Remember the Good Old Days

Sit back and relax, and reminisce,
While you think about life back then,
Do you picture yourself on a wide front porch,
As you rocked in the sun and the wind?

Do you picture a servant, serving the tea,
And the dainty tea cakes on the plate?
Those were the good old days, my friend,
That we still talk about today.

Do other pictures flash into view,
Of dusty country roads,
With families toiling in the fields,
And carrying heavy loads?

Of women rocking babies,
And children busy at play,
Of a dogtrot house, built with a loft,
For the older boys to stay.

Of a smokehouse filled with juicy hams,
Bacon and smoke sausage, too,
And a old wood stove, that cooked the best food,
That ever a country child knew.

Red-eyed gravy with biscuits and syrup,
Eggs brought fresh from the yard,
Potatoes so sweet that the syrup ran out,
Chicken fried in homemade lard.

Those were the days of the one-room school,
When the teacher ruled with a stick.
But the Three R's were taught, and every child,
Could read, write, and do arithmetic.

When lunch was carried in the molasses can,
Boys cut the wood for the term.
Everyone drank from the same gourd dipper,
Never had heard of a germ.

Now, these are some pictures, seen with the mind.
And not through the camera's lens.
As you all reminisce, the memories come back,
And we all remember back when.

When every house had the yard fenced in,
With either pickets or rails.
When our water came from a cold, bubbling spring,
Or a well with a wooden pail.

When out in the back, stood the little shack,
With writing on the wall.
Where we froze in the cold, drowned in the rain,
But we answered when nature called.

There was no Charmin to squeeze back then,
And no one seemed to care,
You could pick yourself a whole wardrobe,
From the Sears-Roebuck catalog there.

The roads were all dirt, and the winter rains,
Made ruts so muddy and deep,
That wagons and buggies bogged in the mire,
If the hill was a little bit steep.

And nothing could beat a night buggy ride,
With old Nellie slowed down to a walk.
While you smooched and spooned, neath the Southern moon,
Knowing that horse couldn't talk.

Would you really trade how we live today,
For those days of long ago?
Have we come to depend on our modern aids,
Have we lost all our get-up and go?

In those good old days there was leisure time,
To visit with neighbors and friends.
To gather the family around the fire,
When the workday came to an end.

To read from the Bible, have family prayer,
And through the cracks count the stars above.
There was a heap of living in a house back then,
And an over-abundance of love.