The Things They've Seen

Last Sunday, my family and I spent the afternoon with my grandparents. It just seems like life gets so busy that there is never time to do things like visit anymore and we decided to make it happen and we took the two hour trip south to Centerfield, Utah.

My Grandparents are in their mid-eighties and are doing well for that age. Age is causing them to lack some of the physical abilities they once had, but their minds are still sharp and it is so pleasant and entertaining to sit down with them and just talk. They are interested in what we have been doing and watching their great grandchildren play on the floor in front of us. At one point of the conversation, we started discussing the "how is was then and how it is now".

Normally this is where the "uphill both ways to school in 20' of snow, 11 months out of the year" stories are told, but not on this day. Daily living was physically harder then, no doubt about that, but the conversation was more of them reminiscing and sharing stories I had never heard. It was stories of daily chores, riding horses to the store, selling cream, cooking potatoes, things people said back then and how they said it, and other such tales. It was memories laced with fond feelings and good intentions.

I couldn't help but think what a difference they have experienced. My grandparents have probably seen the biggest change any other generation will ever see. Yes, I will see bigger, stronger, faster things; life will continue to evolve. They, however, have gone from eating the things they grew from the dirt they plowed, riding, using and eating the animals they raised, and scratching their lives out of only the things they could produce to today's society of everything available, all of the time. I find it hard to think any change will equal the magnitude of change they have witnessed.

I don't know if they were the "Greatest Generation", but it certainly is not hard to understand why my grandparents and all of those who share their time frame in history seem to have such a unique, clear, and seemingly wise perspective on life.