Many of your Seniors have lived for 70-100 years or more. During that time they have experienced so many things. While doing these programs I have been reminded of how much things have changed in the past 70 years or so. I have learned something each and every program.
Having a senior talk about having milk delivered to his home and how much he enjoyed the cream on the top was one such reminder. This gentlemen told me he would “fight” with his sister to try to get to the milk first to enjoy the cream at the top. This is just one reminder of how things have changed. Although fighting with your siblings hasn’t changed, how we get our milk has. We now simply go to the store and pick up our milk with no excitement about this task at all. The milk bottle itself probably wasn’t that exciting to this gentlemen but his memory of that time in his life certainly appeared to be.
Every time I do one of these presentations someone has a unique memory that is so personal and interesting. It makes digging in the dirt for hours at a time that much more rewarding. Whether its that milk bottle, or the butter churner that use to go into the mason jars to turn (literally) milk into butter. This is all part of a shared history, a simpler time. Can you imagine cranking on that butter churner to make butter? How long did THAT take!? Was it any good? Maybe that will be a question for the seniors at the next presentation.
Memory experts say that the time in our lives, somewhere between 12-20 years old, is the easiest for us to recall. My own experience has me believing that this is true. More importantly I have experienced that seniors seem to have the best recall of artifacts during this time in their lives. Toys and games, and in this case milk seem to bring out the fondest memories.
Until next time.