Glory Days

 

 When I'm up with the bats and racoons, I head over to YouTube to catch the latest Arkansas State police pit maneuvers or some judge giving probation to a murderer. The other night I found a channel, 'Boring History for Sleep.' The narrator, who I can tell is one cynical dude with a wry sense of humor walks us through what our very brave ancestors went through. The video I caught was about medieval times, and not the fun times with giant turkey legs and gallant knights. The reality is stark. You wonder why people would want to get out of bed, but their beds were usually hard wood planks animals had pissed on because sometimes they sleep with you. And everywhere are the fleas. Fleas, fleas, fleas. (I think they may have played an ominous role in that time if I recall) Anyway, gotta get up and make the coffee and have a donut. Oops, no, only pottage, which is scraps of whatever you have, thrown in a pot and nibbled on, continually adding to the pot, if you're lucky to find something edible to put in the pot. Time now for a quick shower and brushing of teeth. Sorry, no water. Even if there was clean water which there wasn't because people threw their poop waste into the streets and rivers, people didn't bathe! Sure, you had some outliers who washed their face and hands but soap was a luxury. Most of the peasants (middle class, today) thought water caused illnesses. The health inspector must have been an RFK JR ancestor. No bathing, no brushing of teeth if you had any left. The ones you did have were probably black and your mouth was cesspool of odious pain you just lived with. There was no Tylenol. One solution was to use a pair of dirty pliers the farrier had just used to scrape crud out of a horse's foot. 

How about a clean shirt, the cute polka dot one you got on sale at the market? Say what, I have to wear the same dress I've been wearing for a year!? Oh, okay. Smells a little ripe, but so does everything and everyone. 

Now time to get to work. From sunup to sundown you hoed, dug, planted, kneeled, picked, dug, dug, dug, and if you were lucky got to have a lunch break of cold pottage which has been stored in your pocket all day. From Monday to Saturday, you worked. Sunday, you went to church and prayed the Lord to take you. Take you now, but no, you must have some good genes because you get to see another day of doing the same thing over and over until you die at the ripe old age of 25. 

I write this not for you to be depressed but to realize how very resilient homo sapiens are. We have seen some shit, but instead of walking off a cliff en masse, we press on, always hopeful for one happy moment to keep us going. 

Let's not take what we have for granted and let us fight for what every human deserves. Most of us are anxious, frightened and worried during these dark days. We think about our future as we brush our pearly whites, drink our coffee, do a load of laundry, listen to Glory Days 😉 and eat too many Reese's peanut butter cups. 

We will get through this. Give a little thanks to our relatives who walked the walk with no shoes on their dirty, stinky feet.