H is for Hobbies

" Hobbies were in style"

 Once upon a time, In the old days,  -really not so very long ago, people  had hobbies.

They created elegant oil paintings, carved stone gargoyles and grew orchids.  Gray-haired men  wearing dusty hats and leather aprons  also dabbled in ceramic pot-making,  carved clocks,  tied customized trout flies, and went fishing on the firth on Saturday afternoons. 
 Perhaps when they had enough clocks and were maddened by excesses of  trout flies, ceramic pots and  wooden  tick-tocks, they sallied off to America for high adventure.  Sailors showed them how to  built perfectly-scaled model sailing-ships inside glass bottles on the way.  They discovered stuff, drank whiskey, and pursued dreams of gold.
                                   " The End. "





The fact is, that wasn't the end at all. Hobbies, skills, and interests did migrate to North America with people from all over the world.
In America, congregating at the town smithy and hammering iron into useful, durable artifacts, they  twisted white-hot metal into horseshoes, fancy utilities, perfect iron oak leaves and wrought-iron gates. "Blacksmithing" remains a hobby today.
 

Ceramic greenware

 They also tooled  leather, made saddles  and constructed durable furniture for the homestead. Some whittled corncobs into pipes, made walking-sticks or wooden decorations for the front door.
 Some went back to making ceramic pots.
 



 Silver-haired ladies and young women alike,  making tea and passing pleasantries, spoke of gardens, flowers, food  and the latest fashions from foreign lands  while they sewed, knitted, pearled, tatted and gossiped.

A fine selection of colours in oil

 Hobbyists  created fine works of art in crochet,  needlepoint and other stitchery, and painted in oils, watercolors, and any other medium available in that era.

Antique and modern marbles

  Children played with pet rabbits,  tickled trout, carved wood, made toys and collected pebbles,  insects, coins, and  glass marbles.

  



Hobbies were in style. 
Interestingly, hobbies were often  social  distraction with a purpose--the lighter, more enjoyable  jobs attended to when not working or otherwise occupied with backbreaking labour and the essentials of survival.
Having a hobby kept the hands busy,  the mind away from the devil, and most hobbies produced something useful.
Today, H is for hobbies.   Hobbies still exist, but associated skills are much diminished.
 Hobbies entertain the willing as they always have. Artificial entertainments such as television, social media and other distractions  have, unfortunately,  reduced the interest in hobbies requiring genuine, specialized skills.

 If you have more than one hobby,  you are fortunate indeed. As a distraction from mundane life with it's endless assorted problems, even a single hobby is priceless. The prime directive of a hobby is enjoyment of life via one's expression of creativity.
Collections, whether they consist of  old and contemporary glass, coins, stamps, baseball cards, toys,  old airplanes or automobiles --are equally  considered to be hobbies.

  Modern hobbies curiously may produce little creativity--resulting in  collections of  older or contemporary artifacts.
Paradoxically, hobbies may often include attempts to reproduce artifacts that have appreciated in real value --from the skill sets and hobbies of the  ' good old days'.




Collecting old and Contemporary glass is a modern hobby

A modern collection of Swans

What will you choose to do with your spare time? Do you wish to vegetate, numbed by endless, boring sitcoms on television, or playing Bridge  or 'Monopoly'?

Why not enjoy using hobby skills brilliantly gleaned  from years of practice and enjoyment? Why not collect interesting objects and teach others about your wonderful hobbies?
 Hobbies were in style, and can be again. 
Go for it. Make something of your time.


Is that incoming I hear?