I got this email recently..brought back some memories...course some of it I just heard about from my much OLDER friends
STROLL WITH ME...back in time...
I'm talking about sitting on the curb, sitting on the stoop...about
hide-and-go-seek; 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, hula hoops and sunflower
seeds, wax lips and mustaches, Mary Jane's, saddle shoes 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 kids arrived home from
school. When nobody owned a purebred dog. When a quarter was a decent
allowance. When you'd 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, staring at clouds, jumping on the bed,
pillow fights, ribbon candy, angel hair on the Christmas tree, Jackie
Gleason, white gloves, walking to the movie theater, running till you were
out of breath, laughing so hard that your stomach hurt... remember that?
Not stepping on a crack or you'd break your mother's back, paper-chains at
Christmas, silhouettes of Lincoln and Washington, the smells of school, of
paste and plaster of Paris.
What about the girl who dotted her i's with hearts? (that was before that
stupid smiley face)!
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. And the girls had those ugly gym
uniforms.
When you got your windshield cleaned, oil checked, and gas pumped, without
asking -- all for free -- every time! And, you didn't pay for air either, and
you got trading stamps to boot!
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 the lunchroom and you danced to a real
orchestra. 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 the 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 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, scratch off or watch the submarine races?
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.
Remember 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 share it with the children
of today?
So send this on to someone who can still remember Nancy Drew, The Hardy Boys,
Laurel and Hardy, Howdy Dowdy and The Peanut Gallery, The Lone Ranger and
Tonto, 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, baseball games, bowling, visits to the
pool...and eating Kool-Aid powder with sugar from the palm of your hand.
There, didn't that feel good? Just to lean back and say:
"Yeah...I remember......."
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