If your over fifty

[SPEEDO]

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'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 and Cracker Jacks, hula hoops and sunflower seeds,
wax lips and mustaches, Mary Janes,
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 Evening in 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 you when you got 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,
digging out 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 Doody 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......."

I just got this from a friend of mine in Montana. Thought I'd share it with my generation.

[Theophylact]

I remember most of that. Including when a '47 Pontiac was a dream car. But

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!

Never! I come from New York.

[alondra]

(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!)

then came the slogan,"dont tempt a good boy to go bad, dont leave your keys in the car"
my model A ign sw was broke I just put in a toggle switch. I was 17. if a car was in the way it was OK to just move it. and we didnt even have a house key

and those were the days when if we used the language now on TV and movies, we would get a whoping. and the vast majority of girls were virgins at 18
yes I would willingly go back to those days
and thanks speedo, for posting it, Ive saved it

[Brainchild]

Well I'm 37, but I remember most of those things. The stuff coming in the laundry detergent boxes, it was cool to dig that stuff out of there Of course I was like 5

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!

I still do this at home,I live in a great nieghborhood

They forgot S&H Greenstamps though

[glohworm]

SPEEDO,

You blew me away with this thread. I had to print this one out to share with all the other old "FARTS" I know. Well done. When I have a chance to really look it over, I'll get back and try to add some other goodies to this list. I really enjoyed it. If only the rest of our members could have experienced those really, really, good old days!

[NeoStarO1]

Well I ain't 50, but I remember alot of that myself and much more simple things.

I am always thinking of those times and wish it were here so i try to create as much of it as I can for my kids while keeping them safe still.

[glohworm]

Neo,

It's never going to be safe like it was, way back when. For this fact alone, I'm very sorry for parents nowadays. There wasn't the worry about drugs, or having your kid dye his/her hair, pierce any bodily part, blah, blah. It seems to me that a parent's job is so much more than it was back then. My mom was a housewife and a noble career it was. Nowadays, all we really have are "latchkey kids", and it astounds me that as many kids come out of this as healthy and well-grounded emotionally as they are. To be honest, I don't think I'd like to be a kid again, i.e., relive it all over again, but only in the present.

[Brainchild]

Well my mom was a stay at home mom till I was 16, and my wife is a satay at home mom too, this I am glad about. I also work from my garage in the back, so I am within yelling distance also, I think this is the best way to do things.
I don't think the daycare/school thing really give the kids a good foundation, but ya have to do what ya have to do. I'm glad we can do it this way

[NeoStarO1]

Glohworm,

I so happen to agree, that it won't be as safe as it was when we was kids growing up. I just meant that I try to provide them with the same funs that I had within limits. I mean they cna't go riding thier bikes clear across town at age 9 with friends liek I was allowed to. Heck i don't even let them walk to school alone and its only 2 blocks.
However I do try to teach kids to use thier imaginations when playing, they don't need all kinds of toys. I didn't have that many when I was little and the ones I did have I had a blast with. My toys mostly consisted of a pair of ski's for skiing, a bike, a motorcycle and books and whatever was laying around outside. I had a ball with all of those things. Some I am unable to provide today. Sure we had TV but who wanted to watch it when there was so much fun to be had outside. Today kids rather be inside staring at the boob tube getting fat and lazy.
I am also a firm beliver that one parent needs to be home when the children arrive home from school and that is exactly what I do for my kids. I make sure I am there for them. I grew up having that and I damm well will make sure my kids have that too. I think its very important for one parent to be home when kids are home. I'd rather be broke and be there for my kids rather than have two incomes to have all sorts of gadgets and gizmo's to each whim.

Even before my boyfriend and I started living together I always made sure I was home for my kids.
That is one thing I will never change is my ability to be home when kids arrive home.

You forgot :

'67 Convertible T-Bird
"Summer in the City'
Bonanza
Andy Griffith
10c burgers at McDonalds with 15c thick shakes
20c/gallon gas
Ed Sullivan

In my opinion, life was better in the early 1960s than now.