Good Mail Days

I love getting fun things in the mail! Who doesn't? I'm kind of like a little kid in a candy store when the mail arrives. Since the Internet, mail days have become much more fun! Growing up, I thought everything ever made in the entire world could be found at the General Store store. If you couldn't find it, you didn't need it. Now it's all at Amazon or somewhere on the Internet!

However, there is still something to be said for that old general store! Amazon can not compare to the character of that place. I distinctly remember the smell. I think it was the hardwood floors. Or the paperback books. Or the sacked feed. Or that cute boy who just winked at you as he sauntered past. Or maybe it's the soda fountain. Either way, I miss the ambiance of those stores. I've run across one or two in recent years and they just have that 'feel good' atmosphere. Even growing up they were few and far between. By the time I arrived, the General Store was already nearing extinction and that makes me sad. Even today, if I am traveling, I will go out of my way to take the back roads and stop for a spell if one catches my eye. The people there are always plucked straight from the streets of Mayberry.

I don't go as far back as the Waltons or Leave it to Beaver generation, but I was around before Walmart. Ugh! I really dislike that store!

So even though things are more accessible and 'new and improved' today, I have to wonder whether we haven't lost something along the way.

I'll shield you from the soapbox that I could climb upon right about now and just leave it at that and curl up with this, which arrived in the mail, and will transport me back to the days of General stores.

So, while I was in Texas, the mail, as well as the weeds, piled up. After tossing the junk mail, I finally got to dig into the good stuff.

Feeling a bit like a hypocrite though. Here I am bemoaning the loss of days gone by (especially the days I wasn't even around for yet) and yet I am enjoying the fact that with a few clicks of the mouse, I can find this in my mailbox:

Yummy reading material and quilting inspiration!

And a box of these:

I have fallen in love with these 30's prints and will be cutting into them before the day is done. Hopfully while watching the Andy Griffith Show.

I'm hoping that I'll be so thrilled to sit behind my sewing machine again that I'll completely block out the fact that the boys didn't eat all of the Krispy Kreme donuts I brought home!