Thinking Out Loud, Volume CDIX

Sometimes I wonder if the families in which Angie and I grew up were typical of that era, or were we exceptions to the rule? If we were the exceptions, it is a coincidence that our childhoods were so similar, since we are from different areas of the state and didn't even know of the other's existence until I was in college and she was a senior in high school. If we were more typical, has the rule gradually changed down through the years since that time, or have we become exceptions over time? There is one other possibility to consider: She and I were both raised in rural areas, but we have become city folks since we married, and maybe country people and city folks do things differently. Allow me to elaborate. When we were kids, there were several families whom we called good friends who lived nearby, and we visited each other regularly. This happened with various families, on average, at least every couple weeks. This is definitely not all, but it was a common occurrence for the Smiths, the Walkers, the Coons, the Devilles, the Pauls, etc. to visit our house...or we would be at theirs. For Angie's family, families like the Whitakers, the Fontenots, the Bushnells, the Bullers, the Durios, or others would show up for a visit. These weren't formal visits....they would just drop by, after supper, for maybe an hour. If the weather was nice, the adults would sit on the porch and talk while we kids played in the yard. I have really fond memories of those occasions. Do country people still do that? Do city folks do that? If so, I'm not aware of it. Our kids come over on a fairly regular basis, and we visit them, but that's about it. I wouldn't dream of just showing up unannounced at anyone's house for a visit, and to be honest, I don't really expect anyone to come here like that. Unless we've changed while the world has remained the same, the days of that type of interaction with friends are behind us. I don't want to step on next week's topic, but have our lives become so busy that we just don't have that kind of time for our friends any more? Angie and I feel fortunate to have as many good friends as we do, primarily through our church and the running group, and we do spend time with many of them, but it's always at some type of planned event...usually at a restaurant of some sort. I know our kids do the same. Still, I have to wonder if we have some great memories that our grandkids will not get to experience, at least on the level that we did. I'm sure our grandchildren will be able to look back at some happy times in their childhood, but I regret they are missing out on some of the kind of memories like we have. Preston