Simpler Times
We’ve all seen the emails that address the ‘dangerous’ things we survived if we were born before the 80’s. I read those lists and am somehow reassured that I really had a very ‘normal’ childhood. My brothers and I did play outside, every day after school and all day during the summers. My mom did not know where we were and could not see us from the porch. We drank out of the water hose in any yard in the neighborhood. We played in the creek, caught all sorts of critters in jars, organized baseball games in the front yards, played with sticks, mud, strings and the like, and rode our bikes all over town. We never had a lock for our bikes and never worried about anyone taking one. Who would have wanted the clunkers? We would come home so dirty that my mom would make us strip to our undies, and then hose us off before we were allowed in the house. We accepted food from any neighbor that would feed us; my mom also fed every kid in the neighborhood. We didn’t run out and buy ice cream, we made it. One of us would have to sit on the ice cream freezer as it was turned by hand. We never got sick or worried about germs. We slept outside in a tent that we made by draping a sheet over the clothesline. Well, who has a clothesline these days? We knew everyone for blocks. We could always find someone to play with. Doorbells rang often; doors were always open to receive company. We were never ‘bored’.
How many of your children have said they were bored this summer? We have games, TV shows, videos, toys, pools, trampolines, gyms, computers, and books galore for our children and still they say those words! Awww……for a simpler time!
It’s so interesting to see my mom, helping my brother with my
6 year old nephew, and experiencing a different person.
