Some Perspective From Aunt Sylvia (Who Turned 94 in September)

My father's one and only sister, Sylvia, who survives him by two decades, often reminisces from the 1920's and 1930's in letters to me despite the fact that, at 94, her fingers are humbled by arthritis.

No one can doubt that we're going through hard times, but we've been through even harder times, and Sylvia's remembrances tend to provide some much-needed perspective:

"I was doing some cleaning the other day, and thought back to when I was young. In order to air out my bedding, I would open a window and put my pillows outside for a few hours. I had a clothesline strung outside and would hang my clothes to dry. Did they smell good and clean. To wash my clothes, I had a washboard and scrubbed away. No Clorox, just plain soap and water.

To keep food fresh, we had a box outside the kitchen window. An ice man would deliver ice on his back in the summer.

Babies did not have things hanging out of their mouth. You picked them up and rocked them to ease their pain.

No refrigerator. No vacuum cleaner, and no fight over 'Health Care.' Progress must go on."