LL — you forgot HOPSCOTCH :-).  . and STATUES!!!  And how ‘bout the board games like the wonderful Chinese Checkers . . and PIT, and those kid card games whose names escape me — but you know!!!  Oh, one is Authors - chalk up one for me!!

And doll houses - and horns on bikes (neat!) - and teeter-tauters (sp) — and someone’s father rilling his own cigarettes during the war years?  And piano lessons when it was something you "did"???  And jumping down four steps at a time!

Oh — and mumby peg!  I had the neatest red pocket knife that my mother was nuts to give me!!

You won’t believe this but tonight out to dinner I told the people about this long-ago subject.   The conversation that ensued was never this good, and on top of it, I found that a single hardware store has a nice sharpener as those electric just don’t work well.  So that was GREAT news. 

And the paper coverings WERE called panties.  And I have Havilland china for 12 still in original boxes from my mother’s wedding — and sterling everything, and I do believe that day has past when doilies and all I have put in the attic will "come back" — do you?  So what do I do?  Where do I sell it?  This had made me think.  I just loved our conversation today … and look what it opened up!!!!  Joan

How could I have - temporarily - forgotten?  How about the store for penny candy?  And when you spoke of milkmen - do you remember the knife sharpening man that went down the alley or am I the only one?  Everyone used him and I wish he were around today!  But - back to the milkman — some years back when we had gone to Christchurch, New Zealand to our fancy hotel, across the street milk had been delivered like the old days and the cream had risen from the tops of the bottles about an inch or more with those little round cardboard tops still going on.  

Which then makes me think of the use in New Zealand of paper doilies under every dish and silverware of great numbers arranged by fork on the side of the plate and then across the top . . and they still made the meal look like a work of art with little paper "legs" - what were they called? on leg of lamb.  That wasn’t that long ago . . and I did think NZ was a flashback to the more "civilized" lives that were once led. 

How about afternoon tea at hotels?? 

Carry on, lucky lady … as I am sure you can do me one better. :-)

Hi Susan … Writing this morning had me thinking long after.  What made our lives so special back then?  Again, I will start with good manners, civility, a family feeling of various degrees of closeness or adult friends who treated us so well and seemed so happy to be in our company.  Kindness to others - sincere kindness with follow-up - thank you notes that we often kept because thought and love were within them.  The feeling of being safe (even in a big city suburb no one locked their doors).  The inner joy of meeting friends downtown, getting together without vying with cell phone calls.  Oh - respect for your elders and caring FOR them in a touching way.  Smiling faces.  Bringing the children to the symphony, to the art museum, to plays and having them think that was a treat.  Dressing neatly - and dressing up for occasions, which seemed to make them more special.  Lying on your back in the grass watching clouds to see if any of them looked like animals - and loving it! 

Remember going to beaches with tin pails and shovels?  Playing childhood games like kick-the-can, mother-may-I, red rover, marbles - and actually interacting with other kids instead of the computer?  Walking to school and not having scheduled after-school activities that required being driven? 

There is a warm feeling in the heart in looking back … but we DO find that if we make each day now the best it can be that we DO find joy still!

The Theatre Guild:  Broadway shows coming with the New York cast to Chicago where I had season tickets for 30 years, best seats in the house.  A bit of heaven, followed by going to one of a number of "to kill for" restaurants that made dressing up feel good.

Marshall Fields Department Store in Chicago:  it had a large fully-equipped nursery that you definitely left the young children in while you shopped.  Your packages would come to your home free by their beautiful delivery trucks later in the day. 

Doctors who made house calls when your children were very ill.

Good manners - remember them (or was it too long ago?)

A time when travelling on a plane was an event - lovely - in its own right.

Welsh rarebit.  Iceberg lettuce that was green all the way through.  Huge baked potatoes in restaurants that had 4 toppings to choose from in a condiment dish (yum)!!

Night clubs with name entertainment, and Hollywood stars entertaining between movies in downtown Chicago theaters - where you would sit through three complete shows to see Frank Sinatra up closer each time.

Buildings where you felt safe and there was no need for surveillance cameras and guards.

Oh, it was a wonderful world!

Lauriate … for the first time - like the woman above me - I read your words and said "WHAT?"  And then .   .  reluctantly, I reconsidered,  for Lauriate is perfect.  But I don’t think the rest of us live in that dream world.  Perhaps we should talk … . do you think????

Lesley . .

Long after I have returned from my visits to the countries of southern Africa, I, like you, find myself exalting in the natural beauty - and haunted by the unexpected scenes of hunting behavior in the natural world.  Years later that seems freeze-framed in my mind.

I don’t want to end up sounding like an person defending the rogue behavior you have seen.  . as it seems indefensible.  But there is something called "preservation of the species" going on.  Human encroachment on what had been the home grounds of these animals have limited their territories that truly are theirs.  Just as we mark off our own home and grounds often with fences, so the lions and other animals mark theirs.  But with lions, for instance, they are more crowded together.  One pride abuts another in some places - and spills over. 

But, as in life, there is the male that wants to be king of the hill and take over another pride of lions.  Is it hormones?  Are animals hard-wired?  Fighting and killing is the only way for them.  It can be a slaughter (and I have covered my eyes more often than most).  But I have learned to believe that again it is preservation of species, assuring that the strong gene pool remains strong.  I may not like it, but I "get it".  However (!) I have never stopped being upset.

As for the chimps, in spite of what author Frans de Waal may have written, I know that chimps may kill other chimps, though their normal behavior patterns are in groups and normally protective of each other. 

What I know and understand now - and what my heart says … well, it is two ends of the spectrum.  And certainly, your own analogy has gone through my mind as well.  While I have had a few very close calls with animals in Africa (hippos and spitting cobra come to mind), I treasure  Londolozi reserve in South Africa . .  as well as all the countries so rich with an abundance of nature in the world of today.  Would I go back?  In a flash!