
A bag of salt cost the very same as a ticket for the show
I remember this so very well - Mama wouldn't let me go

She said she needed our last ten cents for a bag of salt tomorrow
But I begged and pleaded desperately, I put her through such sorrow
"If I have to miss that show," I said, "I'll never be content"
At that she gave me her last dime and to that show I went

I sat there on the edge of my seat, my heart was beating fast
I watched the two bill and coo 'til she got kissed at last!
I couldn't wait for Christmas for I knew that there would be
A great big juicy orange tucked into the toe for me!

On Mondays when each wash day came I knew what we'd have for dinner
On that little old monkey stove, down the stairs, a pot of beans would simmer
She put drops of bluing in the last tub, cooked the starch 'til it was thick
Started melting Naptha soap, 'twas a smell I can't forget!

I pumped the old player piano, my tiny feet pressed on with glee
While Mama's voice, in the background, echoed sweet harmony
Yes, music rang out in our humble home, she whistled as she worked through the day
My sisters and I, cuddling three in a bed, would sing the night away

And the birds sang their rapturous good morning, waking us up so soon
The croaking frogs and the crickets - sang on by the light of the moon
Sunflowers dotted our clovered fields as far as the eye could see
The hollyhocks standing wherever they chose, sweet fragrance returns now to me

We were three times a day at the table, everyone gathered there
Be it hot mush or our bread and gravy, never a vacant chair
And now as I've gone down through memory lane telling about our ways
I just have to end my story with, "Those were the good old days"!!!

March 1999