Going From AM Radio to the Stars

I wish this was an original but in truth I’m just the messenger as this was something sent to me by a friend (thank you Carol).  I’ve edited it to make it work and I hope it will not lose its meaning.

Clearly this will resonate more with those of us who have been around the block many times.  So here we go:

Go back before the Internet or PC or the MacBook.  Before semi-automatics and crack. Before PlayStation, SEGA, Super Nintendo, even before Atari. Before cell phones, CD’s, DVD’s, voicemail and email.

I’m talking about hide and seek at dusk, "red light, green light," playing kickball and dodgeball until the first, no the second street light came on.  Ring around the Rosie, London Bridge, hot potato, hopscotch, jump rope, YOU'RE IT!

Parents stood on the front porch and yelled for you to come home, no cell phones.   Take one giant step…may I?  Seeing shapes in the clouds, endless summer days and hot summer nights with the windows open because there was no AC.  Running through the sprinkler.

Cereal boxes and Cracker Jacks with great prizes at the bottom. Ice pops with two sticks you could share with a friend.  Watching Saturday morning cartoons, catching lightning bugs in a jar.  Christmas morning, your first day of school, bedtime prayers and good night kisses.

Climbing trees.  Swinging as high as you can in those long swings, trying to reach the sky. Laughing so hard that your stomach hurt. Being tired from playing, work meant taking out the garbage, cutting the grass, washing the car or doing the dishes. Your first crush, your first kiss (the one that you kept your mouth closed and your eyes open).

Kool-Aid was the drink of summer and so was a swig from the hose.  Giving your friends a ride on the handlebars of your bike with pieces of cardboard on the frame to rub against your spokes.

Wearing your new shoes on the first day of school.  When nearly everyone’s mom was home when you came home from school.  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 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 or gangs. We simply did not want our parents to get mad at us.

Let’s go back to the time when decisions were made by going “eeny-meeny-miney-mo,” mistakes were corrected by simply exclaiming “do over.” It wasn’t odd to have 2 or 3 “best” friends. The worst embarrassment was being picked last for a team.  Water balloons were the ultimate weapon.

If you can remember most or all of these then you have lived during a more pleasant and simpler time.  This era has passed and slowly those of us who lived it are passing also.  If you don’t remember, then ask your parents, grandparents or great grandparents.  We went from AM radio to the stars!

Your era is here, be part of it.  Make it worthwhile for future generations to build on.