I'm one of those folks who love to talk to the elderly. I make notes. I pay attention. I want to hear the stories of hard times, before the comforts of today. I like to know how it was "way back when."

I suppose that is what made an e-mail I received recently so interesting. It arrived without credit to the author, but further investigation revealed that the text is credited to a book called "When My Grandmother Was a Child" by Leigh W. Rutledge. It makes me think twice about taking things for granted such as standing by a fax machine talking on my cell phone, while CNN e-mails me late-breaking news. Several of the lines make me realize that the term "hard times" may need to be redefined.

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