DO YOU REMEMBER???

Close your eyes..... And go back in time.... Before the Internet or the Mac....
Before semi-automatics and crack ....Before SEGA or Super Nintendo...
Way back.... I'm talking about:
Hide and seek at dusk.
Red light, green light.
The corner store.
Hopscotch, butterscotch, doubledutch, jacks, kickball, dodgeball,
Mother May I?, Red Rover and Roly Poly.
Hula Hoops.
Running through the sprinkler.
The smell of the sun and licking salty lips.
Wax lips and mustaches.
An ice cream cone on a warm summer night, chocolate, vanilla or strawberry
or maybe butter pecan.

Wait......

Watching Saturday Morning cartoons...short commercials, Fat Albert, Road Runner, He-Man, The Three Stooges, and Bugs, or staying up for Gunsmoke.
When around the corner seemed far away, and going downtown seemed like going somewhere.
A million mosquito bites.
Sticky fingers.
Cops and Robbers, Cowboys and Indians, Zorro.
Climbing trees.
Building igloos out of snow banks.
Walking to school, no matter what the weather.
Running till you were out of breath.
Laughing so hard that your stomach hurt.
Jumping on the bed.
Pillow fights.
Spinning around, getting dizzy and falling down was cause for giggles.
Being tired from playing.

Remember that?

The worst embarrassment was being picked last for a team.
War was a card game.
Water balloons were the ultimate weapon.
Baseball cards in the spokes transformed any bike into a motorcycle.

I'm not finished just yet...

Eating Kool-aid powder and making Kool-aid ice pops.

Remember when...

There were two types of sneakers - girls and boys (Keds PF Flyers), and the
only time you wore them at school, was for "gym".
It wasn't odd to have two or three "best" friends.
When nobody owned a purebred dog.
When a quarter was a decent allowance, and another quarter a miracle.
When you'd reach into a muddy gutter for a penny.
When nearly everyone's Mom was at home when the kids got there.
It was magic when dad would "remove" his thumb.
When it was considered a great privilege to be taken out to dinner at a real
restaurant with your parents.
When girls neither dated nor kissed until late high school, if then.
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 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 a misbehaving 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! And some of us
are still afraid of them!!!

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

Remember when....

Decisions were made by going "eeny- meeny- miney-mo."
Mistakes were corrected by simply exclaiming, "do over!"
"Race issue" meant arguing about who ran the fastest.
Money issues were handled by whoever was the banker in "Monopoly".
The worst thing you could catch from the opposite sex was cooties.
It was unbelievable that dodgeball wasn't an Olympic event.
Having a weapon in school, meant being caught with a slingshot.
Nobody was prettier than Mom.
Scrapes and bruises were kissed and made better.
Taking drugs meant orange-flavored chewable aspirin.
Ice cream was considered a basic food group.
Getting a foot of snow was a dream come true.
Abilities were discovered because of a "double-dog-dare".
Older siblings were the worst tormentors, but also the fiercest protectors.

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" life...

I DOUBLE-DOG-DARE YA!!!

JUST HOW GOOD WAS IT TO BE A CHILD OF THE 50's??

Were you a kid in the Fifties or earlier? Everybody makes fun of our childhood! Comedians joke. Grandkids snicker. Twenty-something's shudder and say "Eeeew!"

But was our childhood really all that bad?

Judge for yourself:

In 1953 The US population was less than 150 million... Yet you knew more people then, and knew them better... And that was good.

A loaf of bread cost about 15 cents... But it was safe for a five-year-old to skate to the store and buy one... And that was good.

Prime-Time meant I Love Lucy, Ozzie and Harriet, Gunsmoke and Lassie... So nobody ever heard of ratings or filters... And that was good.

We didn't have air-conditioning... So the windows stayed up and half a dozen mothers ran outside when you fell off your bike... And that was good.

Your teacher was either Miss Matthews or Mrs. Logan or Mr.Adkins... But not Ms Becky or Mr. Dan... And that was good.

The only hazardous material you knew about... Was a patch of grassburrs around the light pole at the corner... And that was good.

You loved to climb into a fresh bed... Because sheets were dried on the clothesline... And that was good.

People generally lived in the same hometown with their relatives...So "child care" meant grandparents or aunts and uncles... And that was good.

Parents were respected and their rules were law.... Children did not talk back..... and that was good.

TV was in black-and-white... But all outdoors was in glorious color....And that was certainly good.

Your Dad knew how to adjust everybody's carburetor... And the Dad next door knew how to adjust all the TV knobs... And that was very good.

Your grandma grew snap beans in the back yard... And chickens behind the garage... And that was definitely good.

And just when you were about to do something really bad... Chances were you'd run into your Dad's high school coach... Or the nosy old lady from up the street... Or your little sister's piano teacher... Or somebody from Church...ALL of whom knew your parents' phone number... And YOUR first name... And
even THAT was good! ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

REMEMBER....
Send this on to someone who can still remember Nancy Drew, The Hardy Boys, Laurel & Hardy, Abbott & Costello, Sky King, Little Lulu comics, Brenda
Starr, Howdy Doody and The Peanut Gallery, The Lone Ranger, 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, playing in cowboy land, playing hide and seek and kick-the-can and Simon Says, baseball games, amateur shows at the local theater before the Saturday matinee, bowling and visits to the pool...and eating Kool-Aid powder with sugar, and wax lips and bubblegum cigars Didn't that feel good, just to go back and say, Yeah, I remember that! And was it really that long ago?

Friends are like Stars,
You can't always see them,
But you know they are there.

RED BUTTONS SPEAKS OUT !

By Red Buttons on his 80th Birthday

Old is when your friends compliment you on your new alligator shoes and you're barefooted.

Old is when your Doctor doesn't give you x-rays anymore, but just holds you up to the light.

Old is when a sexy babe catches your fancy and your pacemaker opens the garage door nearest your car.

Old is when you remember when the Dead Sea was only sick.

Old is when your wife says "lets go upstairs and make Love" and you answer "Honey, I can't do both."

And he adds... Sure I've gotten old. I've had 2 bypass surgeries, a hip replacement, new knees, and fought prostate cancer and diabetes. I'm half blind, can't hear anything quieter than a jet engine, take 40 different medications that make me dizzy, winded, and subject to blackouts. I have bouts with dementia, poor circulation,hardly feel my hands and feet anymore, I can't remember if I'm 85 or 92, but.... THANK GOD, I STILL HAVE MY FLORIDA DRIVER'S LICENSE.

I CAN'T BELIEVE WE ALL MADE IT!!!!

(If you lived as a child in the 40's, 50's, 60's or 70's.)

Looking back, it's hard to believe that we have lived as long as we have...

As children, we would ride in cars with no car seats, seat belts or air bags. Riding in the back of a pickup truck on a warm day was always a special treat.

Our baby cribs were covered with bright colored lead-based paint. We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors, or cabinets, and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets. (Not to mention hitchhiking to town as a young kid!)

We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle. Horrors. There weren't any expiration dates on foods and medicines, we just looked at them &/or smelled them and knew!

We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then rode down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times we learned to solve the problem.

We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on. No one was able to reach us all day. No cell phones. Unthinkable.

We played dodgeball and sometimes the ball would really hurt. There was cement under the swings and monkeybars in our playgrounds. We got cut and broke bones and broke teeth, and there were no law suits from these accidents. They were accidents. No one was to blame, but us. Remember accidents?

We had fights and punched each other and got black and blue and learned to get over it.

We ate cupcakes, bread and butter, and drank sugary soda but we were never overweight ... we were always outside playing. We shared one grape soda with four friends, from one bottle, and no one died from this.

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo 64, X-Boxes, video games at all, 99 channels on cable, video tape movies, surround sound, personal cell phones, Personal Computers, Internet chat rooms ... we had friends. We went outside and found them. We rode bikes or walked to a friend's home and knocked on the door, or rung the bell or just walked in and talked to them.

Imagine such a thing. Without asking a parent! By ourselves! Out there in the cold cruel world! Without a guardian. How did we do it?

We made up games with sticks and tennis balls and ate worms, (not me!) and although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes, nor did the worms live inside us forever.

Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't, had to learn to deal with disappointment..... Some students weren't as smart as others so they failed a grade and were held back to repeat the same grade..... Horrors.

Tests were not adjusted for any reason.

Our actions were our own. Consequences were expected. No one to hide behind. The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke a law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law, imagine that!

This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers and problem solvers and inventors, ever. The past 50 years has been an explosion of innovation and new ideas. We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned how to deal with it all.

And if you're one of them,
Congratulations!

Please pass this on to others who have had the good luck to grow up as kids before lawyers and government regulated our lives, for our own good.