Stroll With Me... 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 am talking about sitting on the curb, sitting on the stoop...kick the can...about hide-and-go-seek at dusk; Simon says...and red-light,green-light. 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, a coaster made from orange crates and an old skate, backyard shows, lemonade stands, 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 children arrived home from school. When nobody owned a purebred dog. When a quarter was a decent allowance. When you woould 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, Mother may I, Whist and Old Maid and Crazy Eights, staring at clouds, jumping on the bed, pillow fights, ribbon candy, Jackie Gleason, white gloves, walking to the movie theater, running till you were out of breath, laughing so hard that your stomach hurt. Not stepping on a crack or you would break your mother's back...step in a hole; break your mother's sugar bowl....silhouettes of Lincoln and Washington, the smells of school, of paste and Evening in Paris. What about the girl who dotted her i's with hearts? 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...the girls had those ugly gym uniforms. When you got your windshield cleaned, the oil checked, and gas pumped, without asking - all for free - every time! Your did not pay for air and you got trading stamps to boot! When telephone numbers began with a word prefix and everyone had a party line. When laundry detergent had free glasses, dishes or towels hidden inside the box. 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 lunchroom and you danced to a real orchestra. When they treatened to keep children 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 was not because of drive-by shootings, drugs or gangs. 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? When people went steady; and girls wore a class ring with an inch of wrapped Band-Aids, 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 shart it with the children of today? Remember the sound of a real mower on Saturday morning, 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. Remember double dog dare, wax coke-shaped bottles with colored sugar water inside, soda pop machines that dispensed glass bottles, coffee shops with tableside jukeboxes, Blackjack, Clove and Teaberry chewing gum, home milk delivery in glass bottles with carboard stoppers, peashooters, metal ice cube trays with levers, corkpop guns, washtub wringers, the Fuller Brush Man, tinkertoys, and erector sets. Decisions were made by going "eeny-meeny-miney-moe" Mistakes were corrected by simply exclaiming, "Do over!" "Race issue" meant arguing about who ran the fastest. Catching the fireflies could happily occupy an entire evening. It was not odd to have two or three "Best Friends". The worst thing you could catch from the opposite sex was "cooties". Having a weapon in school meant being caught with a slingshot. "Oly-oly-oxen-free" made perfect sense. Spinning around, getting dizzy, and falling down was cause for giggles. The worst embarrassment was being picked last for a team. Baseball cards in the spokes transformed any bike into a motorcycle. Taking drugs meant orange-flavored chewable aspirin. 15 cent McDonald hamburgers Nancy Drew the Hardy Boys, Laurel and Hardy, Howdy Dowdy and the Peanut Gallery, the Lone Ranger, the Shadow Knows, Nellie Bell Roy and Dale, Trigger and Buttermilk. 45 RPM record, Hi-Fis, mimeograph paper, Beanie and Cecil, Cork pop guns, Studebakers, washtub wringers, the Fuller Brush Man, reel-to-reel tape recorders, and 35 cent a gallon gasoline. There, didn't that feel good? Just lean back and say; "Yeah...I remember... Sign Guestbook View Guestbook Links to other sites on the Web Previous Guest Book Entries Home Page Previous Page Next Page Overview Page
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 am talking about sitting on the curb, sitting on the stoop...kick the can...about hide-and-go-seek at dusk; Simon says...and red-light,green-light. 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, a coaster made from orange crates and an old skate, backyard shows, lemonade stands, 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 children arrived home from school. When nobody owned a purebred dog. When a quarter was a decent allowance. When you woould 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, Mother may I, Whist and Old Maid and Crazy Eights, staring at clouds, jumping on the bed, pillow fights, ribbon candy, Jackie Gleason, white gloves, walking to the movie theater, running till you were out of breath, laughing so hard that your stomach hurt. Not stepping on a crack or you would break your mother's back...step in a hole; break your mother's sugar bowl....silhouettes of Lincoln and Washington, the smells of school, of paste and Evening in Paris.
What about the girl who dotted her i's with hearts? 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...the girls had those ugly gym uniforms. When you got your windshield cleaned, the oil checked, and gas pumped, without asking - all for free - every time! Your did not pay for air and you got trading stamps to boot!
When telephone numbers began with a word prefix and everyone had a party line. When laundry detergent had free glasses, dishes or towels hidden inside the box. 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 lunchroom and you danced to a real orchestra. When they treatened to keep children 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 was not because of drive-by shootings, drugs or gangs. 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? When people went steady; and girls wore a class ring with an inch of wrapped Band-Aids, 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 shart it with the children of today?
Remember the sound of a real mower on Saturday morning, 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.
Remember double dog dare, wax coke-shaped bottles with colored sugar water inside, soda pop machines that dispensed glass bottles, coffee shops with tableside jukeboxes, Blackjack, Clove and Teaberry chewing gum, home milk delivery in glass bottles with carboard stoppers, peashooters, metal ice cube trays with levers, corkpop guns, washtub wringers, the Fuller Brush Man, tinkertoys, and erector sets.
Decisions were made by going "eeny-meeny-miney-moe" Mistakes were corrected by simply exclaiming, "Do over!" "Race issue" meant arguing about who ran the fastest. Catching the fireflies could happily occupy an entire evening. It was not odd to have two or three "Best Friends". The worst thing you could catch from the opposite sex was "cooties". Having a weapon in school meant being caught with a slingshot. "Oly-oly-oxen-free" made perfect sense. Spinning around, getting dizzy, and falling down was cause for giggles. The worst embarrassment was being picked last for a team. Baseball cards in the spokes transformed any bike into a motorcycle. Taking drugs meant orange-flavored chewable aspirin. 15 cent McDonald hamburgers Nancy Drew the Hardy Boys, Laurel and Hardy, Howdy Dowdy and the Peanut Gallery, the Lone Ranger, the Shadow Knows, Nellie Bell Roy and Dale, Trigger and Buttermilk. 45 RPM record, Hi-Fis, mimeograph paper, Beanie and Cecil, Cork pop guns, Studebakers, washtub wringers, the Fuller Brush Man, reel-to-reel tape recorders, and 35 cent a gallon gasoline.
Links to other sites on the Web
Previous Guest Book Entries