Go back. . .before the internet or PC or the MAC or the Smartphone. . . . Before Playstation, SEGA, Super Nintendo, even before Atari. . .Before cell phones, CD's, DVD's, voicemail and email.
I'm talking about Hide And Seek at dusk. . . Red Rover . . . . Red Rover . . . .
Playing Kickball & Dodgeball until the first . . .no . . . second . . . no . . . .
third street light came on.
Ring Around The Rosie
London Bridge
Hot Potato
Hop Scotch
Jump Rope
YOU'RE IT!!
Parents stood on the porch and yelled (or whistled)
No pagers or cell phones.
Endless summer days and hot summer nights no A/C with
the windows open.
Running through the sprinkler.
Seeing shapes in the clouds.
Popcicles with 2 sticks you could break and share with a friend.
Cereal boxes with that GREAT prize at the bottom.
Cracker Jacks with the same thing.
Baseball games in the street and smacking a homer.
Rolling down the bank in front of your house.
Picking blackberries for mom to make a pie.
But wait . . . there's more . . . .
Watching Saturday Morning cartoons . . . .
Looney Tunes, Bullwinkle, Tom and Gerry . . . .
Your first day of school.
New corduroy jumpers, pants and striped tops.
Construction paper and paste art projects.
Swinging as high as you could in those long
swings to try and reach the sky.
Bedtime prayers and goodnight kisses.
A million mosquito bites and sticky fingers.
Jumping down the steps.
Climing trees.
Cartwheels.
Jumping on the bed.
Pillow fights.
Laughing so hard your stomach hurt.
Being tired from PLAYING.
WORK meant taking out the garbage, cutting the grass,
washing the car, doing the dishes.
Your first crush.
Your first kiss (I mean the one that you kept your mouth
CLOSED and your eyes OPEN)
Rainy days at school and playing four square in the basement.
The smell of fingerpaints and chalk erasers.
Friday nights when you could stay up late.
Mom making a Apian Way Pizza and having some cold
slices on Saturday Morning . . . it tasted even better.
Going to the corner store for Penny Candy.
Oh, I'm not finished yet . . . .
Kool-Aid was the drink of summer. So was a swig from the hose.
Giving your friends a ride on your handlebars.
Attaching cards to your bike frame to rub against your spokes.
Wearing your new shoes on the first day of school.
Class field trips with soggy sandwiches.
When nearly everyone's mom was at home when the kids got
home from school.
When a quarter seemed like a fair allowance and another
quarter was a MIRACLE.
When your parents took you to the lunch counter and it was a real treat.
When ANY parent could discipline ANY kid, or feed him, or have him
carry groceries . . . And nobody, not even the kid thought a thing of it.
When being sent to the principal's office was nothing compared to the
fate that awaited you at home.
Basically, we were in fear for out lives but it wasn't because of drive by shootings, drugs, gangs etc. We simply did not want our parents to get
mad at us.
Didn't that feel good? Just to go back and say, "Yeah, I remember that!" Well, let's keep going!!
Let's go back to the time when . . . .
Decisions were made by going "eeny-meeny-miney-mo"
Mistakes were corrected by simply exclaiming, "do over!"
"Race issues" meant arguing about who ran fastest.
Catching fireflies could happily occupy and entire evening.
It wasn't odd to have two or three "best" friends.
The worst thing you could catch from the opposite sex was cooties.
Nobody was prettier than Mom.
Scrapes and bruises were kissed by Mom and made better.
Getting a foot of snow was a dream come true.
Abilities were discovered because of a "double-dog-dare".
Spinning around, getting dizzy and falling down was cause for giggles.
The worst embarrassment was being picked last for a team.
Water balloons were the ultimate, ultimate weapon.
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If you can remember most or all of these, then you have lived during a more pleasant and simpler time. I know some of you are my vintage.
Those of you who remember will have lived in an era that no one else will ever experience. the era has passed and slowly those of us who lived it are passing also.
If you do not remember, than ask your parents, grand parents, or great grand parents. We went from am radio to the stars. Your era is here, be part it. Make it worthwhile for future generations to build on. Keep God in your lives.
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