Remember When …

Close your eyes…And go back…

….Before the Internet or PC or the MAC……

….Before semi-automatics and crack….

….Before Playstation, SEGA, Super Nintendo, even before Atari…

….Before cell phones, CD’s, DVD’s, voicemail and e-mail….

….way back….way…..way…..way back…..

I’m talkin’ bout hide and seek at dusk

Red light, Green light

Red Rover….Red Rover…..

Kick the Can

Playing kickball & dodgeball until the first…no…second…no…third streetlight came on

Ring around the Rosie

London Bridge

Hot potato

Hop Scotch

Jump rope

Duck….duck….GOOSE!!! YOU’RE IT!!

Parents stood on the front porch and yelled (or whistled) for you to come home – no pagers or cell phones

Being “at large” until dinnertime.

Mother May I?

Riding single speed bicycles and giving friends rides on the handle bars.

Lying on your back on the car hood, counting stars and seeing shapes in the clouds

Endless summer days and hot summer nights (no A/C) with the windows open

Playing Marbles

The sound of crickets and cicadas

Running through the sprinkler

Playing jacks

Family Meals

Sleep 3-6 crosswise in a bed with cousins

Saturday matinees with great cowboys and comedys

Cereal boxes with that GREAT prize in the bottom

Cracker jacks with the same thing

King’s X allowed you to tell a fib!

Catchin’ lightning bugs in a jar

Double dip ice cream cones for 5cents

Ice pops with 2 sticks you could break and share with a friend

The bunny hop

Picnics with homemade fried chicken, potato salad and lemonade

Perry Como, Mario Lanza, Nat King Cole, Frankie Laine singing on TV

Christmas morning

Your first day of school with new shoes and clothes

Teachers outlawed toothpicks soaked in cinnamon oil

Bedtime Prayers and Goodnight Kisses

Climbing trees

Swinging as high as you could to try to reach the sky and go over the bar

Homemade cinnamon rolls on Sunday morning

Your first crush

Your first kiss (I mean the one that you kept your mouth CLOSED and your eyes OPEN)

Going steady

Getting a drink from the hose

Scrapes and bruises were kissed by mom or grandma and made better

At the first sign of a cough, your mother smothered your chest with Vicks or Mentholatum.

When being sent to the principal’s office was nothing compared to the fate that awaited you 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 some of us are still afraid of em!

Older siblings were your worst tormentors, but also your fiercest protector

…but wait…..there’s more for slightly later born folks….

Watchin’ Saturday Morning cartoons

The Monkees

Fat Albert, Road Runner, Smurfs, Picture Pages, G-Force & He-Man,

Schoolhouse Rock

Hula Hoops

Watchin’ Sunday morning oldies (Abbott & Costello, Three Stooges)

Wonder Woman & Super Man Underoos

FONZIE…..AYYYYYYYY

Playing Dukes of Hazard

Getting an Ice Cream off the Good Humor Truck

A million mosquito bites and sticky fingers

Jumpin’ down the steps or off the porch

Jumpin’ on the bed

Pillow fights

Sleep-overs

A 13″ black and white TV in your room meant you were RICH

Runnin’ till you were out of breath

Laughing so hard that your stomach hurt

Doing the twist

Being tired from PLAYING

WORK: meant taking out the garbage or doing the dishes.

Rainy days at school meant playing “Heads up 7UP” or hangman” in The classroom, Remember that?

Oh, I’m not finished yet….

Kool-Aid was the drink of the summer

Class Field Trips with soggy sandwiches

When nearly everyone’s mom was at home when the kids got there

When a quarter seemed like a fair allowance; and another quarter a MIRACLE

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 your parents took you to McDonalds and you were COOL

Didn’t that feel good? Just to go back and say, “Yeah, I remember that!”

Well, let’s keep going!!

Let’s go back to the time when…

Decisions were made by going “eeny-meeny-miney-mo”

Mistakes were corrected by simply exclaiming, “do over!”

“Race issues” meant arguing about who ran the fastest.

Money issues were handled by whoever was the banker in “monopoly”

It wasn’t odd to have two or three “best” friends.

Being old, referred to anyone over 20.

The worst thing you could catch from the opposite sex was cooties.

Nobody was prettier than Mom

It was a big deal to finally be tall enough to ride the “big people” rides at the amusement park.

Getting a foot of snow was a dream come true.

Abilities were discovered because of a “double-dog-dare”

Spinning around, getting dizzy and falling down was cause for giggles.

The worst embarrassment was being picked last for a team.

Water balloons were the ultimate, ultimate weapon.

If you can remember most or all of these, then you have LIVED!!!

Pass this on to anyone who may need a break from their “grown up”