Close your eyes............ And go back in time....
Before the Internet or Mac, before semi-automatics or crack.
Before Sega or Super Nintendo...
Go back even further in time.............
I'm talking about playing "hide and seek" until nightfall.
The Boogeyman.
The corner store.
"Tag" and medecine ball.
Hoolah Hoops.
Running through the sprinklers.
The smell of the sun, licking your salty lips.
Wax lips and mustaches.
Ice cream cones on a hot summer's night.
Chocolat, vanilla or butter pecan.
Wait......
Saturday morning cartoons.
When the end of the street seemed so far away.
And when going downtown was an exciting trip out.
A thousand mosquito bites.
Sticky fingers.
Climbing trees.
Making forts out of snow banks.
Walking to school, no matter what the weather was like.
Running until you were out of breath.
Laughing so hard that your stomach hurt.
Jumping up and down on the bed. Pillow fights.
Spinning around in circles, getting dizzy and falling down were a sure way to a giggle fit.
Being exhausted from playing too much... Do you remember that?
The worst humiliation was not being picked for the team.
Water balloons were the ultimate weapon.
Baseball cards in wheel spokes turned your bicycle into a motorcycle.
I'm not done yet...
Eating Kool-aid powder.
It wasn't a rare thing to have two or three best friends.
When no one had a breed dog.
When a quarter was a reasonable allowance, and another, a miracle.
When almost every mother was home when their kids came in from school.
When girls didn't date or kiss until they were out of high school, and maybe even then.
When any parent wanted to discipline any child, or feed him, or use him to carry the grocery bags, and no one, not even the kids, found anything wrong with it.
When being sent to the principle's office was nothing compared to what was going to happen once you got home.
Of course, we feared for our lives but not because of drive-by shootings, drugs, gangs, etc...
Our parents and grand-parents were much more threatening!
and
some of us are even still afraid of them!!!
Wasn't it great?..... just go back in time and think:
"Yeah! I remember that!"
Remember when...................
Decisions were made by saying:
"eeny-meeny-miney-mo."
Mistakes were corrected by saying, "do-over!"
Money problems were solved by the Monopoly banker.
The worst thing you could catch from the opposite sex was cooties.
It was incredible that "tag" wasn't an olympic event.
Having a weapon in school meant being caught with a sling shot.
Nobody was as pretty as Mom.
Scratches and bruises were healed by kissing the "booboo".
Taking drugs meant taking orange-flavoured chewable aspirin.
Ice cream was considered one of the basic food groups.
Getting a foot of snow was a dream come true.
Talents were discovered with a simple "I dare you!"
The older siblings were the worst tormentors, but also the fiercest defenders.
If you can remember all or most of this, you have LIVED!!!!