| Close your eyes.....And go back..... Before the Internet or the MAC, Before semi-automatics and crack. Before SEGA or Super Nintendo. Way back......... I'm talking about hide and go seek at dusk. Sitting on the porch, hot bread and butter. The Good Humor man, Red light, Green light, Old Maid, Tug of War, Go Fish. Chocolate milk, lunch tickets, penny candy in a brown paper bag. Playing Pinball in the corner store. Hopscotch, butterscotch, doubledutch, Jacks, kickball, dodgeball, y'all! Mother May I? Red Rover and Simon Says, Hula Hoops and Sunflower Seeds. JuJubes, Banana Splits, Wax Lips and Mustaches. Running through the sprinkler. The smell of the sun and licking salty lips. Picking sunwarmed strawberries, blueberries, and tomatoes. Moms in their kitchens surrounded by canning jars and delicious smells. Watching Saturday morning cartoons -- Chip and Dale, Road Runner, Tweety Bird, Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck. Catching lightning bugs in a jar, movies at the Outdoor Theater. Listening to the birds in the trees, staying up late to watch the stars. When around the corner seemed far away, and going downtown seemed like going somewhere. Bedtime, climbing trees, making forts, backyard shows, pillow fights. An ice cream cone on a warm summer night. Cracker Jack prizes, candy cigarettes, candy lipstick, and bubble gum comics. A chocolate coke or green river from the fountain at the corner drug store. A million mosquito bites and sticky fingers, Cops and Robbers, Cowboys and Indians, and popguns. Sitting on the curb, touch football, and freeze tag. Jumping down the steps, jumping on the bed, pillow fights, running 'til you were out of breath. Laughing so hard that your stomach hurt. Being tired from playing.....Remember that? I'm not finished yet..... Eating Kool-aid powder with sugar. Sneaking Mom's cookie dough while she was on the phone. Picking blackberries. Gasping at rainbows and hearing the story of why we have them. Remember when..... 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". And the girls had those ugly uniforms. When it took five minutes for the TV to warm up, if you even had one, not to mention waiting for the car to warm up. When nearly everyone's mom was at home when the kids got home from school. When nobody owned a purebred dog. When a quarter was a decent allowance, and another quarter a miracle. When Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy were the most wonderful things imaginable. Milk in glass bottles? Soda pop bottles with long necks? 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 girls neither dated nor kissed until late high school, if then. When the school dress code stated that girls wear dresses and boys wear dress pants with dress shirts, tucked in -- no jeans allowed. When getting your ears pierced was a big thing (Only one hole per ear). When your Mom wore nylons that came in two pieces, and hung clean laundry outside on the clothesline even in the winter? When all of your male teachers wore neckties and female teachers had their hair done, everyday. 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 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 ALL of the time was "quality time" with our parents, and punishment meant a lot more than just a "time out". But we always knew how much they cared about us. When it was considered a great privilege to be taken out to dinner at a real restaurant. 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 no one ever asked where the car keys were, because they were always in the car, in the ignition, and the doors were never locked. And you got in big trouble if you accidently locked the doors at home, since no one ever had a key. Remember lying on your back in 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 because no one had yet tried to poison a perfect stranger. Do you remember..... Playing in vacant sand lots. $.05 frosted mug root beers (and for that matter, "cent" keys on typewriters!) Picking wildflowers without guilt. Trick or Treat with no worries for our safety. Roller skating, the metal ones with skate keys, around the block. Trading comic books just to read them, not to collect them. Davy Crocket hats. Training wheels and training bras. When school started in September and ended in May. When almost everyone in Kindergarten was 5 years old. Twinkies, Fritos Corn Chips, and Susie Q's in sack lunches. School hot lunches with no "fast" foods. Remember when it was okay for kids to have candy and cake at school parties, instead of "health" food? And the first day of hunting season when only the girls were left in class? Sledding on the streets with no traffic. Easter hats, white gloves, and white patent leather shoes. New school clothes, school supplies, lunch boxes with thermoses, and black patent leather shoes. When hand-me-down clothes came from friends and relatives instead of from yard sales? Saddle shoes and bobby socks, poodle skirts, pedal pushers, penny loafers, plaid shirts, pleated skirts, shift dresses, tent dresses, bermuda shorts, hip huggers, mini skirts, and kneeling down to show that your skirt wasn't too short for school. Remember wearing aprons in the kitchen? Having to wear gum on your nose for chewing in school? Sock hops, street dances, and cruising down main street? Peace signs, granny glasses and Nehru shirts? Curlers in your hair, the original curling irons, and NO hair dryers. Wringer washers, coal chutes and coal furnaces. No meat on Fridays for the Catholic kids. When "dinner" was called "supper". Everyone sitting down to supper at the same time. Summertime stuff -- Kool-Aid popsicles, riding your bike EVERYWHERE, playing ouside in your bathing suit during summer rains, watermelon treats, playing games at Dad's company picnic, Fourth of July sparklers, games of marbles, backyard baseball, backyard baseball, and more backyard baseball. Wintertime stuff -- wearing rubber boots over your shoes (ugh), wearing snow pants under your dresses (double ugh), snow angels, snow forts, innertube trains, warming up by the heat vents. NO clothes dryers, putting out cookies and milk for Santa, angel hair on the tree, and bubble lights. TV shows -- Dinah Shore, Ed Sullivan, Lawrence Welk, Milton Berle, Flash Gordon, Captain Kangaroo, Kuhkla Fran and Ollie, Garfield Goose, Howdy Doody, The Mickey Mouse Club, The Hit Parade, Leave it to Beaver, The Danny Thomas Show, Jackie Gleason and Ed Norton in the Honeymooners, Ben Casey and Dr. Kildare, Shindig and Hullabaloo,The Smothers Brothers, Peyton Place, and cowboys, cowboys, and more cowboys. Remember having to listen to your Mom and Dad's music? Remember your Mom and Dad hating your rock & roll music? But remember your Mom and Dad sitting with you and watching the Beatles first appearance on the Ed Sullivan show? And isn't it absolutely amazing how important your Mom and Dad's music is to you now?? This page was borrowed from a wonderful e-mail that was forwarded to us, and with some alterations and additions of our own, we've personalized it for the Class of "67. A big "thanks for the memories" to the original author. |
| THINK BACK.............. |
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