Topics such as this one seem to come out of the blue---the term used in the past, now we say its an idea that came out of cyber space. No matter what, the topic was an interesting one.
Here is the scene: its rural America, the year is about 1940, the War had not started for us but was on the horizon. Most families had cars, but usually only one. There was no television, phones were basic in that most people had so called party lines, thus making them unsuitable for chatting between family members.
This situation created the normal behavior of frequent visits between relatives, but also between unrelated friends. Dad and mom would announce that we were going to visit so and so, and we would all get in the car and drive to their house. If they were home we would be greeted cordially and spend the next few hours chatting. If there were no other children in this household, we would sit like little angels and speak only when spoken to, which was not often. If there were children present, we would usually go outside and play.
As visitors, staying for a meal was usually not on our agenda, but often we would stay for lunch or even dinner. This was usually accommodated with ease as most people had food for more than their family available.
If, on the other hand, if no one was home at our place of visit, we would just abandon that objective and do a small tour of the area. This was because just "going for a ride" was in itself an enjoyable passing of time.
We recall that we were visitors about as much as we were visited, so it was a mutually natural thing to do on a weekend. Perhaps we did this in the evenings on weekdays during the summer when daylight lasted well into the evening.
All of this back and forth visiting seems to have vanished. The question is, why did this social practice vanish?
Here are a few observations, but none are so elegant that they provide the answer to the question of why did this social practice come to an end.
Here is the scene: its rural America, the year is about 1940, the War had not started for us but was on the horizon. Most families had cars, but usually only one. There was no television, phones were basic in that most people had so called party lines, thus making them unsuitable for chatting between family members.
This situation created the normal behavior of frequent visits between relatives, but also between unrelated friends. Dad and mom would announce that we were going to visit so and so, and we would all get in the car and drive to their house. If they were home we would be greeted cordially and spend the next few hours chatting. If there were no other children in this household, we would sit like little angels and speak only when spoken to, which was not often. If there were children present, we would usually go outside and play.
As visitors, staying for a meal was usually not on our agenda, but often we would stay for lunch or even dinner. This was usually accommodated with ease as most people had food for more than their family available.
If, on the other hand, if no one was home at our place of visit, we would just abandon that objective and do a small tour of the area. This was because just "going for a ride" was in itself an enjoyable passing of time.
We recall that we were visitors about as much as we were visited, so it was a mutually natural thing to do on a weekend. Perhaps we did this in the evenings on weekdays during the summer when daylight lasted well into the evening.
All of this back and forth visiting seems to have vanished. The question is, why did this social practice vanish?
Here are a few observations, but none are so elegant that they provide the answer to the question of why did this social practice come to an end.
- Social media certainly provides much more opportunity to interact with other people, and in fact with many other people, most of whom are not known to the person. But, none of this is face to face. Has this supplanted to in-person visit? Does it satisfy the human nature to visit with other people?
- The same is true for inexpensive long distance telephone calls.
- People have less free time today, cutting into the time spent in the past for visits.
- People seem to be more opinionated today with regard to religion and politics, and these topics often mar the conversation. Most would have found that this situation is best solved by not visiting. Social media and the editorialized press has had a hand in this.
- Television---it sucks up every bit of time people have left in their day, making visits to others does not come into the list of things to do.
On the flip side, we find that, without exception, people are very friendly and willing to discuss something of interest. Providing of course that the subject does not intrude into their private space. Here is an example. We often recognize the UPS driver as he is delivering at the Exxon station in our area. Today, was his off day and he was wearing civies rather than his UPS uniform. I made a comment about his new uniform which happened to be an Astros shirt with Ryan on the back. We then got into a long discussion of baseball and how the Astros hall of fame is interesting to follow. We both enjoyed the time spent. No other form of visit could compete with this experience.
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