Friday, October 12, 2018

Ya Winn Some, Ya Lose Some

Thought for the day:  A computer lets you make more mistakes faster than any other invention in human history... with the possible exception of handguns and tequila. [Mitch Radcliffe]

Like J.H. Goldfuss said, There is only one satisfying way to boot a computer.

Right. Actually, I can't blame my computer. Or my camera. It's (gulp) ME. (Ohhhh, the shame of it all...)

See, I had easy peasy plans for today's post. Last weekend, we went someplace really cool, and I took a bunch of pictures. So far, so good, right? Just post the pictures, add a comment here and there, and BANG! Done!

Except... I, um... lost the pictures. (And shhhh! This isn't the first time I've done it.) Talk about an oopsie moment! Somewhere between trying to transfer them from my camera to my computer, they got... lost. And natch, they automatically deleted from my camera, too. I found a folder where they should be, but I can't open it. Found two pictures, but the rest? Who knows where they are? So much for all of those cool pictures. (sigh)

So I found a handful of pics on Wikipedia and on our county's Historical Society webpage. They'll have to do.

[Gwinnett Historical Society]

We spent a sunny Saturday morning at a fun fair at the Elishu Winn House. The house was built in 1812, and served many government functions in the early days of our county. The barn's third floor served as a courthouse, and our county's first elections were held in the parlor. The county's first jail... which was actually a small barn... was also located here... and the first executions by hanging were carried out here, as well. This picture is the before picture... what the house looked like prior to restoration.

[wikipedia]

THIS is what the house looks like now. Touring the house was like taking a step back into history. The furniture! The quilts! The toys!

(ahem) Guess you'll have to take my word for it.







A one-room schoolhouse.




The jail.






The privy. Nope, I didn't go inside.



A couple re-enactors. Really nice guys.


One of the guns in action. The pics I took showed both guys shooting at the same time, and lots of smoke. (sigh) You'll have to take my word for it.

Well, dang. Now I can't find the two pics that I'd located before. (I'm beginning to suspect I'm too stupid to own a computer...) They were shots of the blacksmith at work. In addition to two fellas doing that hot work, there were other demonstrators, as well, showing things like weaving, quilting, and lace-making. Lots of interesting stuff to see. Lots of booths set up under white tents. Vendors selling food, artwork, crafts, etc. It was a fun outing, and I'm totally bummed I lost all those pictures. After spending waaaay too long trying to find them, I then spent waaaaay too long trying to find a funny essay about a grandfather grumbling about technology. No luck there, either.

But I did find this, a poem that I bet will resonate with a bunch of you. Unfortunately, I don't know who wrote it. I didn't, but I sure do relate to a lot of it...
A POEM -- THAT WAS US
A little house with three bedrooms,
One bathroom and one car on the street
A mower that you had to push
To make the grass look neat.
In the kitchen on the wall
We only had one phone,
And no need for recording things,
Someone was always home.
We only had a living room
Where we would congregate,
Unless it was at mealtime
In the kitchen where we ate..
We had no need for family rooms
Or extra rooms to dine.
When meeting as a family
Those two rooms would work out fine.
We only had one TV set
And channels maybe two,
But always there was one of them
With something worth the view
For snacks we had potato chips
That tasted like a chip.
And if you wanted flavor
There was Lipton's onion dip.
Store-bought snacks were rare because
My mother liked to cook
And nothing can compare to snacks
In Betty Crocker's book
Weekends were for family trips
Or staying home to play
We all did things together -
Even go to church to pray.
When we did our weekend trips
Depending on the weather,
No one stayed at home because
We liked to be together
Sometimes we would separate
To do things on our own,
But we knew where the others were
Without our own cell phone
Then there were the movies
With your favorite movie star,
And nothing can compare
To watching movies in your car
Then there were the picnics
at the peak of summer season,
Pack a lunch and find some trees
And never need a reason.
Get a baseball game together
With all the friends you know,
Have real action playing ball -
And no game video.
Remember when the doctor
Used to be the family friend,
And didn't need insurance
Or a lawyer to defend
The way that he took care of you
Or what he had to do,
Because he took an oath and strived
To do the best for you
Remember going to the store
And shopping casually,
And when you went to pay for it
You used your own money?
Nothing that you had to swipe
Or punch in some amount,
And remember when the cashier person
Had to really count?
The milkman used to go
From door to door,
And it was just a few cents more
Than going to the store.
There was a time when mailed letters
Came right to your door,
Without a lot of junk mail ads
Sent out by every store .
The mailman knew each house by name
And knew where it was sent;
There were not loads of mail addressed
To "present occupant"
There was a time when just one glance
Was all that it would take,
And you would know the kind of car,
The model and the make
They didn't look like turtles
Trying to squeeze out every mile;
They were streamlined, white walls, fins
And really had some style
One time the music that you played
Whenever you would jive,
Was from a vinyl, big-holed record
Called a forty-five
The record player had a post
To keep them all in line
And then the records would drop down
And play one at a time.
Oh sure, we had our problems then,
Just like we do today
And always we were striving,
Trying for a better way.
Oh, the simple life we lived
Still seems like so much fun,
How can you explain a game,
Just kick the can and run?
And why would boys put baseball cards
Between bicycle spokes
And for a nickel, red machines
Had little bottled Cokes?
This life seemed so much easier
Slower in some ways
I love the new technology
But I sure do miss those days.
So time moves on and so do we
And nothing stays the same,
But I sure love to reminisce
And walk down memory lane.
With all today's technology
We grant that it's a plus!
But it's fun to look way back and say,
HEY LOOK, GUYS, THAT WAS US!
************

Some of us, anyway. Can you relate to any of the stuff in the poem? Did you ever fetch bottles of milk from your front porch in the early morning, and find the cold weather had popped the top off above a big pile of yukky cream? (NOT a pleasant memory...) Have YOU ever managed to lose photos when you were trying to move them from your camera to your computer? Please tell me I'm not the only one.  (I sure never had this kinda trouble with my trusty ol' Brownie or Instamatic...)

                         Until next time, take care of yourselves. And each other.


54 comments:

  1. Well there's only one thing to be done. Go again!
    Or: go through every single photo file you have and check the documents folder too. And the downloads page.
    I've lost a few photos, most I don't care about, but I still haven't found that one last photo I ever took of Angel. I know it's in here somewhere.
    Since an update a while ago, when I load photos to my computer I don't get the option to delete after downloading so all my photos stay on the camera until I delete them manually.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sounds like an easy fix, but the fair only lasted for two days. Oh well. At least, I haven't deleted the images from my head. (Yet.)

      I've looked through all the files, and I've narrowed it down to a single file with the correct date attached to it and everything. Opening said file is another matter. (sigh) The computer tells me the "disc" is missing. Say what??? Oh well. I'm not going to worry about it. I reckon those pics are having a good time somewhere with all the other pics I've managed to lose.

      I'm going to remove the "delete" option for my picture downloads, too. At least until after I successfully transfer and locate the darned things on the computer. THEN I can erase them from the camera without saying naughty words.

      Delete
  2. I can relate to a lot of things in that poem, it's great. Sorry you lost your photos, that little house and outbuildings are so pretty. I have never lost photos between my camera and the computer - yet! These things can happen and it is very frustrating. Have a great day, hugs, Valerie

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks. I'm glad you never lost any of your pics, because they're more than simple pictures. They're works of art!

      You have a great day, too. Hugs back atcha.

      Delete
  3. Blimey! I go back even further...fetching milk, in a billy, from the farm(Huntly, NZ, 1950s)
    Pretty much everything else was common.All manual telephones until late 50s.Still radio-only to some islands.
    Memories!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We didn't have too many farms in the area where I grew up, so I never had that experience. If you got it from the farm, I reckon it was raw milk? That's something else I've never had, but it's all the rage with some people these days.

      Memories are fun... and some of the things we remember are a lot more fun to think about now than they were to experience then!

      Delete
  4. I have lost pictures that way. My dad was always able to find them- usually I'd have put them in odd folders. Maybe he would do a search? I don't know. He was very tech savvy, a trait he didn't leave his daughter.

    We were just talking about bottles of Coke the other day. As a kid, my brother and I would go around town collecting bottles to turn in for full bottles of Coke and candy.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you! (Good to know I'm not the only one.) I could probably ask Smarticus to look for the missing photos, but I don't know if it's worth it or not. He would soooooo make fun of me! :)

      Ah, yes. Those just-right sized nickel bottles of Coke... back when a Coke tasted like a Coke. The little Mom-and-Pop store down the alley from us had a big red Coke ice chest filled with ice and all kinds of sodas. You'd have to reach down into the icy water to find the one you wanted. Then you could hang around with your friends and drink it right there... or come back later for the 2-cent refund. But (ahem) I'm thinking that was a "little" earlier than the days you and your brother were talking about. HA!

      Have a super weekend.

      Delete
  5. I am able to recognize and understand every part of your poem as well as relive them. Well done.

    ReplyDelete
  6. sometimes the computer wins. Good post - the Winn home tour looks interesting. And dang, that poem covered my childhood. We even had the Charley Chip potato chip man deliver cans to the house - that was better than milk! (but I do like email, Netflix, etc) Fight back and conquer that computer! I have faith in you.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yep, the computer could probably beat me at chess, but I bet I could take it in kick-boxing! :)

      The Charles Chip truck used to deliver to our house when our children were small. We'd get regular chips, BBQ, and thick pretzels. I don't reckon trucks deliver like that anymore, but it's just as well. It'd be downright dangerous to have that much junk food in our house nowadays. Smarticus and I would just have to EAT it... couldn't let it go to waste. (Nope, it'd just go to WAIST!)

      Have a super weekend, kiddo.

      Delete
  7. I love the poem. It's so redolent of my own childhood except that we never went to temple (synagogue)! These days canned drinks taste like chemical concoctions - which is what they are!
    Also, nobody locked their front door during the daytime.
    CLICK HERE for Bazza’s lumionous Blog ‘To Discover Ice’

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. My parents weren't regular church-attenders, either, but the rest of the poem rings very true for me. And you're right. Today's Coke doesn't have that distinctive "bite" the original stuff did.

      I don't think my maternal grandmother ever locked her doors. My mother told me that in the thirties and forties, it wasn't unusual for a bum to come into her house during the night to catch some sleep on the sofa.

      Delete
  8. Oh yes, I do recognize and experienced all that was in the poem. I will have to copy it down for my memory book. I love to go to historical homes and see reenactments of the times. Someday there will be those living now that will look back at the times we are living and see them as the good old days! Nostalgia is a wonderful thing.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. With as much as technology has changed in our lifetimes, I can only imagine what the future will hold. No doubt, some day, people will look back on today's "smart phones" and call them "quaint." :)

      Delete
  9. Ugh on the pics! I wish I had some suggestions for how to retrieve them, but I'm useless with that kind of stuff.

    I remember a lot of the things in that poem - not the milkman so much - and reading it made me smile yet feel kind of wistful....

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks. It's annoying that I lost the pics, but I'll just have to be more careful next time. :)

      Wistful smiles are good smiles. (Not that I know of any BAD smiles...)

      Delete
  10. Some things were simpler back then, and others weren't. There were lots of fights between siblings over what to watch on that one TV, and Mom demanded that we all watch Lawrence Welk and Sing Along With Mitch. There was nothing more depressing to a teenager than to be at home on a Saturday night with your parents and having to watch Lawrence Welk.

    We have quite a few phones in our house, both landline and cellular. One of them is the old Princess phone attached to the wall with a long accordion cord. It is usually the only one I can find as someone in our house forgets to put the others back in their cradles. I am not admitting to anything. On the other hand, we very seldom answer the phone.

    Good luck finding your pictures. I have been down that road before.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. There weren't any fights in our house over what was on TV. It was whatever my FATHER wanted to watch... end of story. :) I'm almost ashamed to admit it, but I...I... I... LIKED Mitch Miller and Lawrence Welk. (Yes, I was a weird teenager.)

      My hubby has a cellphone, but all the rest of the phones around here are landlines. The one next to me right now is a Princess phone, and behind me, on my other desk, is a super heavy desk phone from the late '20s or early '30s. It still works, but it's currently disconnected because it draws too much current. (But it'd still make a mighty formidable weapon!)

      Delete
  11. I'm really sorry you can't find all of those photos. They have to be hiding on your hard drive somewhere...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah, I know they didn't just disappear, but unfortunately, so far, they're much better at hiding than I am at finding. :)

      Delete
  12. I remember not having to swipe and record players, can't say I go as far back as milk at the door though lol

    That stinks about the pics. If 2 were there, the rest either got interrupted mid stream or went somewhere else.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You're still a youngun. :) And getting milk delivered to the front porch in the wee hours of the morning wasn't all that terrific. It still makes me gag a little to think of that creamy gunk being forced up by near-freezing milk, and where you live, you would've gotten a LOT of frozen milk!

      You're right; it may have gotten interrupted mid-stream, but I kinda like considering the "somewhere else" it could've gone ... and on whose computer they landed... :) (Actually, I think I just screwed up...)

      Delete
  13. I love visiting living history museums like that. Where is the Elishu Winn house located?

    ReplyDelete
  14. That poem was ME!! And we never locked our doors during the day so our kids could go in & out.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It was ME, too! (I think it was a lot of us...) We left out door unlocked for the same reason. My grandmother never locked her door, day or night. My parents, on the other hand, always locked the door. I had to wear a key on a string around my neck...

      Delete
  15. Hi Susan - I know I've deleted a few photos over time ... and I too easily lose them and search for them ... the m/c frustrates me as I'm working on something and frankly if I want to put another photo in that file for some reason it sends it off else where. I copy again ... and then find it in due course - to delete!

    Milk coming over the top - that creamy bit was the best bit for our cereal ... and yes we had milk delivered, and the fish man used to call on a Friday ... I think we went local for everything else.

    We weren't allowed fizzy drinks - except when we went to the pub for my father to have a drink ... and I'm not sure when I first tried coke - may well have been once I'd left school - early 20s ...

    Well done on getting a post up and getting us all thinking about our early days and your poem was mostly me ... but not all of it - cheers and have a great weekend ... I enjoy the history bit about Elisha Winn and the early years.

    Thanks - enjoy the weekend - cheers Hilary

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi-ya, Hilary.

      I'm sorry you've had the same kinda problems with pictures, but then again, I'm glad to know I'm not the only one. :)

      Oh, no, no, no! I HATED that yukky cream that came over the top. So much so, the only kind of milk I drink today is skimmed. (Well, I DO like half and half in my hot tea...)

      You have a super weekend, too. Cheers!

      Delete
  16. I don't recall ever having wiped my camera's content … butI SO regret having destroyed old photographs because I thought I looked fat or weird. (Oh, to be that fat/weird again!)

    This is an AWESOME poem; so many coincidences! Like Ma said, I want to copy it for my memory book. It reminds me of something you shared a while back, "Where I come from …" (something like that?)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I have quite a few digital pics, but they're a drop in the proverbial bucket compared to the bazillion photo albums I have... and the boxes and boxes and pictures that never quite made their way into an album. (oops) And the sad thing is, I know none of our kids have any interest in all of those pictures... not that I blame them. I even have old pics that belonged to my parents and grandparents. Really... a LOT of pictures. Digital pictures are sooooo much easier... when I don't screw up. :)

      I'm glad you relate to that poem. I figured a bunch of you would.

      Delete
  17. The most wonderful post today. Sorry about the lost photos.
    I have deleted more photos than I want to remember or can remember.
    Love Love Love, the poem that was my family. I really miss those days. My eyes got a little misty. I miss my Mum.

    cheers, parsnip and badger

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks. I'm glad you enjoyed the post.

      I'm also glad to know I'm not the only one who got a little misty-eyed while reading this poem. It seems to have struck a chord with a lot of us.

      Have a super weekend. Cheers!

      Delete
  18. What a beauty of a post! :-) Loved every word of it. The poem was gorgeous. :-)

    Greetings from London.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks! It's awesome that so many of us from different parts of the world can relate to the same kinds of memories. :)

      Greetings back atcha.

      Delete
  19. Love the poem, and yes it did bring back some memories! Odd thing is, moving to Canada from Britain I've noticed how some things were more advanced here, and yet in many other ways it felt like a step back in time about 40 years. A curious mixture.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm glad to hear the poem evoked some of your memories, too. It's very interesting to hear about the disparities between life in Britain and Canada. I know I'm ill-informed, having lived in neither place personally, but I would've expected a nearly total synchronization.

      Delete
  20. Computers can often be nasty and bite for no reason. It's too bad your photos were devoured. If it will make you feel better (which I'm sure it won't) the same thing happened to me when I first moved to Tennessee. I took lots of scenic photos that were blog-worthy. In the magical process of transfer from camera to computer they mysteriously vanished - never to be seen again.

    These (annoyingly frequent) high-tech frustrations make me yearn for the deliciously simple times that are so beautifully expressed in the poem that you posted. I can really relate to it.
    Not that I'm old, mind you.
    (*smile*)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Au contraire. It DOES make me feel better than I'm not the only one who lost photos. Misery does love company... :)

      No, of course you're not old. Me, neither. It's a freak of nature that my children are getting so damned old...

      Delete
  21. The poem made me cry, friend Sue … three bed rooms and closet size one bathroom and life pretty much happened in the kitchen … kids doing home work … calves by the wood stove coming back to life or not … neighbour kids watching our 2 channel tv and gobbling up macaroni and cheese dry and straight out of the box … new born kittens on ma bed … Family … smiles. This was all before computers … Now we have a new house, and satellite tv and unlimited internet … and the family was breaking apart.
    I moved on to live/ work in the city, he stays/ lives on the farm, kids are somewhere doing their thing. Live goes on until not. Counting my blessings. Much love, cat.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sorry it made you cry, dear cat, but it's only fair. After all, many of your poems have made me misty-eyed, too.

      It's kinda touching that so many of us relate to this poem. Just goes to show you, we're more alike than different. Sending many more blessing your way.

      Delete
  22. Yesterday, I wrote a post on "Trainrides..." that introduces a friend who lived those years the poem describes with me. We run into each other in this brave new world sometimes. The journey isn't easy, not for anybody, but worth it. Definitely worth it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm looking forward to "meeting" your friend as soon as I respond to your comment here. It's comforting to recognize how many common memories we all have, but it's absolutely exhilarating to run into some of the people we experienced those things with first-hand. Maybe that's part of the appeal of being married to the same person for so many years? Smarticus and I have known each other since we were pre-teens, so we lived a lot of the same experiences... AND we get to "run into" each other every day! Just like you and Norma. :)

      Yes, it is definitely worth it, dude.

      Delete
  23. I remember milk on the porch and the cream on top, a few channels from which to choose from, and my mom kicking us all out of the house and not expecting to see us again until dinner. And we almost never had snacks or soda cuz my mom almost always made dessert. Ah, those were days...although I do like the internet...a lot.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah, those were the days, but there's a lot to be said about today's world, too. Yesterday wasn't all good, and today isn't all bad. And the Internet still boggles my mind. A lot.

      Delete
  24. I did enjoy reading the poem.
    I do enjoy the internet, but not when it misbehaves! LOL!

    I thought your comment above to mshatch worth repeating 'Yesterday wasn't all good, and today isn't all bad' … so true :)

    Hope your weekend has been good.

    All the best Jan

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm glad you enjoyed the poem. Yeah, I think we'd all agree that the Internet is like the "girl who had a little curl right in the middle of her forehead." When all it well, it's very very good, but when things get messed up, it can be horrid. :)

      Isn't it funny? When we think about the past, we kinda filter out the bad stuff, but when dealing with current situations, we don't have that luxury. It helps to take a bigger view to appreciate that there are good and bad things about every era. I reckon we just have to make the best we can out of the good.

      Our weekend was super. I hope yours was, too.

      All the best back atcha.

      Delete
  25. I love the part in the poem about the cashier having to count. I was at a store this weekend when the cashier messed something up on the register and had to try to figure out how much she owed the customer herself. It was excruciating to watch the young woman try to do the math. She even said at one point that they don't teach you how to do this in school anymore. I felt bad for her. She was so stressed out with the pressure of trying to make change without the help of the computerized register.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I know what ya mean. Most of today's cashiers go into a panic if their electronic scanners and cash register go on the fritz. If they DON'T teach that kinda stuff in school anymore, they SHOULD.

      Delete
  26. Sorry you lost those pictures, but it's a great post. Besides now you have an excuse to go back. I love that 'old' stuff! Prefer it to the modern and yes, I've lost my edge when it comes to the new stuff. Even though I took programming and worked with computers from their inception, I lost a lot since I've stopped working outside the house. It doesn't take long, it's grown by leaps and bounds! (Yep, finally got the wi-fi back!)
    I was five when we finally moved to a house with a real bathroom! :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah, maybe we'll go back next year. (It's an annual fair.)

      Boyohoby, do I ever know what you mean! The equipment I used when I worked in the hospital lab were top-of-the-line back then, but they're so outdated now, I bet today's technicians have never even heard of them.

      Delete
  27. Sorry about the lost photos. That can be so frustrating. It sounds like you had a fun and interesting day full of history. And speaking of history, that poem resonated with me also. Those were the days. Have a good week!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks. My own dumb fault, I'm sure. I'll have to be more careful next time.

      That poem reminds me of something YOU would write, so I'm not surprised it resonates with you. You have a super week, too!

      Delete