94 Years Is A Very Long Time

My mother has been on this Earth for 94 years. She started her journey way back in 1919. That is a very long time and so very much has happened in the expanse of her lifetime.  I know, because she has filled my life with her memories, and no matter how many times she tells the same story over and over, somehow I never tire of them, especially the ones of her childhood. I can only imagine what a great time that must have been.

The grand Cardeza Estate

The photo above was the home of Charlotte Drake Cardeza, who was a very rich woman, and who also happened to be a survivor of the Titanic.  This grand estate took up a whole city block and my mother told me how all the neighbors would come outside and watch as the massive gates would swing open and Mrs. Cardeza and her maid would slowly drive by in their motor car, the first one in the whole neighborhood.

Just recently my mother asked me if it was still there. My husband and I drove all over looking for it, but no such luck.  Not too long ago I found out it was turned into a parking lot. I don't think I'll tell her.

Construction of Germantown High School, 1915

This is Germantown High School. My mother graduated from there in 1937.  It's one of the oldest high schools in the country, yet today, due to budget cuts, ABC news announced it will be closing at the end of the year. I don't think I'll tell her this, either.

Waiting to buy a house, Levittown, PA, 1953

In 1954, with a growing family, my parents put $100 down on the purchase of one the first homes in Levittown. Our home was a Jubilee, with four bedrooms and two baths at a whopping $1100.

So much has changed in my mother's lifetime. She remembers when telephones were first installed, the undertaker who carried both of her grandparents out of her childhood home in a wicker basket, the ice man, her mother getting her hand caught in the wringer-washing machine, the Depression, World War II and so many of her classmates who never returned home, piling as many boy scouts as would fit into her station wagon to go on camping trips, and on and on...

If I happen to be blessed with a long life I can hardly imagine the changes that I will see.  Will I be overwhelmed and long for the "good ole days?" Pretty sure I will. I already do.