Few things stay the same as time goes by

As time goes by - musically it's a Golden Oldie; it's also a BBC sitcom aired locally on the PBS station, KVIE Channel Six. For those of us already in our Golden Years, it's sharp reality.For instance, I can vividly recall my childhood in northern New Jersey. School stretched interminably from September to June. By contrast, summer vacation whizzed by, a paltry three months of lazy days. It's not too much different today of course, though school may resume in August and there are few lazy summer days. Even the youngest child seems to have a full plate of activities. But time still seems to go by so slowly during the school year and vacation time so fast.I can still remember the excitement around the house when we had a pump installed at the kitchen sink. It was such an improvement over having to lug pails in from the pump in the back yard. Hot water came from buckets heated on the big kitchen range and we took turns enjoying it every Saturday night.As for indoor plumbing, bundle up and head down the path to the little two-seater at the rear of the garden during the day. At night there were thunder mugs under each bed.Now we have hot and cold running water, sleek porcelain fixtures, even bubble baths, all indoors. Time has indeed gone by.Food has changed, too. In the days of my youth just about everyone had a vegetable patch and raised enough to "put by" for the winter. That meant hot humid days got even hotter and more humid as glasses were sterilized and filled with vegetables and fruit, then processed in boiling water. There were no freezers and air conditioning was equally unknown. But there was great satisfaction in seeing the rows of tomatoes, green beans, corn, peaches and other fruit lined up in the basement pantry. Now we pluck commercially canned tins from supermarket shelves or stock complete dinners in the freezer. Time has again gone by.So has the old-fashioned ice box that kept milk and other perishables cold and tasty. The ice man made regular deliveries from a horse-drawn wagon, hoisting a block of ice to his shoulder and stomping up the back steps to slide it into place. He'd use an ice pick to chop up the old piece and fit it around the edges of the new one, with a few chips awarded to kids who waited impatiently. Neighborhood kids got theirs when he returned to the wagon. Ah yes, things do change when time goes by.Few families had automobiles in the early '20s. I remember what must have been our first, around the middle of the decade. It was a "flivver," seating five (six if there was a toddler to squeeze between the two adults in the front seat). Climate control was achieved by raising or lowering isinglass curtains, and our bottoms felt the sting of horsehair upholstery, summer or winter. But we were a lucky family, one of the first on the block to trade horse and buggy for the new mechanical monster.I'm not sure what that first Ford cost, but a few years later there was a sleek (by the standards of that day) new Pontiac that nearly caused my mother a heart attack when she saw the bill for $800! Today the cost of a new car - well, let's not even go there.So many other things have changed as time went by. My older sister went to Normal School to train as a teacher. It was a free education. Today college fees rival the national debt, and that's a tad increased over the years, too.My first school was a two-room wooden building, housing kindergarten through second grade in one room and third through fifth in the other. Promotion merely meant moving from one row to the next or, if you didn't make the grade, staying where you were. The only expenses were the teachers' salaries and fuel for the potbelly stove. Today we consider which school to close to make ends meet as enrollments fall.And then there's the pace of life itself. Dave McKenzie recalls that when he first came to Auburn he could stand in the middle of Highway 49 and chat with friends. Don't try that today.Yes, indeed, life changes as time goes by.Helen Bale's column appears every other Sunday in Lifestyle.