different times

We think we have it rough when we run out of milk.

We also frequently make fun of the previous generation for their frugality.

We don't have it rough, with our poor living perhaps in some cases, with more than we who pay for all our goods, services and wants out of pocket.

My aunt, into her eighth decade, recounted today after dinner, when my uncle was young, growing up in the Great Depression.

While living in South Dakota, his dad was promised a job in Idaho. With three kids, they put their belongings in their car and drove there. I think I need to pack more than that for a few hours away from home. There was a job in Idaho. There was no housing. So they lived in a chicken coop with a wood burning stove.

They started attending church in their town and soon the pastor and a deacon asked to visit their home. Tony remembers his mom making simply hot water to serve because there was no coffee. Mercifully, the church did what the church should still be doing instead of the government: they helped Tony's family out with, at the very least, some coffee for their hot water.

Another memory Aunt Jo remembers Uncle Tony recalling is fishing in hard times. He didn't have a hook, so he'd lay on the bank with his thumb just under the water. When a bullhead would start to nibble, he'd fling it up on the bank. He would have fish to take home to his mom to cook.

As the generation, who endured simpler yet harder times, slips into their 80s and 90s, I want to gather the stories and rehash them a thousand times to anyone who will listen.

Would my generation know how to function without central air conditioning in 90 degree-90% humidity? Do they know how to improvise and save and reuse, with the environment obsession aside, only for necessity? How about not having any convenience food at all - not even cream of mushroom soup or box cereal? Could we make our own entertainment without the aid of 749 cable channels, a smart phone and a myriad of other technological devices that have complicated our personal and public relationships. No, we'd die. In droves. With no ingenuity to create or improvise to get survive. Probably bloating in front of the television.

In a time in history when it is a big deal when a state's (Minnesota) efforts to balance their budget require cuts to government vouchers disallowing its recipients to use those vouchers for alcohol and cigarettes, we've fallen very far.

It probably does not require that we try living like a past generation. Air conditioning and indoor plumbing and electricity are nice touches.

But it might require passing on the stories.

It does demand that we turn off whichever device for a bit to connect with the real world (fellow humans).

It would require a listing of gratitudes and often.