Family Time

   I was watching "Little House on the Prairie," yesterday, and the episode, "The Race," and it brings back good memories.  I can remember a lot that was going on back home, and how we would all sit together, as a family and watch television, together.
    When this show came out, we would usually all sit together and say a prayer over our meal, and then eat our supper, together, sitting at the table.  My Mama would cook dinner every evening, and it was usually ready by 5:30pm, the minute my Daddy walked through the door, after getting off work.  We'd all eat together, and my parents would ask each other how their day went, and my Daddy would usually tell a joke or two that would get me and my brother laughing.  We had a small rectangle kitchen table, at the time, and a very nice, large dining table, that we only used when we had company,  or alot of our family over, o, r the pastor over, after church, for Sunday dinner.  We always saved our best for our guests that came over, and always wanted to save our best to serve them.  Sometimes, though, we have such a huge family, that we would use all the fine china and everyday dishes to serve when everyone came over~~or my Mama had a choir party, as she did on occasion, and would serve with everything we had.  Everyone always went away more than full, and always had leftovers.  Even when we ate, daily, after my Daddy came home from work, we would still have leftovers, most of the time.  God really blessed us and still continues to bless our family.
   After dinner, my Daddy would sit in his recliner, in the big den, we had just added on to our house, not so long ago.  My brother and I would either go do our homework,  or if we didn't have any, we'd play outside until it got close to dark.  Sometimes, we'd stay inside, and shoot pool on the billiards table that my Daddy got when he added on to the house.  I also had a dart board across from the pool table and would often throw darts, looking into the den, waiting for the evening of television shows to come on.  Sometimes, just as it was cooling off, in the evening, we'd water the flowers in the garden around the house, so that the plants would get the most of the water that they could.  After dinner, we'd always feed the dogs.  My Daddy raised hunting dogs, and bird dogs, and we would go feed them.  Lots of times we just fed them scraps from the table. Nobody was picky about feeding dogs only dog food.  We did feed them dog food, but often tried to feed them the good scraps from the table, picking out any bones that were too small, that might choke them, first.  The dogs were always happy to get scraps, after dinner! :-) 
   If it was the season, we'd often turn on the sprinkers to water the garden, and take a separate water hose to water the tomatoes and peppers.  My Daddy made the sprinkler system himself, to water our huge garden out back.  He always built lots of things himself, and always fixed most anything.  He still does all of that, too!  Even before the addition to the house, we'd still do pretty much the same thing after dinner, except shoot pool and play darts.  Sometimes, my brother would be riding his bike around the yard, or down the road, and I'd usually be sitting somewhere with a sketch pad, or blank sheet of any paper that was at hand, and draw.  Lots of times, I'd watch television and draw all at the same time, until time to go to bed. Whether we worked or played, we were all together as a family.  My Daddy's always had a good sense of humor, and would always make us laugh with his jokes.  Back then, with no cable television nor internet, we entertained ourselves, and people seemed to always find the fun side of things in our family.  I was very fortunate to have such a huge and fun family while growing up. 
   Everyone knew everyone in town, and if you mentioned whose boy you were, they'd usually have something good to say about my parents and the rest of my family. Lots of people don't believe how things are down south, but in lots of ways, it's still that way now. People care, are considerate, and most wouldn't harm a hair on your head.  No matter where I lived in the south, as I grew up, those values still followed in every state that we lived in. As I got older, family time seemed to get less and less as we got more and more busy.  The family values still stayed, though, and each family cared about other families, even though you didn't know them.  Everyone was always nice to each other, in every state, would even wave or smile at you in passing, even if you didn't know them.  Even now, in the south, people wave at each other in the car as they pass each other on the road, and you don't even know that person.  Most every body cares and really does have that southern hospitality.  None of that, to this day has changed.
   After dinner, closer to time when the evening of television would start, we'd ask what everybody wanted to see.  We had one large television, and would sometimes take turns watching a show one week, and a different one on the same day the next.  Most of the time we pretty much liked the same thing, and all of us were anxious to watch the show together.  We had plenty of chairs to sit in and a couch, to watch television, but sometimes me and my brother would sit on the floor.  There were no remote controls for the television, so we'd sit in the floor to be closer to the knob that turns the channel on the television.  That way we could turn it quicker if my Daddy wanted to change the channel. This was before cable or internet.  We had one large colored television set, that was enclosed in decorative wood, and looked almost like a piece of furniture. It has a huge round channel knob that you would turn to change the channels.  We may have picked up four or five channels, and they were from the larger towns around that had television stations. We would look at the TV Guide or the local newspaper to see what was coming on that night. On Sunday evenings, we'd sometimes rush home from church to see The Wonderful World of Disney on television, too. We didn't want to miss seeing a family show like that, together. They were always good.
    After eating dinner and all of us doing all those things above, we would spend that evening together, as a family.  The show we wanted to watch would come on and we'd all get in our places in chairs and on the floor, or at the bar, and watch it.  Shows like Adam-12, Gunsmoke, Perry Mason, Ironsides, Mannix, The High Chapparal, Bonanza, Daniel Boone, The Rockford Files, Hawaii 5-0, and later on M*A*S*H, Magnum P.I., Little House on the Prairie. All of the shows would have their morals, and base their morals on the Bible, and the few that didn't, spoke of the Bible in a respectful way.  Lots of times preachers and the Bible would play important parts in an episode, and hearing the characters pray to God was nothing unusual.  Nobody thought anything was wrong with that, either. Our nation's morals are based on the Bible, so no one ever said anything.  It was the normal thing. People who didn't believe in the Bible, or praying, still respected it, and would often apologize for their actions, in life, and on the television program.  But everyone respected each other, regardless.  These were your neighbors, and you always wanted to help them out, because you knew their family, and you might need their help, too, one day.  It was not unusual to see the families spending good times together in the movies and television shows at the time. Nothing interfered with family. 
   I remember when Hawaii 5-0 first came out.  It was my favorite show that season! It originally started out as McGarrett, in black and white, but they moved his character and started this series in color, Hawaii 5-0.  I only remember Hawaii 5-0, though! :-)  I loved the show and the theme song! The theme song became a hit and was played on radio stations a lot.  The only thing was, I could only stay up and watch half of the show, because I had to be in bed by 9:30pm, in order to go to school the next day.  That was my bedtime, at that age, growing up.  Still, watching even half of the show was still great!
   Then, on weekends, I'd get to stay up later, and would often see the late news, and after the late news, by midnight, all television stations had a sign-off.  They would play The Star Spangled Banner on every station, a few minutes before midnight, and show a video of fighter jets, the American flag, and patriotic scenes, and then after the last note was played, the station would show a screen of television technical frequencies, etc, and then you would hear a high pitched long beep, that seemed to last forever.  Then the whole station was black on the screen.  Every station was that way.  Nothing was on.  There was a saying, that after the television sign off, you should be in bed, because there's nothing good you can do after midnight. You only get in trouble.  That saying was true.  We even rolled up the sidewalks in our town. Nothing was open. Nothing to do.  If you were out, you were most likely up to no good and getting in trouble.  Most businesses closed at 5:30pm or so, to allow you to get home and spend time with family.
    Where has family time gone?!  We are so busy with other things, the family time like I grew up with seems almost like something imagined out of a Norman Rockwell painting or a family television show during the '70's.  We'll, it's not imagined.  In some areas in the south, despite the technology, families still get some of their time together, but not as much as it used to be back when I was growing up.  For the most part, family time is gone, everywhere, and nobody spends time enjoying each other all evening like we used to.  What I wrote above is not some fantasy.  Things were much slower, and you could take time and enjoy your family every evening, on a daily basis. Today, that's interrupted by smart phones, email, texting, iPods, etc.  Sometimes, on the weekends, we'd even all get together for dinner at one of my aunt's and uncle's houses and play the guitars and sing, and laugh, and have so much fun, as a family.  We'd make homemade ice cream, several churns at a time, and enjoy talking and playing games.  Everyone would sit outside on the porch, that usually spanned one side of the house, and relax in the evenings.  Listening to the birds, and just listening to the wind rustle the leaves, or watch a slow rain all evening long, and relax. Those are the times that I miss.  Families had so much fun together.  As much as I love technology, I do wish there could be times like those again. You can't beat the sounds of laughter and conversation of a family enjoying each other with their daily family time!