04/11/2022
This morning at church one of our "senior" ladies was sharing how sad she was when home milk delivery by horse stopped in 1951. There were cars, but horse & buggy was far more efficient. A driver would walk with a crate of full bottles, dropping 1 or 2 at each house. The horse would follow along the road.
The homeowners would leave out empties & milk money. Deliveryman made money change if needed. When the deliveryman had his crate full of empties, he'd go back to the road & the driverless horse & buggy would be waiting. Grab another crate of full bottles and the horse would follow along.
The lady loved the horse. She shared while tearing up that each day she'd take an apple out for it as a treat. One day she forgot & there was a knock on the door. Deliveryman said, "Madam, can you please bring out the treat for the horse." The horse had stopped & refused to move until it got its treat.
I'm not sure why sure the horse & buggy home milk delivery was discontinued in her town at the time in Guelph, Ontario. I'm guessing this would been have happening for generations. I'm thinking with modern gasoline powered delivery vans, people felt the horse and buggy was outdated. They need to catch up with the times. In reality, nothing could match the efficiency of that driverless horse and buggy.
Today’s society seems dominated by the idea of new. New phone. New car. New appliances. New travel destination. All of this is great, right? Tired of the old? In with the new. Sadly with our demand for the new, and last year's stuff outdated, our planet's precious resources are being plundered to meet society's insatiable demand. To the point where there will be nothing for generations to come.
I've been lay pastor of this church in Hillsdale for 11 yrs. An elderly congregation, several have passed on. I've listened to 100's of stories like this. My life has become much richer because of it. My biggest regret is I wished I wrote them all down. So much so, I could have written a book. Our elderly are living history books. Hard times & simple lives we learn so much from them. There was a time when the local community church was the central focus of all the small communities. A place of belonging. A place of caring and building one another up. A place of connection. I've witnessed this so deeply in my 11 years within our small congregation at St Andrews, Hillsdale. Plus, I've learned so much local history in my 11 years. Can you imagine with this church beginning in 1851, that people could have been sharing memories going back into the 1700's. If those church walls could talk. Hillsdale wasn't even on the map then. Unfortunately, the local community church has become outdated to most people these days. Personal disposable income is at an all-time high. This increase in income also gives people more options for how they choose to spend their time. So many leisure activities to partake in. So many new places to explore. Local pastor and podcaster Carey Nieuwhof has suggested: “People always make time for the things they value most. If they’re not making time for church, that tells you something."
Another cultural phenomenon is the growing number of children who play sports or engage in other group activities. And there is nothing wrong with sports. I grew up playing hockey myself. Many of these sporting events or extracurricular activities take place on weekends. And more and more parents are choosing their children’s sports and hobbies over the local church. Often children's sports, hobbies and extracurricular activities take place a considerable driving distance away from the local community.
Another dynamic is employment. It used to be our employment was local. Nowadays work can involve long commutes. Plus, more of us are working on weekends. Depending on what kind of work people do, it’s not unusual for people to travel out of town for work. What has happened, is that with travel outside the community for work, travel outside the community for leisure and travel outside the community for kid's activities, our small towns and villages have become "bedroom communities". Often people do not know who their neighbors are, beyond the "I know their name" level. Which I'm guessing will become even more pronounced once the new development happens in Hillsdale.
Perhaps I'm a bit nostalgic and old fashioned, but I really miss life centered around the local community. This was a huge part of my life growing up in Edgar. Everybody knew their neighbors extremely well and would help one another at the drop of a hat. So often old is better than new.
