Old Memories
 
When the worst thing you could do at school 
was smoke in the bathrooms, flunk a test or chew gum. 

And the prom was in the auditorium and we danced to an orchestra, 
and all the girls wore pastel gowns and the boys wore suits 
for the first time and we stayed out all night. 

When a '57 Chevy was everyone's dream car ... 
to cruise, peel out, lay rubber or watch submarine races, 
and people went steady and girls wore class rings 
with an inch of wrapped dental floss or yarn 
coated with pastel frost nail polish so it would fit her finger. 

And no one ever asked where the car keys were 
'cause they were always in the car, in the ignition, 
and the doors were never locked. 
And you got in big trouble if you accidentally 
locked the doors at home, 
since no one ever had a key. 

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 to help kids with the rules of the game. 
Back then, baseball was not a psychological group learning experience - 
it was a game. 

Remember when stuff from the store came 
without safety caps and hermetic seals 
'cause no one had yet tried to poison a perfect stranger. 

And ... with all our progress ... don't you just wish ... just once 
... you could slip back in time and savor the slower pace ... 
and share it with the children of the 80's and 90's ... 

So send this on to someone who can still remember 
Nancy Drew, The Hardy Boys, Howdy Doody and The Peanut Gallery, 
The Lone Ranger, The Shadow Knows, Nellie Belle, 
Roy and Dale, Trigger and Buttermilk ... 
as well as the sound of a real mower on Saturday morning, 
and summers filled with bike rides, playing in cowboy land, 
baseball games, bowling and visits to the pool ... 
and eating Kool-Aid powder with sugar. 

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!  
But we all survived because their love was greater than the threat. 

Didn't that feel good, 
just to go back and say, 
Yeah, I remember that! 

And was it really that long ago?