Lost & Found - Some Memories
You know how some things just fall into your lap? (No, I’m not talking about potato chip crumbs) While sitting on my front porch a gust of wind blew some sort of paper flyer against the side of my leg. An advertisement of some sort, but I didn’t pay much attention to it except for this part on the back of it. Some person’s memories. It fits with the theme of this site so I’m sharing:
Close your eyes…And go back…..Before the Internet or PC or the MAC……Before Playstation, SEGA, Super Nintendo, even before Atari…….Before cell phones, CD’s, DVD’s, voicemail and email…. ….way back……I’m talking ’bout hide and seek at dusk, Red light, Green light, playing kickball & dodgeball until the first…no second…no third streetlight came on, Ring around the Rosie, London Bridge, Hot potato, Hop Scotch, Jump rope, Duck….Duck….GOOSE!!! YOU’RE IT!! Parents stood on the front porch and yelled (or whistled) for you to come home. Endless summer days and hot summer nights (no A/C) with the windows open…The sound of crickets. Running through the sprinkler, cereal boxes with that GREAT prize in the bottom, ice pops with 2 sticks you could break and share with a friend. …
but wait…..there’s more…. Watching Saturday Morning cartoons-Fat Albert, Road Runner, Tom & Jerry, Watching Sunday morning oldies (Abbott & Costello, Three Stooges, Tarzan, Shirley Temple) Wonder Woman & Super Man Underoos, catching lightning bugs in a jar, climbing trees, swinging as high as you could to try and reach the sky, a million mosquito bites and sticky fingers. A 13″ black and white TV in your room meant you were RICH! Running till you were out of breath, laughing so hard that your stomach hurt, being tired from PLAYING. WORK: meant taking out the garbage or doing the dishes Your first crush, your first kiss (the one that you kept your mouth CLOSED and your eyes OPEN).
I’m not finished yet…. Kool-Aid was the drink of the summer, so was a swig from the hose, giving your friends a ride on your handlebars, when nearly everyone’s mom was at home when the kids got there, when a quarter seemed like a fair allowance; and another quarter was a MIRACLE! 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 being sent to the principal’s office was nothing compared to the fate that awaited you at home. Our parents and grandparents were a much bigger threat! And some of us are still afraid of them!
Nobody was prettier than Mom! Scrapes and bruises were kissed by mom or grandma and made better. It was a big deal to finally be tall enough to ride the “big people” rides at the amusement park.