A Lovely "Old-Fashioned" Afternoon

My mother was in town from Florida this past week, and yesterday was the last day of her visit with us. Early in the day we went out to lunch and ran a few errands. In the afternoon, her good friend stopped by to see her and we had a lovely visit, just sitting around the living room talking -- no music or tv on, just nice conversation! My little one was napping and my eldest daughter sat with us and listened quietly and politely, adding to the conversation from time to time. Before Mom's friend left, we were talking about pianos (I have my mother's in the living room) -- that she was looking to buy a small one to play at her house. Mom said that she missed playing the piano and had played it that morning while I was upstairs getting ready. She said that it is out of tune and she had thought about tuning it while she was here -- well, next thing you know, the pictures are off the top, the top is open and Mom's got her tuning tools out! My little one was up by this time, and we all had fun watching Mom tune the piano. The girls went out into the side yard to play on the swing set, Mom was playing the piano, and I was sitting in a chair with my sewing box out, repairing two of my eldest daughter's stuffed animals. Again, no tv on, no stereo -- just the sound of Mom playing the piano, and the sound of the girls' laughter coming through the open windows. It was such a pleasant, enjoyable, relaxing afternoon and it struck me that this is just the way that past generations might have spent an afternoon -- visiting with friends and family, sewing, playing the piano.

And what a nice coincidence that we went "back to basics" and had this lovely, old-fashioned, "low-tech" afternoon on Earth Day! The whole afternoon without the sound of a tv or a Gameboy -- what a nice change of pace!