I got to thinking recently how times have changed. As a kid, I wondered why it was supposed to be so important to have long conversation with our grandparents. After all, I didn’t much have an interest in when they were kids. I didn’t much have an interest what their days were worth 40 or 50 years ago. But now, I get it. Changes happen in our world and in our society. But it is like a glacier melting. It doesn’t happen all at once. You don’t notice the change in a day or a month or a year. But you may notice in decades. That’s why kids should be sponges for their grandparent’s knowledge. Looking at the changes can be quite surprising.
50 years ago, a contractor that was a dear friend of my family’s came to my parents and said, “You see this huge vacant lot behind your backyard? I bought it and I have plans drawn up for two houses on it. I’m going to live in one, why don’t you buy the other one? So my parents did. But here is where it gets surprising for people these days.
Because we knew these folks and loved spending time with them at 
barbeques and parties and such, we made our backyards easily adjoining. There was a fence between us, but it had a big gate with no lock. Anytime we wanted to go over there, we could. Anytime they wanted to come over here, they could. They had a pool. We had a sauna (and a waterfall, but the sauna was useful). We would use their pool. They would use our sauna. And neither we nor any of our friends thought it was weird.
People today don’t think of their neighbors in that manner. In my current home where I have been for 16 months, I know one family by name and1 family by remote head nods. Even I realize that I dislike people just showing up at my door without calling first. 50 years ago, people showing up with out calling first was a reason to celebrate.
The thing is, people complain that we have had to isolate this year. If you ask our grandparents they would tell you that you isolated decades ago.
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