When I was a kid the only places open on Sunday were churches, sit down restaurants (but only after church), one grocery store and of course 7/11. If a major holiday happened to fall on a Sunday even those few places were closed. Easter was always on of those days. Everything closed but the churches and amazingly that one 7/11 store.
Of course if you were a kid during those days you absolutely hated this and wished with all your might that everything was open because you were sick and tired of entertaining "out-of-town" cousins for the entire weekend and were it not but for accident of birth you would never intentionally spend time with those people for any amount of riches or fame.
The "out-of-town" cousins always came along with aunts and uncles. Grandparents too. What else are people going to do when everything is closed? Go sponge a free room and dinner off of some kinfolk and call it "family bonding". Even if the big holiday family feast was at another relative's house somehow visiting relatives were "farmed out" to other kin within the proximity. No cable, no internet, everything is closed- and the kids have to do all of the cleaning plus entertain all of the visiting kids. If you were one of the older kids your life was Hell for very long weekend!
Fast forward to the present day. Easter was yesterday. I did my regular shopping at a few stores then was temporarily shocked that Lowe's was closed before remembering it actually was Easter. Everything else was open. Even trash valet picked up the trash. Two of the four kids and one of the grandkids texted. We each called our mothers. Basically just like any other day. We're spread out all over the country so big family holidays aren't much of a thing anymore. Just like I wished for when I was a kid. The old timers always used to say to be careful what you wish for!
Nowadays I'd give just about anything to go back to those older times. The big holidays were the time of family reunions, the kind where people actually have to talk to and interact with each other. It's where you learned stories from your family history and funny anecdotes you will be sharing with your grandchildren. It's where kids learn that cousins don't have to know each other well to have each other's backs because that's what family is. You accidentally learn dark family secrets when the great aunts don't realize that your French has gotten much better and they talk openly and loudly in their native tongue. That one uncle gives you a pint of schnapps to keep an eye on the younger kids outside during his shift to watch them as he slinks off to one of the outbuildings while
scanning for witnesses (what he was doing in that building I do not want to know). You learn that it is NEVER coffee in Uncle Maurice's coffee cup, you also learn that one of your cousins is a professional mud wrestler and most importantly: your youngest uncle is dating a stripper with one glass eye!
Now most kids don't know their cousins, great aunts and uncles, etc. There are no big family holidays where everybody gets together for a feast- not in the old sense. How did we get here? I feel it started when we went from everything being closed on Sundays and major holidays to everything being open. As "Blue Laws" fell more and more businesses were able to stay open during times previously barred to them- but over time those same businesses gained the right to demand that employees work those days as well. No more three day weekend for the majority of society, no more driving a few hours for a big family weekend. What started as convenience became practice. People tried for a while, schedules were juggled, 3 days crammed into 2 plus driving both ways and helping prepare the feast. More work than it's worth. It just became easier to do individual family holidays catered to each household schedule.
So now only the old timers try to keep some kind of big family shindig at holiday time where relatives that live fairly local have a one day cookout together. No relatives from half a days drive away. No 30-40 relatives all convoying to church together. No cousins learning to hulahoop whilst simultaneously learning dark family secrets. No circle of elders handing out smartassed wisdom while trading family gossip. No learning the social intricacies of when knowledge should be giggled at and when it is to be filed away and kept to oneself. No learning to protect the younger cousins from their own stupidity. No playing chase in the garden and running smack dab into a giant banana spider. No more roasting hot dogs and marshmallows over a fire the night before Easter with goofy cousins.
Time marches on. It will never go back to the way it was. But those things I hated in childhood are the things I look back on fondly now. The old traditions are dying because the old timers that keep them are dying and less and less of us are taking up the torch- or have and got tired of it after years and years. The younger generations will make their own traditions. They wont look like mine. That's okay.
That's the end of my wake and bake holiday rant!
Of course if you were a kid during those days you absolutely hated this and wished with all your might that everything was open because you were sick and tired of entertaining "out-of-town" cousins for the entire weekend and were it not but for accident of birth you would never intentionally spend time with those people for any amount of riches or fame.
The "out-of-town" cousins always came along with aunts and uncles. Grandparents too. What else are people going to do when everything is closed? Go sponge a free room and dinner off of some kinfolk and call it "family bonding". Even if the big holiday family feast was at another relative's house somehow visiting relatives were "farmed out" to other kin within the proximity. No cable, no internet, everything is closed- and the kids have to do all of the cleaning plus entertain all of the visiting kids. If you were one of the older kids your life was Hell for very long weekend!
Fast forward to the present day. Easter was yesterday. I did my regular shopping at a few stores then was temporarily shocked that Lowe's was closed before remembering it actually was Easter. Everything else was open. Even trash valet picked up the trash. Two of the four kids and one of the grandkids texted. We each called our mothers. Basically just like any other day. We're spread out all over the country so big family holidays aren't much of a thing anymore. Just like I wished for when I was a kid. The old timers always used to say to be careful what you wish for!
Nowadays I'd give just about anything to go back to those older times. The big holidays were the time of family reunions, the kind where people actually have to talk to and interact with each other. It's where you learned stories from your family history and funny anecdotes you will be sharing with your grandchildren. It's where kids learn that cousins don't have to know each other well to have each other's backs because that's what family is. You accidentally learn dark family secrets when the great aunts don't realize that your French has gotten much better and they talk openly and loudly in their native tongue. That one uncle gives you a pint of schnapps to keep an eye on the younger kids outside during his shift to watch them as he slinks off to one of the outbuildings while
scanning for witnesses (what he was doing in that building I do not want to know). You learn that it is NEVER coffee in Uncle Maurice's coffee cup, you also learn that one of your cousins is a professional mud wrestler and most importantly: your youngest uncle is dating a stripper with one glass eye!
Now most kids don't know their cousins, great aunts and uncles, etc. There are no big family holidays where everybody gets together for a feast- not in the old sense. How did we get here? I feel it started when we went from everything being closed on Sundays and major holidays to everything being open. As "Blue Laws" fell more and more businesses were able to stay open during times previously barred to them- but over time those same businesses gained the right to demand that employees work those days as well. No more three day weekend for the majority of society, no more driving a few hours for a big family weekend. What started as convenience became practice. People tried for a while, schedules were juggled, 3 days crammed into 2 plus driving both ways and helping prepare the feast. More work than it's worth. It just became easier to do individual family holidays catered to each household schedule.
So now only the old timers try to keep some kind of big family shindig at holiday time where relatives that live fairly local have a one day cookout together. No relatives from half a days drive away. No 30-40 relatives all convoying to church together. No cousins learning to hulahoop whilst simultaneously learning dark family secrets. No circle of elders handing out smartassed wisdom while trading family gossip. No learning the social intricacies of when knowledge should be giggled at and when it is to be filed away and kept to oneself. No learning to protect the younger cousins from their own stupidity. No playing chase in the garden and running smack dab into a giant banana spider. No more roasting hot dogs and marshmallows over a fire the night before Easter with goofy cousins.
Time marches on. It will never go back to the way it was. But those things I hated in childhood are the things I look back on fondly now. The old traditions are dying because the old timers that keep them are dying and less and less of us are taking up the torch- or have and got tired of it after years and years. The younger generations will make their own traditions. They wont look like mine. That's okay.
That's the end of my wake and bake holiday rant!
As an American it's your responsibility to have your own strategic duck stockpile. You can't expect the government to do it for you.
![[Image: m6Lj0Pf.jpg]](https://i.imgur.com/m6Lj0Pf.jpg)
