When I was young and stupid,

I thought that old people never had any fun. Now that I'm old, but not that much wiser, I realize how wrong I was.

I was just reading two of Barry's posts, autobiographical sketches gifted to him by his mother twenty-some years ago.

Do you enjoy reading true stories from the past? I do! In particular, I enjoyed reading about the lamplighter that his mom wrote about in this first excerpt. Barry published part two of this a day later, just before his mom was buried.

As always, Barry does not invite us to grieve. On the contrary, his posts often show the 'up' side of things, a celebration of life.

When reading about the past, I am most appreciative of old-timey type photos that best illustrate the era, and Barry includes a few of those in these two posts.

I was reminded of another of my favorite bloggers, Audrey Kaminski, who seldom publishes, but every once in a while has a real lulu, like this one, which includes photographs from the era.

I got to thinking about my mother. Did they have electricity where/when she was growing up? I don't remember her saying anything otherwise, so I suppose they did.

I asked her once what she did "for fun" when she was a kid. (I wouldn't want to be a parent nowadays. I'm too old. There are too many temptations out there.) Do you know what she told me? She said they played with metal hoops and sticks. Whomever could make the hoop go furthest with the stick before it toppled over was the winner. Sounds simple, doesn't it? But a whole lot of fun, I'll betcha!