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TAKE THE THE STAIRS.......HUH?

THIS IS AN OLD FASHIONED MANGLE & DOLLY TUB.

I just read an article about finding ways to get in a little more exercise each day, like parking your car at the far end of the parking lot and walking a bit more.

This brought to mind two things I see a lot of, which makes me sad.

I don't have a car, so use the train service to get around. The nearest big town is Ipswich, and the station platforms are below ground level. There are two ways to reach the exit at street level: walk up a sloping ramp, or a very small elevator. Most people do take the ramp, and I have to admit, that short walk does raise the heart rate! The lift/elevator is really meant for people who might find it difficult getting up that ramp, such as the elderly , disabled people, someone carrying a child, or a pregnant woman. But frequently, it's teenagers who are standing around waiting for the lift, instead of using their legs and walking. They don't even consider that they may be taking up a space in a lift, which can only accommodate about 6 people, needed by someone else less able to walk.

Station Staff have been known to make them walk, but they get a stream of verbal abuse if they do. Many times I've made it to street level via the ramp before the kids who took the lift!

The second thing is that I have a knitting machine to which a motor can be attached. I belong to several machine knitting groups on line, and it's a sad fact that most people would never operate this particular make of machine without the motor. I never use a motor, and swinging the machine locks from end to end of the machine gives a very good upper body workout. Yesterday I made a lacy shawl which required me to knit 1,940 rows, 1,940 swings of those locks. Today, my shoulders and upper back are telling me that the effort was worth it! LOL. I took 5 minute breaks during the knitting, to rotate the shoulders and loosen up.
The amazing thing is, that most garments do not need such a large amount of knitting, but there was one group member who said he couldn't possibly knit even 200 rows without a motor on the machine. I've found only one other person on the groups who doesn't use a motor on her knitting machine, and who, like me, wants to feel SHE made the garment, instead of standing around watching the machine do it! And she's in her senior years as I am.

These days we no longer get down on hands and knees to scrub the floor, or polish it. We no longer use a *mangle* in the laundry to get the water out of the clothes. For the uninitiated, a *mangle* was a huge contraption with large wooden rollers, and you turned a handle while you fed wet clothes through it and those rollers squeezed the water out. Popped a lot of shirt buttons off too! See pic above. But this was all physical stuff which kept us supple and active and we did it without thinking about it. Not many people had cars either, so we walked.

These days, with so many labour saving gadgets, so much electronic entertainment, and so much pre-package food, we have to be far more conscious of whether we are using our bodies as they were meant to be used, and feeding it the fuel it needs. A car won't do it's job if we leave it in the garage, or give it water when it needs petrol.

I know I need to be watchful that I don't become a couch potato, because I've caught the modern habit of wanting Instant Everything and it isn't good for me. Surprising, and annoying, how quickly the rust sets into mature joints!