Someone shared the following essay with me the other day and made me stop and reflect on my own childhood and the memories I wanted to help create for my children.
Close your eyes… And go back.
Go back
…Before the Internet or PC or the MAC…
…Before semi-automatics and crack…
…Before Playstation, Sega, Super Nintendo, even before Atari…
…Before cell phones, CD’s, DVD’s, voicemail, and e-mail…
…Go way back…way…way…way back…
I’m talkin’ about hide and seek at dusk, Red light Green light, Red Rover…Red Rover, playing kickball and dodge ball until the street light came on, Ring around the Rosie, London Bridges, Hot Potato, Hop Scotch, Jump Rope.
You’re it!
When parents stood on the front porch and yelled (or whistled) for you to come home- no pagers or cell phones.
Seeing shapes in the clouds, endless summer days and hot summer nights (no A/C) with the windows open, and the sound of crickets.
Running through the sprinkler, cereal boxes with the GREAT prize in the bottom,Popsicles with two sticks you could break and share one with a friend.
Watchin’ Saturday morning cartoons like Tom and Jerry, Captain Midnight, Long Ranger, and Popeye.
Catchin’ lightning bugs in a jar, climbin’ trees, the first day of school, bedtime prayers and good night kisses.
Swinging as high as you could in the swings trying to touch the sky, a million mosquito bites and sticky fingers, jumpin’ down the steps, jumpin’ on the bed, pillow fights, and laughing so hard that your stomach hurt.
Blowing Kool- Aid out of your nose.
When work meant taking out the garbage, cutting the grass, washing the car, or doing the dishes.
Rainy days at school and the smell of damp concrete and chalk erasers.
Drinking from the garden hose and giving your friends a ride on the handlebars of your bike. Attaching pieces of cardboard to your bike frame to rub against your spokes, wearing your new shoes on the first day of school, and class field trips with soggy sandwiches.
When decisions were made by going “eeny-meeny-miney-mo” and mistakes were corrected by simply exclaiming “do over!”
When “race issues” meant arguing about who ran the fastest and the worst thing you could catch from the opposite sex was cooties.
Nobody was prettier than mom and scrapes on the knee were made better by her kiss.
Getting a foot of snow was a dream come true and talents were discovered because of a “double-dog-dare.”
Spinning around, getting dizzy and falling down was cause for giggles and when water balloons were the ultimate weapon.
Do you remembe those days and those nights?
Oh, how fast time goes. Sometimes the days are long but the years are short. Don’t let it slip by. Go and grab your kids… and play Red Rover, have a pillow fight, spin around until you fall down, play hop scotch, or blow some Kool-Aid out of your nose.
Grape is my favorite…
