dishwasher, washer and dryer

Antibiotics

Many people speak of years gone by as a much simpler time, but in many ways it was a much more difficult time as well.

Automobiles - with a horse and cart, it would have been an all day affair to go from my suburb's center to the county courthouse (12 miles) and back; inexpensive (relative to 1900) bicycles; commonly available sources of heat and light -- oh there is so much more! Almost universal, free primary education also.

But way back then there was also twice daily mail delivery in cities, and local/regional newspapers were far more valued, read and supported than they are now, which is a shame.

Unlimited water. As a child we hauled two 30 gallon garbage cans of water. We had to be extremely careful using it. When I see articles about how the Navaho are doing similar things I can fully understand when someone mentions the joy of a delivery of water.

I live in what was my grandparents home. In 1904 this house had a hand pump at the kitchen sink, no bathroom, no central heating and no electricity. My grandfather died young. Some things changed for my grandmother but in the 1950s she was still cooking on a wood fired cook stove and using an outhouse. Sometimes when I'm working around my house I think how hard life was for her, but she never complained

People being being able to live a more open, fair life.

Alan Turing really sticks in my mind.

I also remember when aboriginal people in Canada could not buy alcohol.

Just a few things off of the top of my head.

eta I think we are much more free in our lives.

I've always had running water and a flushing toilet. Can't say the same for my neighbors back in the early 70's.

ETA: We also had a washer and dryer, but the well water sometimes ran low so we'd haul laundry off to a laundromat. My neighbor had a manual, wringer type washer. I guess they had to boil water from the well. Not sure. I wasn't allowed to play with or be around when they used it.

We spent a fair amount of time at my Grannies in the country and though she had running water in the kitchen she didnt like the water and used the pump in the yard. We hauled. No indoor plumbing. The electricity was a private company and it went out almost every day. When we would return to town being able to just turn a faucet for hot water (she also cooked and heated with wood) was such a luxury and flip a light switch. I loved it at her house but was it ever more work. When that moving to the country to live simply thing hit the hippie generation I just smiled. The joys of cooking on a wood stove not. I do have one good friend who still uses her cook stove though.

"even a phone call would have meant quite a long walk down to the village phone box."

Sounds like you're describing somewhere in the UK? If so, did your home have central heating? That was lacking in many homes there until not that long ago.

Some of you are describing very rustic home and living conditions. None of my family experienced much of that other than one family branch I know that lived for a time in a rather low income, high density urban apartment neighborhood. But most all were all urban dwellers going back quite a while, water pumps and farm life wasn't part of it.

1)When I visited my grandparents when I was very young there was an outhouse. Cold in winter. Spiders. Also a kerosene stove, a wood stove, a wringer and line after one finished washing clothes in the brook. An ice box but he did get a refrigerator early on.

Eventually he put indoor plumbing in, but memories remain.

2) Vaccinations. My Dad was a doctor. He used to describe the sound of whooping cough. I myself have hearing loss from my bout with measles, which I had before the vaccine was available.

3) Insulin. One of my sons depends on it to live.

4) The right to vote, to own my own property, etc. Equality is not here yet for many groups, in many places, but there have been significant advances.

5) Grocery delivery. I think for many seniors or those who can't get out for one reason or another, this is a real advantage.

6) Cell phones. I resisted them for years, but now I am grateful to have a way to communicate in case I need help, now that I am older.

Yes, I’m from the U.K. Elmer. The family home I grew up in never had a home phone, but we did have a fire fuelled central heating system installed in the mid 70s. It still meant filling coal scuttles up and ‘drawing’ the fire to get it started, but it was still a luxury to have a warm house instead of one room.

We did not have central air conditioning when I was growing up in Texas - only individual window units. I very much appreciate being able to control thermostats with my phone now.

I wrote a lot of letters as a teenager (and even in my 20s), and I had pen pals in Pittsburgh and Detroit that made me want to live in a city. I was very happy when I moved from the farm to Houston, which was actually a very easy transition for me. Before I went off to university, my father gave me this advice about moving to a big city: "If you make a mistake and someone criticizes you for it, just say 'I'm just a simple country boy.'" I told my father that no one would believe that, and I never got into that sort of situation anyway. When my father came to visit me at the university, my friends there could not believe that he and I were related - our personalities were polar opposites.

Although I grew up on a farm in central Texas, we always had phones, electricity, TV, washer & dryer, etc. My grandmother owned the water works in town because my great-grandfather had dug a lot of artesian wells. My grandmother told me that he was a water-witcher and used a forked green twig to find water. I think he probably would have found water wherever he dug, as there were a lot of springs and underground streams on the farm where we lived, as well as creeks.

Google maps. I don’t like navigating, so I really appreciate Google maps showing me the way AND THE TRAFFIC, and appreciate it telling me how to go. And, I appreciate that if I decide to go a different way, take a detour, etc, it goes with the flow and just “recalculates”, and if I want to, I can turn the sound off without hurting its feelings!

Indoor plumbing and central heating/ac. And yes, I grew up without either. Lord, I hated hiking down the path to the outhouse!!!!! The house I was born in and grew up in still doesn't have central heat. There are propane stoves in some rooms. I don't wish to go back to any of that and I WILL NOT go camping.

The house didn't have electricity until 1939. I was born six years later.

Relative freedom.

Heavy stuff.

Not having to belong to a religious group in order to belong to society. My family had to leave where they were in order to escape the greedy crippling oppressive grips of their fundamentalist religion.

Labor saving stuff etc.

Washer dryer dishwasher in house toilet. Refrigeration.

Having a hot shower or bath when I want one at my convenience. Plus when I need one of course.

Science and well researched medicine.

Looking things up on the Internet is just so wonderful even if I have to read through dozens to hundreds of things to get a true picture.

Using Google like a calculator just putting in the numbers and having it come up with the results without having to actually type in. I just say it. Love it!

Alexa!

Fast access to the Internet. When I think of how things have changed in my lifetime, I can't imagine what will change in the next 50 years.

Oh, maddiemo! My apologies.

I was just going out the door this morning and quickly read the OP. I didn’t read your question properly :(

First of all, I hope your wrist is healing well and wish you a full recovery.

I’m thankful for pretty much all new conveniences. I really admire people who raised large families without indoor plumbing or electric power. My husband’s family did not have electric power until 1965. They got indoor plumbing in 1979. His mother and father raised their children without any modern conveniences (and his mother only had one hand as she had lost it in a saw accident just before she was to be married).

Anyhow, I am thankful for how easy communication has become. I have several friends that I can send letters and photos to in just an instant.

One thing, I really like is how reliable cars have become. I seem to remember my dad always babying the family car over some issue or another. In the winter, it was always questionable whether a vehicle was going to start, even if it had been plugged in all night. I can’t remember the last time I had a car not start for me.

We’ve got lots to be thankful for.

Thank you kindly Roxsol, I broke my wrist trying to catch one of my favourite creatures, a spider:) It’s gradually getting better and compared to you husbands mother, I have little to complain about.

I also remember the regular car starting dramas, and how much more rust there seemed to be on the bodywork of cars.

Wow, that must have been one feisty spider!

I’m glad you are okay.

To add insult to injury I missed him Roxsol! It was still in exactly the same place on the ceiling when I got home from hospital:)

Right this very moment I'm grateful for a heating pad. I did get all the leaves raked up. There's another one, I'm grateful that my leaf vacuum that chopped up all my leaves and kept them in a bag for me till I was ready to dump them out. While I was working outside, I had my phone in my pocket, which gave me access to my work email. If I had not been able to set up an office from home, or access email via my phone, I might've been out of a job because of COVID. So add them to the list. I'm looking at a set of Bluetooth headphones, that has a microphone in them, which I use to stream video games with my child who lives in another city. We stay connected, laughing and joking, while they play a video game. How many things was that? How about that I'm watching the presidential election results unfold, rather than waiting for a newspaper to print the information? That's pretty dang cool. Because of today's show me yours I'll show you mine post, I just went online I looked at the house that we raised our small son in. Brought back some memories. Texted it to my son. It's an amazing world we live in! Who knows how far we will go!!!

Oh gosh, so many things! I'll say....my own home, telephone, car, central air and heat...all things we didn't have as children. We lived a very sparse life, so everything I have now is a blessing.

Smart phone. I can communicate by email, video, call, text, can take notes, pictures, navigate, search info, use apps for work and leisure, listen to musics. Basically a super computer and more that fits in my pocket.

Speaking strictly for myself, I am most thankful for my big barn and property surrounding it. It has multiple electric hook ups, an office with a bathroom and washer and dryer connections, a vet area with a stock, wash area for horses, 12 stalls, big feed room and big tack room with racks for 5 saddles. Easy access to water for the stalls. Large turn out paddock down one side of the barn, plus 2 other large paddocks, good pastures and a hay meadow. It is something I couldn't have even dreamed of in my early horsey days, altho I have had a large barn before....15 stalls, but never one so nice as this one. Even tho I have always had horses, I do less with them now, altho this set up makes taking care of them much easier. I haven't ridden in several years. However, I am getting ready to start back. I don't know how much my achey joints will tolerate, but even if I only ride at night... up and down the barn aisle, I plan to do it.

There have been many changes in my life that I am very grateful for. However, the biggest by far is the almost unlimited access to books that I have now and, to a lesser extent, education.

No more long distance phone bills. How nice not to have to think twice about calling friends and family.

I am so grateful for all the advances in medicine, and look forward to many more.

Yes, Bpath...online maps and navigation via phone. No more fights with DH as I fumble with foldout maps or a Thomas Guide!

Long distance calls ... my grandchildren don’t understand that term. And FaceTime! So grateful for it now during Covid, missing family Far away. It makes all the difference. I do remember, not so long ago, the sweet anticipation of a walk to the mailbox for letters from friends and loved ones.... and college acceptance, or not, letters! But now!! Keeping up with, and reconnecting to old friends via the wonder of email....priceless!

Olden farm days without indoor plumbing I am grateful to have never experienced!!

Duvets.

Before them, I well remember my early bedtime warming rituals of firstly a hot water bottle, then the space age emergence of an electric ‘glow baby’, which looked like a pink flying saucer, and finally, making sure I’d switched on my electric blanket.

Also the chore of changing the bed. No fitted sheets back then. It was all hospital corners, and a ton of blankets and eiderdown.

I also wouldn’t want be without the support of my memory foam pillow.

I wanted to add to my previous reply:

I am so, so grateful that I haven't run into the reluctance, even refusal, to do business with a woman that I experienced in the 1970s and even into the 1980s. I haven't heard "come back with your (non-existent) husband" when shopping for a major appliance, a bank, a home, a car - in oh so many years. But, I do still run into the "special pricing for gray haired ladies", particularly at car repair shops. By "special pricing" I mean an inflated quote, or telling me that my car needed repairs that in fact it did not..

Also, good running shoes...

I miss the innocence of the time I grew up in and I always had all conveniences that were available to the public plus we had a private phone line with multiple phones since my father was the manager of the phone company. My grandparents lived in old houses as I do but they also had all conveniences of the time. What I'd miss now would be TV remote, smartphone, Siri, cars that practically drive themselves with warning sounds if you veered off the road, dishwashers, Google.