Looking back at some quick sketches I did years ago while my husband and I were on a road trip in Spain, I came across one special reminder of a simpler world, then almost forgotten. It was of the medieval walled village of Montblanc, Spain, founded in 1163.
We drove into the town late at night, winding along narrow roadways, that seemed to climb higher and higher, until we came to that quaint old walled town. It was about 9:00 in the evening and people were out in the cobbled streets, singing and dancing. We had a room in a very simple hacienda , with open windows, no glass, and shutters outside, where we freshened up before wandering about.
In those early days, some villages were surrounded by a stone wall, about ten feet high, as a protection from the outside world and any enemies they may have had. There was no communication with the outside world, no newspapers or radios to connect them with happenings around them, except through persons who carried the news. It was a step back in time and yet most charming.
We strolled the narrow stone paved streets and chatted with the local shop owners who displayed cheeses , of all sorts, hanging from racks for purchase. There was a sausage shop filled with wonderful delicacies. There were wine shops with locally made wine from their own fine grapes and bottles nicely displayed for purchase. Each small shop was family owned and offered its hospitality to visitors and locals alike.
Because the streets were dark, lighted only by an occasional gas lantern, and the lights from the shops, also gas lit as there was no electricity then, it bore a romantic charm that painted itself into my mind. The people were happy and carefree and glad to have visitors because then there were very few tourists. In Spain, because all people take an afternoon siesta, they are up very late and dining at about 10:00 p.m. which was late for us. But the fruits of good country cuisine were worth the wait because each dish was prepared with love and a desire to please. I was fortunate that my husband spoke Spanish, among several other languages.
What colors my mind mostly about that secluded village is the simple charm it carried before fifty years of change and embellishment remade it to the more modern town it is now. It is true that time changes everything but I like to remember it as it was long ago. I feel more comfortable with the simple life and ways of the people before modernization came into the picture.
Perhaps all of us, carry in our memory , pages of simpler days when stress was an unheard of word. We should try to return now and then, to days gone by and seek out the solace and peace we once found in simplicity.
Let's discover the quiet joy within ourselves when we reflect on peaceful recollections of times gone by that nurture our spirit.
