Penny Candy
It is funny to think about life in the years before we were born. My great granddad told me that many types of candy were a penny when he was young. Things were different then—candy was cheap, but life was hard.
In those years, there were more farms and fewer stores. People on farms had to make most of the items they needed by hand. They stitched quilts, spun wool into yarn, and made berry or peach jelly and saved it for the winter. Cows provided milk for butter, cheese, and yogurt. Hens gave eggs, and two big oxen joined with a yoke pulled a plow to prepare the rocky land for crops. Each day, whether sunny, windy, or rainy, the whole family got up at sunrise to work.
Today, things sound easy compared to then. We don’t ride for days in horse-pulled carts along bumpy, dusty roads. We can fly in planes and arrive in much less time. Today, we might have a puppy in a yard rather than an ox in a field.
My great granddad missed the open sky of the farm. He joked that there was plenty of fresh air for everyone back on the farm.
I am happy to have the things that modern life offers us. We’re lucky that we can buy jelly or yogurt instead of having to make it by hand. Would I go back in time to visit an old farm if I could? Sure, why not! But just for a visit.