Change of Life

We were just talking about how different the neighborhood is today than it was years ago. Leroy's family moved to Berks County in 1953. There were very few Mennonites living in this part of the county back then. Today there are Mennonites of all kinds around us and within the last two years we have even seen Amish buggies going by once in awhile.

We built this house in 1968 and there have been a lot of changes inside these four walls as well. When we moved in we had very little furniture. The kitchen had only the table and chairs, a sewing machine, and a cart where I kept small appliances. The living room had a sofa and chair, coffee table and two end tables, desk, a rocking chair, and a small table with the record player on it. I hung a couple calendars on the wall and a set of paint-by-number pictures I had done. And that was the extent of the decorating. I didn't even consider spending money to decorate. We had a $114 per month mortgage to pay!

Our bedroom had the three-piece bedroom suite I bought when I was fourteen and the baby crib. We never had a nursery. I didn't want to have to trot to another room to tend the baby at night. I could jump up, stick in the pacifier, and hop back in bed. The vanity in the bathroom was the dressing table. Cloth diapers were kept in one of the drawers and changed on the top of the vanity. That worked for all six of our children for eighteen years.
We had no credit card the first five years we were married. Then we went on a trip, had trouble with the car, and came home in a snowstorm with three little children and two dollars in our pocket. We had to keep going because we didn't have enough money for a motel. The Lord took pity on us and sent a snowplow to clear the road ahead of us. We just so made it home. After that we got a credit card to use in case of emergencies during travel.

The way I cook has also changed.  We grew most of our food in the garden and got raw milk from his parents' farm. We didn't eat many pasta dishes because pastas were bought. We ate potatoes every day because we could grow them. I remember sometime in the 1970s I made lasanga and that was something new to us. Everything was cooked on the stove as I didn't have a crockpot or microwave. I'm not sure when I got  a crockpot but the microwave came in 1986 when our oldest son bought one for us. 

I sewed dresses for myself and our daughter, shirts for the boys, and curtains for the windows. There were no such things as yard sales. I went to a couple second-hand shops in the city of Reading to get coats and other things for the children or they wore hand-me-downs from their cousins or older siblings.

We had one phone in the house, hard-wired to the wall. It was a rotary phone on a party line. We never even suspected we might have a cell phone and computer someday. That was beyond our imagination. The first computer I got in 1990 was a used one and cost almost as much as I would have to spend for one today that does a whole lot more than that one did. But it was a step up from the typewriter I had been using to write Sunday school lessons. 

Our camera was an Instamatic with a flash cube. Understand that language? Leroy gave it to me for Christmas when we were dating. It was, of course, a film camera. Color pictures were just starting to replace black and white but we didn't take a lot of color pictures because they cost more. In fact, we didn't take many pictures. I wish we had taken more when we were building the house. 

Things have certainly changed and accumulated in the process of living in this house for fifty years. We had one three-month old son when we moved in and added five more children who have now moved on to establish their own homes. The house that was once noisy and cluttered is now quiet and the the whole upstairs is empty unless company comes. But it is full of good memories and I would do it all over again if I had the energy. I enjoyed every stage of life and now I'm enjoying this stage of quiet life. God has been good to us and we are grateful for His care and blessings.