09/27/25 Weekend Grif.Net - Take a Stroll Down Memory Lane
b...@grif.net
It's been a long summer for this tired Baby-Boomer fighting an aging body and mind. Time for you to take a walk with your mind like I did. Close your eyes and go back five or six decades. Way back. Focus on each phrase and paint a picture from memory.
>Think about sitting on the curb, sitting on the stoop, about playing hide and go seek, Simon Says, Red light - Green light.
>Think about lunch boxes with a thermos, chocolate milk, going home for lunch, penny candy from the store, hopscotch, butterscotch, skates with keys, 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.
>Think about running through the sprinkler, circle pins, bobby pins, Mickey Mouse Club, Rocky & Bullwinkle, Kookla, Fran & Ollie, Spin & Marty . . . all in living black & white.
>Think about 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.
>Think about the girl who dotted her "i's" with hearts? The Stroll, popcorn balls & sock hops; remember when... there were two types of sneakers for girls and boys (Keds & PF Flyer) and the only time you wore them at school was for "gym." And the girls wore crinolines under their skirts.
Be careful walking with me, because step on a crack and you'll break your mother's back. While walking we can talk about paper chains at Christmas, silhouettes of Lincoln and Washington, the smell of paste in school, and Evening in Paris.
And while we’re talking see if you recall . . .
*When it took five minutes for the TV to warm up.
*When nearly everyone's Mom was at home when the kids got 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 every day, and wore high heels.
*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. 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 they threatened to keep kids back a grade if they failed ... and did!
*When the worst thing you could do at school was smoke in the bathrooms, flunk a test or chew gum. And the prom was in the auditorium and you danced to an orchestra.
*When a '57 Chevy was everyone's dream car... to cruise, peel out, lay rubber, or watch submarine races, and 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 her finger.
*When no one ever asked where the car keys were because they were always in the car, in the ignition, and the doors were never locked!
^Remember lying on your back on the grass with your friends and saying things like "That cloud looks like a..."
^Remember playing baseball with no adults to 'help' kids with 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.
^Remember when being sent to the principal's office was nothing compared to the fate that awaited us 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 greater than the threat.
^Remember Nancy Drew, The Hardy Boys, Laurel & Hardy, Howdy Doody and The Peanut Gallery, The Lone Ranger, The Shadow Knows, Nellie Belle, Roy and Dale, Trigger and Buttermilk.
^Remember the sound of a reel mower on Saturday morning, and summers filled with bike rides, baseball games, bowling, and visits to the pool, and eating Kool-Aid powder with sugar.
Didn't that feel good, just to go back and say, "Yeah, I remember that!" And don't you just wish, just once, you could slip back in time and savor the slower pace... and share it with your grandchildren of today?
~~
Dr Bob Griffin
"Jesus Knows Me, This I Love!"
