It’s not like I know much about ‘in the day’…but of course, being a Baby Boomer, Momma does. Now we know our Momma has been known to underplay, overplay and exaggerate (well, at least stretch) the truth, but in every story there is a grain of truth with a lesson to be learned, so I pay attention….mostly.
One story Momma told me was about attending weddings ‘in the day’. No $100,000.00 Cinderella Fairytale wedding with limos, a Paradise Venue providing six course meals with a nine foot tall wedding cake made out of frosted filler and actual cake layers, a DJ to ‘Get the Party Started’, a huge display of Fireworks….then a Food truck arrives, in the wee hours, with sliders, while tables groan with cakes, squares, chocolate fountains, candy…oh, I forgot the Photo Booth to memorialize the Best.Wedding.Ever……
‘In the Day’ (say 1940’s-50’s), the Bride and Groom married in a simple ceremony and the Minister announced to the congregation (which consisted of family members, from both sides, friends and neighbors), an invitation to the bride’s home to celebrate the joining of two families till death did they part….no invitations were sent out…no RSVP necessary. Once they had all arrived, home made wine or spirits were passed around to the men, while the women were offered tea or coffee, and the kids were served Cool Aid. Then the women got busy in the kitchen, setting up the pot luck supper to which they had all contributed.
Now I get to the part that troubles me. Momma said the men were fed first, so that they could have all they wanted of whatever they wanted…after all men did physical labour, brought home the bacon, so to say. Once the men were ‘fed up’, the lady guests were invited to eat…and…if there was any food left over, the children could share it. At many the wedding, anniversary, Momma said, she and the other kids sat on the long, steep, dark staircases, praying there would be leftovers…if not, Her-Mother-God-Rest-Her-Soul, fed her kids when they returned home. I mean, dogs are treated better today….
I roll my big brown eyes when Momma starts on how spoiled and pampered we dogs and cats are today in comparison to ‘in the day’. Momma tells me cats lived in the barn, in the heat of the summer, or in the Arctic Vortex in the dead of winter…when I shuddered Momma said, ‘what…they could get in a stall with a horse or cow for warmth.’ Now my eyes are not just rolling, they are spinning around in circles. I love our kitties…who could do that….well, Momma conceded, sometime in the 1960’s, Her-Mother-God-Rest-Her-Soul, started bringing the cats indoors and they not only quickly and quietly took over, they also never left….pity, that.
Momma says the dogs were always allowed in doors (at her home, anyway) because they were supposed to be Guard Dogs…mostly they slept through anyone coming to and through the door, didn’t even raise their head or wag their tail at the intruders… not like there was much to steal but children and everyone had as many as they wanted at home already.
Anyway, it would be hard to stop these country folk entering since doors were never locked…starting at 6:am you never knew who was going to amble by, have a cup of coffee on his way to a full day of cutting hay, lumber, wool off sheep ….whatever needed to be done…no specialists, ‘in the day’….
Now pets were never bought high protein, vitamin enriched dry food in bags or little trays of roasted to perfection wet food…the cats lived on a lot of field mice and bread soaked in milk. Dogs got only food scraps, leftovers. Now I love human food and I get a bit and a bite every day. Our Vet is obsessed with my weight (give me my way, I’d eat till I dropped) so everything I consume, Momma knows the Calorie Count, if I had enough exercise to burn and churn them…so even with my most begging eyes I cannot swindle more… just saying…Praise God I wasn’t born ‘in the day’ and….
As Forest Gump would say: ‘That’s all I gotta say about that subject….’
