"Southhamsdarling": Time Passing....

So here we are in the middle of August and 2019, to me, seems to be galloping by at an unseemly rate of knots! Time - it’s such a precious thing, but seconds turn into moments, moments into hours, hours into days, and so it marches relentlessly on.

It makes me well aware that I am now in the Autumn of my life - I feel that I should be doing more, achieving more. As women, we have no excuses any more really - opportunities are out there for every one of us. It seems to me that I blinked, and I went from my 50’s to my 70’s in what seems like a nano second. I actually remember my dear mum saying exactly the same thing when she was in her 80’s. She said that it didn’t seem very long ago that she was in her 40’s! I didn’t take too much notice of it at the time, but, my goodness, I know just what she meant now.

A funny story - well, I thought it was quite funny. My youngest grandchildren are aged 11 (boy) and 9 (girl), and it’s amazing the conversations you can have with them. Children these days seem to be so aware of everything that is going on around them in the world, and mine can speak quite intelligently on a whole range of subjects, and they certainly care about this planet of ours - what they should be eating and what they should be doing to make the world a better place. It quite astounds me at times. Anyway, I digress! My grandson and I were talking about getting older, and I said that I hoped I would still be around to see him grow up. He said, “oh, you will, Grandma”. Then a little thought, followed by “but I don’t expect you will see me get married.” Then he did a quick maths calculation in his head.....”no, you certainly won’t be here to see me get married!”. (I am 72 by the way....).

I often wonder whether time seemed to pass so quickly for previous generations, or was it a slower pace of life in those days? Not so much pressure perhaps, although I know that they worked very hard indeed. Just think, for example, about the harvesting that used to take days, with so many people involved out in the fields, including young children. Whereas, now, you just have one man sitting on a

beast of a Combine Harvester and getting the job done in a relatively short space of time.

These days, we put our washing into the washing machine, and walk away and get on with something else. When I was a little girl, I can remember wash day (a Monday in our house) used to take all day., and it was hard work, especially with the sheets etc, which had to be taken out of the Boiler with wooden tongs, and then put through the mangle, before hanging them on the line. Does anyone else remember the little packets of ‘blue’ to keep the sheets white..?!

It’s funny things that you remember, isn’t it. I can remember my mum always wearing an overall or apron whilst doing the housework - then she would change into a pretty dress before my dad came home from work! Amazing to think of that now! 😊. How the times have changed. Everything is so much more casual these days.