Walk with me through an average school day in the city of Calgary, (pronounced "Cal-Gree") Alberta (Canada 🇨🇦) in 1972, when I was only six years old (Oops❗️🙊 Accidentally outed my age on the internet again).
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Mom woke me up at 7:00 am and I stretched to my full and glorious height of 2 feet, 3 inches tall ( 68 cm) and went to the bathroom, while Mom laid out my "school clothes" on my bed.
In the bathroom, I got on my green step stool to wash my face, which I was capable of doing all by myself. 😊
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By the time I returned to my room, Mom had left to make breakfast. I dressed (all by myself 😊), put on my Snoopy, Timex watch, tucked Sam, my Turtle, back into bed (so he could sleep out his day) and headed for breakfast.
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I ate breakfast at the table out of my plastic Woody Woodpecker matching cup and log bowl with my older brother, Jim. My preferred cereals of choice being HoneyCombs (which wasn't actually written in plural on the box but SHOULD have been because there were many of them), Captain Crunch, Alpen and a boiled thick oatmeal called Red River Cereal (very popular amongst us Canadians)
Then Jim would usually rush off to school anxious to meet up with his friends.
while I would linger over my breakfast in silence 😔 and try to get my fears under control so I could face my day.
When it was time to leave, I would kiss and hug Mom at the door and we'd wave goodbye as I left to walk the three blocks to school all by myself. 😊
We got an hour off for lunch and Jim and I would walk home and back to school together.
We went to a Separate (Catholic) school so our school day ended at 3:30 pm, instead of 3:00 pm like the kids in the Public Schools (an extra half an hour a day for Catechism).
I was expected to come "STRAIGHT home" (which I always did), and walked it all by myself. 😊
(My brother, being older, came out of a different door on the other side of the school and walked with his friends).
But Jim and I met up a few minutes later at the kitchen table where we would share our after school snack and we would discuss our school day and what we learned that was exciting.
Then we would get out of our good, school clothes and into our "play clothes", which I was allowed to choose all by myself. 😊
Then we would rush downstairs where we would meet in front of the TV set to watch STAR TREK at 4:00 pm, while laying on our tummies.😃🖖
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When it was over, at 5:00 pm, I would help Mom get supper ready and fulfill my main tasks which were primarily to wash vegetables and set the table for supper (which I did all by myself). 😊
I made sure everybody got their orange placemat, a big plate and bowl, glass (to the top left of the plate) a fork ( to the left of the plate) a knife and spoon ( with a paper towel NEATLY folded beneath them) to the right of the plate.
(Whew. 😥 A very complex set of variables to remember! )
We ate supper usually between 5:30 pm and 6:00 pm or whenever Dad got home from work. He'd discuss what he did during his day and we listened quietly. 😶
After supper I'd help Mom with the dishes, which we'd wash by hand. My job was to dry the dishes with a tea towel that was always kept ready for me hanging on the door of our olive green oven. But I was never required to dry our heavy cast iron frying pan because it was "too heavy for someone as little as you and you might hurt yourself, Laura-Lee". Plus, it had to be dried a certain way with paper towels and then "seasoned" with Mazola Corn Oil.
Then my time was my own. I might play a Board Game or card game with Jim, but when he got tired of losing to me 😃😉 he'd go off to read.
Then I would go and wake Sam up and take out my little record player (which was in something that looked like a small suitcase) plug it in, play my records and dance around the room with Sam, flinging him this way and that way and often tossing him high into the sky.
That Turtle was a GREAT dancer and an AMAZING acrobat too❗️😲
Then I would hear Mom pouring my bath (full of Mr. Bubble) and I was allowed to play in the water for about 10 minutes with my bath toys, which were a red plastic boat and various empty bottles and plastic containers (my favorites being the empty dishwashing liquid bottles which could create some WONDERFUL geysers).
While in the bath all by myself 😊 it wasn't ALL fun and games. There were RULES and EXPECTATIONS ❗️ I was NEVER allowed to stand up in the tub, NEVER allowed to get out of it without Mom present and was expected to keep my knees and elbows submerged "so they would get a good soaking" and Mom wouldn't have to scrub them so hard. 😣
(The woman was BRUTAL when it came to dirty elbows ❗️😡)
Once I was out and dried, I was allowed to pick my "Nightie" all by myself ☺️ and then I could watch TV until my bedtime at 8:30 PM
(unless I could con my way into an extra 30 minutes).😏
I would kiss everyone present "Good Night" and Mom would take me up to my bed and tuck me in with Sam at my side.
Then it was time for the best part of my day. I would reveal to Mom anything I was too shy to say in front of others and she would sing me a song before kissing me goodnight. All the problems and fears of my day that I had been holding onto (and there were many) melted away. She'd wish me "Sweet Dreams" and I'd fall asleep imagining all the wonderful adventures Sam and I could have
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Now, why did I share all of this with of you? 🤔
Because there are young people out there reading this who think this is too good to be true. They think things like these only happen in old movies and have never experienced them for themselves. To them it's all stuff in the distant past of long ago.
They are daily walking some very harsh and dark paths.
Six year olds nowadays are never left unattended or they will be snatched.
Families don't eat meals together at the table.
They don't play with their siblings.
They don't enjoy simple pleasures.
They have broken families and homes filled with turmoil.
They feel isolated, lonely, and confused and spend hours on the Internet every day trying to alleviate those feelings.
At school, six year olds are forced to listen to the sexual escapades of their teachers, who are pink-haired men dressed like women who tell them that there are no such things as boys and girls and they are constantly being groomed (literally and figuratively) to believe their parents are their Enemies if they don't "affirm" everything they do.
If you know these things are wrong and have memories of better times too, then you need to remember these things for the younger people as well. We older folks can be a huge help to younger generations by merely giving them the hope that things were, not only better in the past, but CAN BE even more so in the FUTURE❗️
HOPE can inspire and motivate like little else can. So don't hesitate to spread around your memories and I will continue to strive to bring you ...
The Truth with Love,
Always Laura-Lee
PS. I don't want you to think it was all roses and sunshine in 1972 because it wasn't. However, chaos, confusion and evil were not the norm and therefore were easily identifiable and both stunned and outraged any decent, rational person.
So NOT the case today!
