Tuesday 4. Old Times

 

Tuesday 4 hosted by Annie

Hello! Welcome back to our weekly question fest begun by Toni Taddeo and kept in her memory.
Let's talk about old times.....

1. My town had an old-fashioned strawberry festival, a summertime picnic and carnival and the local church went caroling at Christmas time. What did/does your town do?  Our city holds a Dickens of a Christmas every year with carriage rides, costumes,  specialty foods and dramatic events.  It is very well done, but we have never participated. What about your family? I grew up going to the country with my parents to enjoy old time events, reunions, Decoration Days,  old- time picnic with home made ice cream and roasted corn on the cob! I love my memories at both grandma’s! I particularly enjoyed Christmas at my Grandmas’. One was rather genteel.  Baking the most exquisite food , home made cream custard, chantilly crème with fruit on homemade chocolate pound cake, everything was grand and gloriously decorated and sublime, while down at grannies, folks sat around the wood stove after a delectable, huge country dinner telling funny tales of the past, then at midnight we’d go out and shoot of fireworks.

2. What things in your life did you love about the past?I addressed  some of this in my first answer. One memory that really popped up that was very dear to me was being down at grannie’s , I mean way down in the country, with my fiancé’ at Christmas, when my Uncle June, my dad, and Lynn and I  walked way down into the woods looking for mistletoe in the trees. Uncle June shot the mistletoe out of the tree. I will never forget that day.  Our  frosty breaths, the red plaid  lined jackets,  holding Lynn’s cold hand in my mittened one!  The resounding echoes of the gunfire, the crackling branches falling through the trees and the romantic branch of mistletoe that we got to bring back home with us!  Another Christmas memory took place  at my other Grandmother’s.  One year at the Community Center which was actually the old elementary school my mother and grandmother attended ,  put on a play one year, called an Old -Fashioned Christmas.  The refreshments were all old time foods,  with Christmas custard instead of egg nog.me oh, my good!  The evening ended with a hayride not only along the country roads of the community, but,also, a 4 mile trek on the Blue Ridge Parkway, where all along the way we sang Christmas Carols. It actually spit a bit if snow for special effect.  It was wonderful!

3. What would you like to bring back that are no longer as popular as they once were? Would you talk to friends about perhaps reviving old traditions? Hayrides are a wonderfully fun thing to do.  Also,I wish  we honored our dear families who have passed by celebrating Decoration Day again.  Every year growing up , the end of May, my parents went to grandma’s we kids walked the country road picking Queen Anne’s lace , sweet peas,  chickory, everything that bloomed.  Grandma picked her garden clean, zinnias, snap dragons, dahlias,  roses,  and grandpa brought the many floral baskets up from the cellar. Thus would begin the compilation of  scads of beautiful baskets of flowers to place on a myriad of graves at the family cemetery.  Some of the dates in the graves were from the 1800’s. I always asked to pick the basket for my great aunt who died  as a child around the turn of the century! 

4. Do you belong to an organization of any kind and do they have outings, picnics or pot lucks?what special events did they do? Over the years I was  a member of a teacher’s sorority, Alpha Delta Kappa.   We did many fund raising events to help several area missions, like Ronald McDonald House, for one.  For a couple of  decades at two consecutive churches I was the chairman of the social committee where we planned dinners,  showers,  picnics and other personal type events for the pastors, etc. I was a member of the P, Buckley Moss Society where we worked to raise money for charities and other  philanthropic institutions important to Miss Moss. We regularly did pot lucks to share at our meetings which were held at Ronald Mc Donald House. We’d bring 2 dishes, one for our dinner and one to leave for the guests staying at the House.   Later in my life I was a member of the local Garden Club which I enjoyed  but   I found that to be a true functioning member, meant spending more money than I really wanted to do. But I enjoyed the outings and associations with all of my endeavors.

By the way, I looked up the usage of 'old- fashioned vs old- fashion and old-fashioned is the correct usage. and must have a hyphen as well