On 7/2/2016 9:16 AM, Janet wrote:

>>
>> It's funny some of the luxuries we take for granted these days!
>
> I don't. To this day as I turn on a hot tap, flush a lav, pick up the
> phone, turn the heating thermostat up or down, push a button and a
> machine does the laundry, get in the car to the smkt, push round my
> state of the art German floor cleaner, I often think of my grandmother
> who was a big part of my childhood.
>
> She had none of those lusuries, ever. She raised 7 children by her own
> hard labour, and was worn to death by 53. I lived in her house for a
> couple of years in my teens. This was in the 1960' but it still had no
> running water, no drainage, no bathroom, no phone, no washing machine,
> the lav was still a bucket in an outhouse with no electric light; we
> still (rain, shine, snow, ice) fetched every drop of water in a bucket
> from an outside hand pump and, we still cleaned the (only) carpet in
> the house, a square she was so proud of, the same way she did. By
> sprinkling it with used wet tea leaves then brushing with a hand brush.
>
> Janet UK
>

First hand experience makes you appreciate things. I think about it on
occasion.

Last week I was driving my wife to a doctor appointment. We were on the
highway driving at 75 mph and had a 30 mile trip. That was a full day
ride by horse, one way.

Today we accept that as routine. Just over 100 years ago there would be
no trip to the doctor, no medication, no fancy procedures, you just stay
home and die.