Stroll with me.... Close your eyes ... and go back ...
before the Internet ... before bombings, aids, herpes
before semiautomatics and crack ... before SEGA or
Super Nintendo ... way back!
I'm talking about sitting on the curb, sitting on the
stoop...about hide-and-go-seek; Simon says and
red-light-green-light. Metal lunch boxes with a thermos ...
chocolate milk, going home for lunch, penny candy from
the store, hopscotch, butterscotch, skates with keys,
jacks and Cracker Jacks, hula hoops and sunflower seeds,
wax lips and mustaches, Mary Jane's, saddle shoes, and
Coke bottles with the names of cities on the bottom.
Remember when it took five minutes for the TV to warm
up. When nearly everyone's Mom was at home when the
kids arrived home from school. When nobody owned a
purebred dog. When a quarter was a decent allowance.
When you'd reach into a muddy gutter for a penny. When
your Mom wore nylons that came in two pieces. When all
of your male teachers wore neckties and female teachers
had their hair done everyday and wore high heels.
Remember running through the sprinkler, circle pins,
bobby pins, Mickey Mouse Club, Rocky and Bullwinkle,
Kookla, Fran and Ollie, Spin and Marty...Dick Clark's
American Bandstand ... all in black and white, and your
Mom made you turn it off when a storm came. When around
the corner seemed far away, and going downtown seemed
like going somewhere. Climbing trees, making forts,
backyard shows, lemonade stands, cops and robbers, cowboys
and Indians, staring at clouds, jumping on the bed, pillow
fights, ribbon candy, angel hair on the Christmas tree,
Jackie Gleason, white gloves, walking to the movie theater,
running till you were out of breath, laughing so hard that
your stomach hurt...remember that?
Not stepping on a crack or you'd break your mother's back...
paper-chains at Christmas, silhouettes of Lincoln and
Washington, the smells of school, of paste you dipped from a
jar that had it's own brush in the cap, and 'Evening in Paris'.
What about the girl who dotted her i's with hearts? (that
was before that stupid smiley face!), The Stroll, popcorn
balls, and sock hops? Remember when there were just two
types of sneakers for girls and boys - Keds and PF Flyers,
and the only time you wore them at school was for gym. And
the girls had those ugly gym uniforms.
When you got your windshield cleaned, oil checked, and gas
pumped, without asking -- all for free -- every time! And,
you didn't pay for air either,,, and you got Green stamps to boot!
When laundry detergent had free glasses, dishes or towels
hidden inside the box,,, and your Mom collected Betty Crocker
coupons. When it was considered a great privilege to be taken
out to dinner at a real restaurant with your parents. When
the worst thing you could do at school was flunk a test or
chew gum. And the prom was in the gym or the lunchroom, you
danced to a real orchestra, and if you were real lucky your
parents would let you drive there yourself. 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 the 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! But
we survived because their love was so much greater than
the threat.
Remember when a '57 Chevy was everyone's dream car -- used
to cruise, peel out, lay rubber, scratch off, or watch the
submarine races? When people went steady; and girls wore a
class ring with an inch of wrapped Band-Aids, or dental
floss, or yarn coated with pastel-frost nail polish so it
would fit their finger.
When no one ever asked where the car keys were because they were always in the car, in the ignition, and the car and house doors were never locked!
Remember lying on your back on the grass with your friends
and saying things like "That cloud looks like a..." And
playing baseball with no adults needed to enforce the rules
of the game. When stuff from the store came without safety
caps and hermetic seals, because no one had yet tried to
poison a perfect stranger.
And, with all our progress, don't you just wish, that just
once you could slip back in time and savor the slower pace... and share it with the children of today?
So send this on to someone who can still remember Nancy Drew, The Hardy Boys, Laurel and Hardy, Howdy Dowdy and The Peanut Gallery, The Lone Ranger and Tonto, The Shadow Knows, Nellie Belle, Roy and Dale, Trigger and Buttermilk... As well as the sound of a real push mower on Saturday morning, and Summers
filled with bike rides, baseball games, bowling, visits to the
pool ... and eating Kool- Aid powder with sugar from the palm
of your hand.
There, didn't that feel good? Just to lean back and say:
"Yeah...I remember......."
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