This “Mark Twain” weather we’ve been having made it difficult for folks to make plans for outdoor events. Lately, there have been as many indoor picnics as outdoor ones. Let’s hope Dame Nature will be kind and provide a good few days for the upcoming holiday to give the area folks a chance to celebrate the country’s birthday at all the special events that are customary.

Talking with an acquaintance recently we hit upon the topic of “how times have changed.” Looking at life from the upper years this fact is certain, indeed! It applies to almost all everyday things we remember from yesteryear as we know them today.

The conversation began with hats. The style of hats has changed from necessary to unnecessary. Time was when no woman or female child would think of going to church without wearing a hat. Spring and fall as the fashion world embraced the changing season, women went shopping for a new hat. Last year’s hat would rarely do; the fashions had changed and it was unquestionably a “must” to buy a hat. Every closet shelf had one or two large hat boxes, each containing several hats in several colors.

Today, I would be unable to find a hat to wear to any social event. I have knitted caps for winter, but no kind of a hat like the ones we used to wear.

Today it is no longer a requirement to wear a hat to church. And times no longer frown upon slacks or pants suits – another forbidden attire in former times.

Eric Sloane wrote a pair of small, slender books: Don’t – A Little Book of Early American Gentility and Do – A Little Book of American Know-How. They are a great barometer of the way times have changed. They advise one not to use slang or profane language: don’t write to a married lady using her Christian name; don’t rest your elbows on the table while eating; don’t use hair dye; don’t repeat scandals or rumors – on and on.

The “Do” suggestions are both practical and humorous. Do use leather from old belts to make small door hinges; discourage ants by placing cucumber rind shavings wherever they appear; clean silver the way Paul Revere did – use paste of baking soda and scrub with a soft brush. Relieve bee stings with table salt or ammonia; make apple buttery by stirring it continuously for seven hours.

My grandparents and great-grandparents found entertainment by visiting relatives and neighbors and dancing or singing together. No radio, no television, no VCR or other electronic kind of entertainment was even invented as they had fun. They traveled by wagon or a sleigh or by horseback – no airplanes or motorized vehicles during their lifetimes.

Our ancestors learned how to can and preserve foods – foods from their orchard or garden. Today, any kind of food can be purchased in a supermarket, including frozen meats, vegetables, and desserts, thus making all kinds of food available year round. We once looked forward to turkey at Thanksgiving; now we can have it anytime. Old timers made hard cider or “moonshine.” Now any kind of liquor may be had at liquor stores that are found anywhere.

I could write pages about the kinds of music that was heard in early times. Today, what is called “music” can resemble various kinds of noise that would blast anyone’s ear drums. Ballads, waltzes, gospel tunes, and yesterday’s music are hard to come by.

Such is the world of change. We are sometimes pleased with the changes – more often we are not. We adjust and deal with the new ways, each in our own way. But it is fun to remember.

The words that ended last week’s column were spoken by Theodore Roosevelt in a speech in 1901.

Who said, “The only sense that is common in the long run is the sense of change – and we all instinctively avoid it”?