Close your eyes....
Go back in time....
Before the Internet or the MAC, Before semi automatics and crack
Before SEGA or Super
Nintendo...
Way back........
I'm talking about hide and seek at dusk.
The Good Humor man,
Red light, green light.
The corner store.
Hopscotch, butterscotch, double-dutch, jacks, kickball, dodge ball.
Mother May I?
Red Rover and Roly Poly
Hula Hoops
Running through the sprinkler
The smell of the sun and licking salty lips....
Wax lips and mustaches
An ice cream cone on a warm summer night
Chocolate or vanilla or strawberry or maybe butter pecan.
A cherry coke from the fountain at the corner drug store
Wait......
Watching Saturday Morning cartoons... short commercials
Fat Albert, Road Runner, He-Man, The Three Stooges, and Bugs,
Or staying up for Gunsmoke
Or back further, listening to Superman on the radio
When around the corner seemed far away?
And going downtown seemed like going somewhere.
A million mosquito bites.
Sticky fingers.
Cops
and Robbers, Cowboys and Indians, Zorro.
Climbing trees,
Building igloos out of snow banks
Walking to school, no matter what the weather.
Running till you were out of breath
Laughing so hard that your stomach hurt
Jumping on the bed. Pillow fights
Spinning around, getting dizzy and falling down was cause for giggles.
Being tired from playing.... Remember that?
The worst embarrassment
was being picked last for a team.
War was a card game.
Water balloons were the ultimate weapons.
Baseball cards in the spokes transformed any bike into a motorcycle.
I'm not finished just yet...
Eating Kool-aid powder
Remember when...
There were two types of sneakers for girls and boys
(Keds & PF Flyers) and the only time you wore them at school, was for "gym."
It wasn't odd to have two or three "best" friends.
When nobody owned a purebred dog.
When a quarter was a decent allowance, and another quarter a miracle.
When milk went up one cent and everyone talked about it for weeks?
When you'd reach into a muddy gutter for a penny.
When you got your windshield cleaned, oil checked, and gas pumped, without asking, for free, every time. And, you didn't pay for air. And, you got trading stamps to boot!
When laundry detergent had free glasses, dishes or towels hidden inside the box.
When nearly everyone's mom was at home when the kids got there.
When it took five minutes for the TV to warm up, if you even had one.
When your Mom wore nylons that came in two pieces.
When it was considered a great privilege to be taken out to dinner at a real restaurant with your parents.
When girls neither dated nor kissed until late high school, if then.
When all of your male teachers wore neckties and female teachers had their hair done.
When any parent could discipline any kid, or feed him or use him to carry groceries, and nobody, not even the kid, thought a thing of it.
When
they threatened to keep kids back a grade if they failed ..and did!
When being sent to the principal's office was nothing compared to the fate that awaited a misbehaving student at home.
Basically, we were in fear for our lives but it wasn't because of drive-by shootings, drugs, gangs, etc. Our parents and grandparents were a much bigger threat! and some of us are still afraid of them!!!
Didn't that feel good? just to go back and say, Yeah, I remember that!
Remember when............
Decisions were made by going "eeny-meeny-miney-mo."
Mistakes were corrected by simply exclaiming, "do over!"
"Race issue" meant arguing about who ran the fastest.
Money issues were handled by whoever was the banker in "Monopoly."
The worst thing you could catch from the opposite sex was cooties.
It was unbelievable that dodge ball wasn't an Olympic event.
Having a weapon in school, meant being caught with a slingshot.
Nobody
was prettier than Mom.
Scrapes and bruises were kissed and made better.
Taking drugs meant
orange-flavored chewable aspirin.
Ice cream was considered a basic food group.
Getting a foot of snow was a dream come true.
Abilities were discovered because of a "double-dog-dare."
Older siblings were the worst tormentors, but also the fiercest protectors.
If you can remember most or all of these, then you have LIVED!!!!
One evening a grandson was
talking to his grandfather about current events. The grandson asked his
grandfather what he thought about the shootings at schools, the computer
age, and just things in general.
The granddad replied, "Well, let me think a
minute ...I was born, before television,
penicillin, polio shots, frozen foods, Xerox, contact lenses, Frisbees and
the pill. There was no radar, credit cards, laser beams or ball-point pens.
Man had not invented pantyhose, air conditioners, dishwashers, clothes
dryers, and the clothes were hung out to dry in the fresh air and man hadn't
yet walked on the moon.
Your grandmother and I got married first-and then
lived together. Every family had a father and a mother, and every boy over
14 had a rifle that his dad taught him how to use and respect. And they went
hunting and fishing together.
Until I was 25, I called every man older than I,
"Sir"-and after I turned 25, I still called policemen and every man with a
title, "Sir."
Sundays were set aside for going to church as a
family, helping those in need, and visiting with family or neighbors.
We were before gay-rights, computer-dating, dual
careers, daycare centers, and
group therapy.
Our lives were governed by the Ten Commandments,
good judgment, and common sense. We were taught to know the difference
between right and wrong and to stand up and take responsibility for our
actions.
Serving your country was a privilege; living in
this country was a bigger privilege. We thought fast food was what people
ate during Lent. Having a meaningful relationship meant getting along with
your cousins.
Draft dodgers were people who closed their front
doors when the evening breeze started.
Time-sharing meant time the family spent together
in the evenings and weekends-not purchasing condominiums.
We never heard of FM radios, tape decks, CDs,
electric typewriters, yogurt, or guys wearing earrings.
We listened to the Big Bands, Jack Benny, and the
President's speeches on our radios. And I don't ever remember any kid
blowing his brains out listening to Tommy Dorsey.
If you saw anything with 'Made in Japan' on it,
it was junk. The term 'making out' referred to how you did on your school
exam.
Pizza Hut, McDonald's, and instant coffee were
unheard of. We had 5 & 10-cent stores where you could actually buy things
for 5 and 10 cents. Ice cream cones, phone calls, rides on a streetcar, and
a Pepsi were all a nickel. And if you didn't want to splurge, you could
spend your nickel on enough stamps to mail 1 letter and 2 postcards.
You could buy a new Chevy Coupe for $600 but who could afford
one?
Too bad, because gas was 11 cents a gallon.
In my day, 'grass' was mowed, 'coke' was a cold
drink, 'pot' was something your mother cooked in, and 'rock music' was your
grandmother's lullaby. "Aids" were helpers in the Principal's office, 'chip'
meant a piece of wood, 'hardware' was found in a hardware store, and
'software' wasn't even a word.
And we were the last generation to actually
believe that a lady needed a husband to have a baby. No wonder people call
us "old and confused" and say there is a generation gap.
...and how old do you think I am ???
I would be only 64 years old.
________________________________
Can't Believe We Made It!
According to today's regulators and bureaucrats, those of us who were kids in the 30's, 40's, 50's, 60's, 70's or even the early 80's, probably shouldn't have survived..
Our baby cribs were covered with bright colored lead-based paint.
We had no childproof lids or locks on medicine bottles, doors, or cabinets, and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets.
Not to mention the risks we took hitchhiking.
As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags.
Riding in the back of a pickup truck on a warm day was always a special treat.
We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle. Horrors!
We ate cupcakes, bread and butter, and drank soda pop with sugar in it, but we were never overweight because we were always outside playing.
We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle, and no one actually died from this.
We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then rode down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.
We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the street lights came on. No one was able to reach us all day. No cell phones. Unthinkable!
We did not have PlayStations, Nintendo 64, X-Boxes, no video games at all, no 99 channels on cable, video tape movies, surround sound, personal cell phones, personal computers, or Internet chat rooms.
We had friends! We went outside and found them.
We played dodge ball, and sometimes, the ball would really hurt. We fell out of trees, got cut and broke bones and teeth, and there were no lawsuits from these accidents. They were accidents. No one was to blame but us. Remember accidents?
We had fights and punched each other and got black and blue and learned to get over it.
We made up games with sticks and tennis balls and, although we were told it would happen, we did not put out any eyes.
We rode bikes or walked to a friend's home and knocked on the door, or rang the bell or just walked in and talked to them.
Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment
Some students weren't as smart as others, so they failed a grade and were held back to repeat the same grade. Horrors!
Tests were not adjusted for any reason.
Our actions were our own. Consequences were expected.
The idea of parents bailing us out if we got in trouble in school or broke a law was unheard of. They actually sided with the school or the law. Imagine that!
This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers, and inventors, ever.
We had freedom, failure, success, and responsibility --- and we learned how to deal with it.
Long ago and far away, in a land that time forgot,
Before the days of Dylan, or the dawn of Camelot.
There lived a race of innocents, and they were you and me,
For Ike was in the White House in that land where we were born,
Where navels were for oranges, and Peyton Place was porn.
We learned to gut a muffler, we washed our hair at dawn,
We spread our crinolines to dry in circles on the lawn.
We longed for love and romance, and waited for our Prince,
And Eddie Fisher married Liz, and no one's seen him since.
We danced to 'Little Darlin,' and sang to 'Stagger Lee'
And cried for Buddy Holly in the Land That Made Me
,
Me.
Only girls wore earrings then, and 3 was one too many,
And only boys wore flat-top cuts, except for Jean McKinney.
And only in our wildest dreams did we expect to see
A boy named George with Lipstick, in the Land That Made Me
,
Me.
We fell for Frankie Avalon, Annette was oh, so nice,
And when they made a movie, they never made it twice.
We didn't have a Star Trek Five, or Psycho Two and Three,
Or Rocky-Rambo Twenty in the Land That Made Me
,
Me.
Miss Kitty had a heart of gold, and Chester had a limp,
And Reagan was a Democrat whose co-star was a chimp.
We had a Mr. Wizard, but not a Mr. T ,
And Oprah couldn't talk, yet, in the Land That Made Me
,
Me.
We had our share of heroes, we never thought they'd go,
At least not Bobby Darin, or Marilyn Monroe.
For youth was still eternal, and life was yet to be,
And Elvis was forever in the Land That Made Me
,
Me.
We'd never seen the rock band that was Grateful to be Dead,
And Airplanes weren't named Jefferson, and Zeppelins were not Led.
And Beatles lived in gardens then, and Monkees lived in trees,
Madonna was a virgin in the Land That Made Me
,
Me.
We'd never heard of microwaves, or telephones in cars,
And babies might be bottle-fed, but they weren't grown in jars.
And pumping iron got wrinkles out, and 'gay' meant fancy-free,
And dorms were never coed in the Land That Made Me
,
Me.
We hadn't seen enough of jets to talk about the lag,
And microchips were what was left at the bottom of the bag.
And Hardware was a box of nails, and bytes came from a flea,
And rocket ships were fiction in the Land That Made Me
,
Me.
Buicks came with portholes, and side shows came with freaks,
And bathing suits came big enough to cover both your cheeks.
And Coke came just in bottles, and skirts below the knee,
And Castro came to power near the Land That Made Me
,
Me.
We had no Crest with Fluoride, we had no Hill Street Blues,
We had no patterned pantyhose or Lipton herbal tea
Or prime-time ads for condoms in the Land That Made Me
,
Me.
There were no golden arches, no Perrier to chill,
And fish were not called Wanda, and cats were not called Bill.
And middle-aged was 35 and old was forty-three,
And ancient were our parents in the Land That Made Me
,
Me.
But all things have a season, or so we've heard them say,
And now instead of Maybelline we swear by Retin-A.
They send us invitations to join AARP,
We've come a long way, baby, from the Land That Made Me
,
Me.
So now we face a brave new world in slightly larger jeans,
And wonder why they're using smaller print in magazines.
And we tell our children's children of the way it used to be,
Long ago and far away in the Land That Made Me
,
Me.