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 Jane's,
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 plaster of 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 the 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!
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,
scratch off or watch the submarine races?
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!

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.

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.

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?

I still remember
Nancy Drew, The Hardy Boys,
Laurel and Hardy, Howdy Dowdy
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......."