I really enjoyed reading a post by Les Jones about his Mom’s First Brush with Electricity.

Once the family had a place with electricity her dad bought her mom an electric clothes washer. There was room in the kitchen for the washer, but her mother didn’t want it there. She wanted it on the porch so that everyone could see that she owned a washing machine. I used to wonder why people around here used to have washing machines on their front porches and I guess that’s why. If you had never owned an electric appliance in your life you’d be mighty proud of it and you’d want to show it off.

So now if we see a washer on the porch - or a couch - maybe we should be proud that we have electricity and a nearby furniture store!

In all seriousness, we sure take things for granted these days, but it hasn’t really been that long since our modern conveniences came on the scene. We have the nice LCD panel TV sets where things are brighter, clearer, crisper, but I vividly remember the day I stepped off my school bus when I lived in Arkansas. My 10-year old legs ran all the way home so I could see our brand spanking new COLOR television! No more black and white! We didn’t have a remote control then … had to wait a few years for the mute button (the best part of the TV remote). When I met my husband, his grandmother still lived in a home with no indoor plumbing and heated by a coal stove. The trips to the outhouse were not fun in the heat of summer nor during frigid winters.

Given oil prices and water shortages, I wonder if it’ll take just 50 to 100 years to come full circle in the way we live.