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| Clear Creek Meeting House Built 1875 |
The rural farming Quaker community where I grew up is still the
home of Illinois Yearly Meeting. The old Meetinghouse, with its divided
sides for when women and men were separated, still stands in a large
field surrounded by corn fields.
Forty-five years ago when my son
Phil was 16, we visited Illinois from Florida during yearly meeting. Many
cars were parked near the meeting house in an unorganized sort of way.
Phil ran up to me while I was talking to one of the Quakers. Phil said
he wanted to drive to town (population ~100) to buy something the teens wanted,
and come right back, but our car was blocked in. The Friend with me
said, "Oh just take any car. They all have the keys inside." Phil was
shocked. After making sure that this was OK, that's what he did.
I think those days are gone forever.
Thanks so much for this glimpse of a kinder past era. It reminds me of my childhood in Athens, OH. We lived in a neighborhood where every adult for three blocks around knew who my parents were and had their phone number. No one locked their houses except when they went to bed at night.
ReplyDeleteBlessings, Mike
Thanks for the comment Mike. When I was growing up bicycle locks were never heard of. When trust fails we become defensive.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of memories, I remember you from Regional Meetings in South Carolina. You had a way of discerning truth.
I grew up in a Washington D.C. suburb near the Potomac River, three miles north of Mt Vernon and five miles south of Alexandria, VA.
ReplyDeleteI too remember the days when we never locked the doors. Although at some point I think my dad usually locked up at night. By the time I moved to Worcester, MA in January 1977, things had changed even more. We always locked the doors. And yes I never needed a bicycle lock anywhere until almost 7 years ago when I started seriously using a bicycle for transportation. Oh well.
In Winston-Salem my neighbor had lost her key to the front door, so she locked the door when she was inside but left it unlocked when she was away from home. She was the best neighbor I ever had.
ReplyDelete