Family time

I am the first to admit that the comforts of our homes today far exceed what we had in our homes in the good ole days --things like air conditioning--no longer necessary to grab your quilt and go looking for the coolest place to make your pallet for the night. Electric dishwashers have to be the best invention EVER--no more fussing whose turn it is to wash dishes--heating the water etc. Many things that have made our life easier and made us more comfortable--I think that these very things have also cost us in the form of time spent together as a family. While doing the dishes with any of my sisters or on a rare occasion my brothers (they always seemed to escape the dish washing)we would talk about everything and share things with one another.. Had we not been thrown into sharing our job together I doubt that we would have talked & shared as we did.
On cold winter nights I reflect back to the nights that Dad would have a big fire going in our old wood stove--which sat in the very center of the living room, we would all "drag" our chairs around the stove and Mom & Dad talked about their day or talked to us about something that was going on in our lives. It was always a family pow-wow--everybody had an input, some more than others (ahem). Many times Mom would pop popcorn and have homemade fudge for us to feast on while we enjoyed the warmth of the stove. If it happen to be a Sat. night we would listen to the Louisiana Hayride on the battery radio--Beverly was the only one that could find the station as something was wrong with the dial, she clamped a wooden clothes pin onto the dial wheel inside of the radio and would turn it just right.It just didn't get any better than those nights- Moms good candy and corn, the big stove generating wonderful heat and that ole radio pumping out great country music..Sometimes Mom & Dad would sing along with them... contentment filled the room. Isn't it strange that something so simple and really just a normal night in those days, left such a lasting impression ----a family of 8 sitting together around the stove,talking,laughing and listening to one another...Now that I look back on it I realize it wasn't just contentment that was felt in the room ,it was the love my family shared -- now dear ones I promise you memories like this can't be beat!!