Who Can Remember?

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.....
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!!!
A tisket, a tasket, a green and yellow basket
YOU'RE IT!!

Parents stood on the front porch and yelled (or whistled) for you to come home - no pagers or cell phones
Mother May I?
Hula Hoops
Seeing shapes in the clouds
Endless summer days and hot summer nights (no A/C) with the windows open
The sound of crickets
Running through the sprinkler
Cereal boxes with that GREAT prize in the bottom
Cracker jacks with the same thing
Ice pops with 2 sticks you could break and share with a friend

...but wait.....there's more....

Mickey Mouse Club
Watchin' Saturday Morning cartoons
Mighty Mouse, Fat Albert, Road Runner, Smurfs, Picture Pages, G-Force & He-Man,
Schoolhouse Rock
Watchin' Sunday morning oldies (Abbott & Costello, Three Stooges)
FONZIE.....AYYYYYYYY
Playing Dukes of Hazard
Catchin' lightning bugs in a jar
Christmas morning
Your first day of school
Bedtime Prayers and Goodnight Kisses
Climbing trees
Swinging as high as you could to try and reach the sky
Getting an Ice Cream off the Good Humor Truck
A million mosquito bites and sticky fingers
Jumpin' down the steps
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
Being tired from PLAYING
WORK: meant taking out the garbage or doing the dishes
Your first crush
Your first kiss (I mean the one that you kept your mouth CLOSED and your eyes OPEN)
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
So was a swig from the hose
Giving your friends a ride on your handlebars
Wearing your new shoes on the first day of school
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
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!


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" or "one potato, two potato"
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"
Catching fireflies could happily occupy an entire evening
It wasn't odd to have two or three "best" friends.
Being old, referred to anyone over 20. (RATS! I'm officially old!)
The worst thing you could catch from the opposite sex was cooties.
Nobody was prettier than Mom
Scrapes and bruises were kissed by mom or grandma and made better
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.

Do You Remember?


This message was edited Jul 17, 2006 12:31 PM

You forgot "Swinging Statues"!! And yes, sadly I was around, but young, for most of that. LOL

Well, I remember all those things. My folks had a basket ball referees whistle they blew and we got our bottoms blistered if they didn't see us with-in 5 minutes after they blew it. We had contest to see ho could go the furtherest standing on our bicycle seats. They hadn't invented Mickey Ds yet, but e never missed M-i-c-k-e-y M-o-u-s-e. and come back real soon, Why? Because we like you! I can still sing the whole song.
In Amarillo we had these freezing evaporative ACs and in the spring we got new shredded wood pads the water ran over and the whole house smelled heavenly for the first week or two. We never locked the doors and could play outside til 9 everynight in the summer.
Life was so wonderfully simple.
;)

FlowrLady,
You could make me cry.
Sherry

Ohhhhh .. such by-gone days ..

Thanks so much .. for a refreshing reminiscing .. FlowrLady !!

Incidentally .. 'kool-aid' (and/or the generic), has been strongly re-introduced, here @ the Roost.
Especially the pink lemonade flavor poured over a giant ice filled glass .. while it's been so warm and a tad humid of late.

- Magpye

that was wonderful!!!!!!!! so many wonderful memories! kids don't know what they are missing now. thank you thank you!!!1

Oh wow ... I truly loved this! Yep ... those good ole days!

there are so many thing my kids miss out on.... I can remember not wanting to be inside.. now i can't get my kids outside :(

I'm glad y'all are liking this. I loved it!

had forgotten about never locking the doors. We would even go away for the WEEKEND and not lock the doors!

And I can sing the M-I-C K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E song all the way through, too!

I can sing it too, but it's only because I learned it while
keeping an eye on my kids.

Does anyone remember when the little ice cream
push cart would pull up to the school yard at lunch time,
and you would spend your milk money buying a Dreamcicle?

What about roller skates with steel wheels? The wheels
had to be clipped onto shoes that had leather soles and
the strap to hold them on went around your ankles?
Those were some rough rides LOL

What about spending your lunch money at the movies
to see the latest Randolph Scott western, in black & white?
Or buying the latest issue of Wonder Woman for 10 cents?
Or WALKING several miles to the beach? or anywhere?

Do you remember when there were no "walking shoes"
and the only place you were allowed to wear gym shoes
was in gym?

I remember all this! What about walking on tin cans or stilts.
It was always, time out for a meal and then right back outside.
A tree to climb or a driveway to try to jump. Funny how we always went to bed tired!!We played !! We entertained ourselves and had a great time!
Bonnie

How about the "Rag Man" in a horse drawn wagon. Buying old cloth by the pound?
I used to feed the horse an apple after the old man would cut it in half to check for worms.
Andy P

I remember all this, except the rag man. Saraskeeper, how old are you?

I told my DGD about some of the games and she was amazed. I am planning a get together of neighborhood children to teach them some of the games we used to play. They may be bored to tears, but I fear it may be a lost art, if we don't revive it.

ladyblue - I had totally forgotten about stilts and
about walking on tin cans. What fun !
How about talking on the "telephone" - two tin cans,
joined together by a long piece of string?
What about twirling a button on a string, then
suddenly snapping the string tight and watching
the button vibrate?
Does anyone make music on a hair comb anymore,
or play the kazoo? Do kids play "kick the can" anymore?

My husband used to talk about playing "3 feet in the mud
puddle" but I don't know what that is.
What about leapfrog? Haven't seen anyone play that
in ages and ages.

Defoecat, The Rag man was in the early 50s. He was very old at the time, I think he was at the end of his career. My mother was a seamstress and often sold to him.
Andy P

It's too bad there are so many freaks out in the world that kids can't safely play outside. I don't think there's anywhere left in the world that kids could safely play hide-&-seek at dusk without a risk of a child molester wandering up. I still see kids playing outside around here, but they do it during daylight hours.

I guess that is the biggest reason I am so happy we chucked our city life and moved "out to the country". I'll never close my eyes not turn my back because I know there is bad out there but you learn to look harder and see the good. Things move a little slower out here and people have a more calm way about them. The kids can move about more without feeling cramped and on top of each other. We enjoy simple things like mowing mazes in the fields then disappearing into them, looking for raspberries and they have even helped me with a lot of transplanting and gardening. Don't think that keeps them from the tv, electronic toys and computers but sometimes, especially during the day, we get to enjoy "the good old days". We can still safely play outside after dark too.

Thanks FlowrLady. :')

I'm adding your 'remembers' to a list I'm making. Isn't it fun to remember?

Badseed, where you are, is where I want to move to! Away from the congestion!

Hey - how about catching lightening bugs and putting them in a jar to make a lantern?
Taking a playing card and putting in on the tire spokes of the bicycle to make it sound like a motor? Gosh - how many miles did we ride on those bikes anyway? I remember WEARING OUT 3 bikes. Big deal to beat a guy in a bike race..
Riding your bike down a dirt road to the country store to buy an ice cream sandwich and stopping to pick blackberries on the way back.
Neighborhood kids played together and all the mothers could see us out of the kitchen windows. They were homemakers back then and the need for them to be career women was not a requirement as two incomes was'nt a normal lifestyle.

Going to the movies and tickets were 75 cents. Go to the movies with $2 dollars, come back with change and were so full of popcorn and drink it "spoiled your supper" ( yes I said supper)
Supper was at the table with everyone accounted for in one spot eating the same thing which Mom cooked without a microwave. Dinner was on Sunday right after church and we did'nt change out of church clothes first... Desserts were always homemade. Beef for Sunday Dinner was a big deal. Eating out was reserved for the most special of occasions and only once or twice a year.
Businesses closed on Sunday and Wednesday afternoons too - because they were open half day on Saturday.
Getting in touch with someone on Wednesday evening meant either seeing them at prayer meeting or stopping by on your way home from church.
Porches. Need I say more? Everyone had a porch and the joys or problems of life were taught there. People visited each other, sat in rocking chairs and told storys to the kids. Family history was handed down and traditions kept for generations, learned on the porch. It was cooler out there than in the house anyway.
Everyone had a vegetable garden and canned foods was considered fast food.
Kids were expected to help shuck corn and snap beans for "putting up" ( that was done on the porch) Canned foods came in mason jars more often than steel cans from the grocery store.
I remember Hardee's and McDonalds was a walk up window burger joint.
Wednesday night tv had Red Skelton at 8pm, it was the only night I could stay up until 8:30 pm unless it was summer. Then bedtime was just after dark.
Sunday night tv had Mutual Omaha's Wild Kingdom and Disney as primetime programming. It was bedtime after that...

Hand mixed sodas from the drug store, penny candy, wax lips, bubble gum and cotton candy from the county fair.
Playing roll the bat with my cousins and just sitting to play cards on a hot afternoon.
I can remember just dying to go swimming and I grew up at the beach - there were times when I could'nt get wet - "oh please c'mon may I"? Imagine that - living at the beach and having to stay dry. Somebody having fireworks to light off on July 4th was something big.

I can remember mowing grass in big yards for an ice cream sundae as payment.
45 and 33rpm records were sold at the grocery store. Everyone had a record player and you would take your records to a friend's house to listen too.
Coke and Pepsi was in glass bottles that had to be opened with a church key. What kind of word was "liter" anyway?

Ice tea or lemonade, a tire swing from a tree limb, a setting sun and lightening bugs......

swoznick, great memories!

On my way home from school every day I'd pass the local "elevator". Inside was a candy display to die for! Tiny wax "bottles" with liquid inside... a strip of paper with little dots of candy on it... Necco... double-bubble... Aahhhh, who wouldn't mind walking the long ways home if you could stop at the candy store on the way!

Movies for me was: Friday night with my friends, dropped off by our parents. Twenty-five cents would get you a ticket and a bag of popcorn. No problem with us being downtown at night all by ourselves... we were just at the movie!

I remember when we had an ice box & we had to put out a card with 25-50-75-or100# for how much ice we wanted or remember when butter came all white & we had to squeeze the button to mix the butter.Remember when we used to own cows & had to milk them,( made our own butter ). When McDonalds came along in the 50's we could boy hambergers 10 for $1.00. When if you wanted to play ball you got the neighberhood kids together of all ages & had a ball game.

If you were lucky most kids had 2 parents that stayed together, We passed down clothes & you were lucky if you didn't get a pair of shoes that had a hole in the sole. We used to have corn bread & beans quite often, Oatmeal -coco wheats-malt o meal for breakfast. WE used to walk where ever we went - where as today kids want a ride to go 3 blocks.

The memories. Makes me melancholy all of a suuden. I remember most , no all of those things. My poor kids, I have to light dynamite under the beds to get them outside. We didn't have computers, cable, ninetendos or vcr's cd's. Had to listen to the 45's 33's and 78's on a record player. My 22 year old didn't know what "flip side" meant one night. We had a reception/barbecue last month and had a local man 1-man band play . He played a song then said on theflip side was..........DS looked at him like he was nuts Flip side of what?????

Oh the good memories...........days when kids could be kids and summer vacations were never boring. We used our imaginations to play; today they have structured activities so that kids play the right games. My neice is 11 years old and she didn't know Hopscotch. Can you imagine????

This is all so true... there is so much that kids are missing out on.. and as for the shoes with the holes.... we used to cut cardboard insoles to make shoes last longer. Worked great til you got them wet.

I was looking at a house the other day to buy, the couple selling it is elderly, and they had hteir grand-daughter with them, she is 18. In a box, was a bunch of 8 tracks.... she picked one up and said what is this? Wow! Talk about feeling old. I remember our first car with an 8 track player, man we were cool!

Janis

(clearing throat along with a wee lil grunt of hesitation .. hee)
Uhhh .. I'm guilty of still doing so, every now & again, Woofens. But I've graduated from cardboard, to the insert being made from a sheet of 'foam rubber'.

Specially, on those old resolute and faithful shoes, that 'fit' sooo well .. and a body simply canNOT trash .. jes yet! .. LOL

Even the holes can be cleverly disguised with wearing a pair of socks, the same color as the shoes. And, am happy to report .. that at least one of my grandy-yunkins have picked up on the recyclin' of such dandy fittin' shoes too!

- Magpye

This message was edited Jul 17, 2006 11:37 AM

Did you get the "tisket a tasket, a red an yellow basket"?

Rover rover wheres your bone....my older kids in there 20's loved that.