Changes in Our World

Our World as we have grown to know in our life time has long past the changes of days of old. Days of old for me goes back to the 1960’s time period. Since I was born in August of 1958 I have had the pleasure of living through some fantastic changes that our Country as a whole has rambled in and out of all the new things. We came into the age of TV dinners in those nice tin trays, then newer appliances were made more affordable and available for all to buy. We have listened as the music changed from Rock and Roll, to Hard Rock, Acid Rock, Old Country Music of the Grand Ole Opry tv show to the new forms of Country Rock. We have all genres now of music to choose from, many new artists and many great artists from the 1940’s who have passed away. We have had those One Hit numbers and some of the groups are still kicking out the new vinyl of the 21st Century as we live into today.

Many of you who know me from the Genealogy aspect of life, you knew years ago that I rolled by a different drum ! But you put up with me and my strange ways and all the negative remarks I myself made towards so many people during my 15 years of mental anquish. For you, I thank you for your generosity, your overall kindness and most of all for accepting me as me.

How times changes in all aspects of ones life. When doing genealogy with the group I was fortunate to meet through the old yahoo groups, then onto the Ancestry boards then we all joined My Space and now we are basically all on Facebook, we have seen so many new realms of ways to communicate. Many have placed regular emails to the side. Many no longer use a desktop or even a laptop computer since cell phones came into play and is more portable.

I myself still have not just 1 desktop, but 2 and I do not own a cell phone or a laptop ! Yes I am behind the times with technology, but some things I want to keep old school, or what is considered as old school in 2021.

We have as a Country been in a funk since late 2020 when Covid hit the United States. We ramble through our life in a screen of reality that we never thought we would experience. We have lost contact with those we have known for 30 years or more. This devasting pandemic has altered everone in a vast way that the young people of today are having to figure out a way to get through what they are experiencing in their short time they have been alive.

Others who are in their 20’s to 40’s are having to re-asses their lives and make adjustments and they are having a very difficut time doing so. You can see it around you in your tight nit communities, in your churches, in the outside activities that 2 years ago was just like any other day or weekend.

Those of us who are close nit as families whether blood related or not we in the research world know and understand, we remeber those stories of our grandparents and for some of what our parents went through in the early aspect of the 20th Century through the 1970’s. We have written down or cassette taped conversations, stories of their olden days. Some of us had the privildge to grow up and have family stories from our parents and grandparents be told to us.

We have helped others to uncover secrets that were held close in the elders top pocket and were never to be released out of the closet in many families only because in the early 20th Century these things were never talked about. For myself beginning my journey to uncover hidden aspects of my father’s biological father, uncovering many aspects of life was somewhat devasting. I say this only due to the addtional research for that times span in the late 1800’s to the early 1900’s. Looking and seeing how people in the region lived, the economy of a coal mining area. The accidents in the various mines that caused many woman to become widows at the age of 40 and having in some cases 13 children still living at home. The realization of what families could not afford to have. The basic things such as sugar was outrageously priced in that time span. Only making maybe 25.00 a week, having 13 children, trying to raise a garden for fresh food or livestock for meat. Ladies canning everything to put back for hard times as they knew it was going to come.

When you think back into the late 1800’s after the Cival War and the uncertainty of what life for many was going to be is in it’self a disparaging aspect of their lives they had to live. During those years depending upon where you lived in our current statehood, which much of it in the late 1800’s was still partailly wild territory. Animals such as buffalo were being killed more so then the past as people migrated from the east to the western regions of the states and territories.

Researching over the years and putting into place the entire Country in perspective is an extremely broad complicated aspect for one who was born as I was in the late 1950’s. A great deal of my research broadened my own horizens to where all I wanted to do was learn more and more. So much was never taught in school. No wonder I always felt as if I could not learn anything. How can one when you do not have the entire realm of what transpired thru out the entire Nation ?

Today as I write this, I am still amazed of what I hear on the world news channels. Flipping from one cable news channel to another, hearing conflicting stories. Listening to political pundits degrade each of the respective Political parties. These politicans of both parties will never ever beable to get together for us the people if Common Sense is not used.

I am hearing stories that our current President should resign for his failure to get everyone out of Afghanistan. If our former President had not fell into his talks with these various factions and made deals that he believed he could honor because he truly believed the People was going to re-elect him, then none of these circumstances would have taken place as they have. People like to forget things or say they mis-spoke when it was all aired for the entire world to see. These people who continuously play this game do not care about the population of this Country. They only care about playing the game which lines their own pockets with untold amounts of money and favors. For the most part Politicans are nice decent people, but when they have leaders who decide they do not want to do what is right for the entire popultaion of our Nation, then this envolves more then them. People these days are so complacent in hearing the same old lies that comes around every time and election is 2 years away. In somecases people are replaced due to illness or death. You rarely ever see a Politician throw up their hands and just tell the truth in it’s entirety. Yes, I am talking about all of the 3 parties we have. I am talking broadly as in the States own Legislations, the Senetors that are elected to represent us the people in Washington DC. Those are the ones that do not for the most part take in to account that the People, us, are the ones who elected them due to their word that they spewed across the airwaves, at rally’s where masses traveled to hear them and their promise to take care of the people.

Our current President is actually doing what he campaigned on. Atleast he is trying to implement common sense aspects that benefits the entire Country as a whole unit, not just the areas that our Senators wants to help.

Point to take into consideration and this was televised so there is record to prove this fact. Senior Republican Mitch McConnel fought tooth and nail against monies to be sent to my home state which he represents to begin infrastructure on the roads and bridges. He bragged on television to all Kentuckians that No he did not vote on it and he hoped that we Kentuckians are happy that we received the monies that assisted our state to begin replacing roads thruout our state. These roads were 20 years past due to be upgraded and he fought against this !

Back in 1976 when I was a senior in highschool I was able to vote for the first time. The homeconomics teacher was Sister Mary Joseph and she prepared all of us who were of age to vote, what to for in each party. She strongly advised us to read the daily newspaper, to watch the local news channel and at that time the World News after the regular news since we did not have cable in Louisville Kentucky at that time we had 4 main channels plus PBS and KET.

From the beginning of our Senior year in August of 1975 this was part of our Home Economics class. Yes we did sew and learn aspects of cooking, but we also learned how to budget a check book, budget an imaginary bring home pay and what our monthly expenses were. We had been given guidelines and ideas to decide what form of employment we worked, if we were married or single, going to college and having to also work parttime.

My first election was a Presidental election and yes I did vote for Jimmy Carter for President. You may be laughing about it or some of you may be, but this man lived an honest life. He was a hard working owner of a family business. While my parents were registered Democrats, they themselves did not always vote straight party line and I myself knew this by overhearing their conversations on those rare occasions Politics was being discussed within earshot of us kids. So my life was pretty much set with a determination from an early age to read whatever about the people who were running for office and what they had accomplished already in thier Political carreer and to read if they actually followed thru on their promises they made during their previous term. Many people may say that this is not a realistic avenue to take, but when you sit back and really look at it in the broader aspect, then it does make sense ! Afterall a man is only as good as his word. And at one time a man’s word was taken seriously.

Moving now to our present day affairs of State and Country as a whole. Our Country is basically going to hell in a hand basket to be quiet frank and to the point. We have too many people who are so far out on a fringe of every aspect of any form of idea it is just plain sad. Here we are the strongest Country on this planet who came to be, because our forebearers left tyranny, fammine, plaque that at that time was unconscionable and all these years later we are facing in our Country of immigrants the same thing our forefathers escaped from originally. But in the midst of it all we are facing Climate change that can not be reversed no matter what is done due to the arrogance of the Poiticans to not do what is right for our Country. Adding to this fuel packed Political aspect are all of the people of those parties who want to change all the progress that wars were fought on our own soil to bring about the change of having a peaceful and fruitful nation. People by the scores are so far out of the ball park in their line of none thinking it is tearing our Country to shreads.

People in this day and age of technolical advancment no longer think with the common sense as they one did. Not just in one spectrum but they have gone completly off the grid of thinking at all with any form of rationale or reasoning.

Sit back and think about it for a while. Go get you a glass of lemonade or ice cold tea and nder on it for a spell as of decendants would say.

After you ponder on it, really think about it, research it on your own across all networks of information that is out there online across the entire world wide web you will come to the clear sense that for the most part you have done this by making the decisions you have made youself…

Then sit back and ponder some more and then get up and do something about it………………………

Till next time Peggy Sue Dalton Druck