SPRING FORWARD- Excerpt from ROCKIN' CHAIR COWBOYS

Awakened by the words, “Hey, are you ready for service?” I turn to look at my clock; it reads 10:00 a.m.

“What do you mean it’s only ten,” I said, thinking my smart-chip clock would spring forward.

Needless to say, my smart clock didn’t work properly, for whatever reason, so now I sit. I lost one hour of my day, never to be reclaimed. Modern technology! Who needs it?

I’m sure everyone has experienced this at one time or another. How does one address this issue? I spent time reflecting on days of my childhood, when times were uncomplicated, and smart clocks were not even a figment of the imagination.

My parents would rise with the ringing of an old wind-up clock that had lulled them to sleep with its steady ticking. The smell of Mama cooking breakfast would awaken my sister and me. If that failed, Daddy would urge us girls out of bed.

After breakfast, Daddy would go off to work in the rice field. Mama usually cleaned up the kitchen, and my sister and I took to the outdoors. It was there that we used our imaginations to dream up ways to pass the sweltering summer days in the country.

We would play house, where we’d take a stick and draw a house floor plan in the dirt. With our dolls and Daddy’s coon hunting dog, we’d pretend to be Mothers, as we took care of our rubber-faced dolls. The dolls had molded hair and their eyes would open and close as you tilted them back and forth.

Our neighbor from across the road would occasionally come over to play with ‘his girls’ as he called us. This fully-grown giant of a man stood about four feet tall and walked with the use of crutches. He was the victim of diabetes and had lost his legs to that disease.

My sister and I enjoyed his company, and I know we were company to him, as well. He would let us pull him around in our little red flyer wagon, until Mama called us to dinner, the noon meal as country folk called it. Uncle Bill would make his way home, and we would come inside for another fabulous meal Mama had prepared.

Yes, life was uncomplicated, unhurried and we never lost an hour of it. We made each hour count and lived each one to the fullest.

V. M. Wolter