I just got this and wanted to share it with you... Enjoy! -------------------- Remember When?

Close your eyes...And go back in time

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. An ice cream cone on a warm summer night... Chocolate or vanilla or strawberry or maybe butter pecan.

Wait...

Watching Saturday Morning cartoons... Short commercials. Fat Albert, Road Runner, The Three Stooges, Bugs & Daffy.

Or back further...

When around the corner seemed far away, And going downtown seemed like going somewhere. Cops and Robbers, Cowboys and Indians, Zorro. Climbing trees, building igloos out of snow banks 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... 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 held in the spokes with wooden clothespins transformed any bike into a motorcycle.

I'm not finished just yet...

When you'd reach into a muddy gutter for a penny. When you got your windshield cleaned, oil checked, and gas pumped without asking, for free, every time... and, you didn't pay for air. When nearly everyone's mom was at home when the kids got there. When it took five minutes for the TV to warm up, if you even had one. 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 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!

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. 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. Scrapes and bruises were kissed and made better. Taking drugs meant orange-flavored chewable aspirin. Abilities were discovered because of a "double-dog-dare."

If you can remember most or all of these, then you have LIVED!!!

Pass this on to anyone who may need a break from "grown up" life... I DOUBLE DOG DARE YA!!!

-- Gary in Indiana (gk6854@aol.com), December 05, 2001

Answers

Loved it! Needed that. Thanks for sharing.

-- Mary (zoots25@hotmail.com), December 05, 2001.

And the Lincoln log castles and the mulitude of Erector set creations!

whoops am I dating myself.........naaa...

Thanks Gary for lots of smiles.

-- Jim-mi (hartalteng@voyager.net), December 05, 2001.

How about playing marbles in the driveway (which wasn't paved), playing closies with pennies or ledgies with the tennis ball. Another one: skateboarding with a piece of plywood with roller skate wheels screwed to it(years before the real thing). Flipping trading cards for 'heads or tails', playing 'rock, paper, scissors', playing with firecrackers (ladyfinger all the way up to canon crackers) Are these still available in the U.S?, they've been banned in Canada for 30 some-odd years. We'd knock on neighbours' doors and run like hell, just for the fun of it. Ahhh...the good ole days.

One last one...ROADHOCKEY..."Car, Car, C...a...r..."

This was refreshing. Thanks

-- Russ (rwhitworth@sprint.ca), December 06, 2001.

Always was and always be Teatherball champ. Dad put one in the back yard so I could practice for school recess. Do they even sell Teatherballs anymore?

I used to go to Monkey Wards with my dad and he'd stick the big TV tubes in that tester they had. Anyone remember that?

I wanted to grow up and marry Little Joe and live on the Ponderosa. I even got a Paint horse. We went to the real Ponderosa on vacation. My dad took us to all the National Parks for vacations. Always.

Going to the drive in with your pajamas on. Why did they make me wear my pajamas?? I lost my fuzzy slipper once in the playground. And your pajamas always got filled with sand anyway.

-- Cindy in KY (solidrockranch@msn.com), December 06, 2001.

How about:

Meccano sets - I had a number of these when I was a kid. You can still get them but I would have to mortgage the house to re-buy what I once had!!

Hockey cards - You bought them at the coner store (not McDonalds) and you played with them rather than you collect them. We played knock- downs and flips. The gum that came with them was horrible so it always went in the garbage.

We played "War" and it was done outside in the grass, the trees and the bushes - not in some imaginary, computer-generated world on the computer screen! We had lookouts, snipers, prisoners - the whole deal. Always came home tired and none of my friends grew up to be terrorists, gun freaks or with any violent tendencies (Today, I am afraid of what others might say if I give my four year old a toy - how time/attitudes change)

Street hockey - I always played in net (pretending to be Ken Dryden) Dropping to your knees was always a painful action until I took an old foam cushion, cut it in two, took four large elastic bands and used them to hold the cushions to my shins. Worked great but after a while the rubbers would cut off the circulation in the legs. This protection did little to save you from getting a slapshot in the family jewels with a near frozen, street hockey ball (For the uninitiated, these were very hard plastic, smooth and stung like all get-out when they hit any body part)

GI Joe was much bigger. Pull a string in his back and he said things like "I have a tough assignment for you" He had real ball and socket joints that you could pull apart unmercilessly. In Canada he came in a French version as well - my friends were strictly engish speaking but, by mistake they got a French speaking GI Joe for Christmas!!

We built bough houses, tree houses, made elaborate trails through the woods with benches and everything. We played dinkies in the dirt under the swings. We made kites from garbage bags and wooden sticks. We made fishing lures out of tin can tops and fished for cod off the rocks. We made bows and arrows out of sapling cherry trees. We more or less lived outdoors and the only time you looked at any type of "video" screen was to watch Saturday morning cartoons!!

Boy did we have fun!!!

Sean

-- Sean in Newfoundland (seand@mail.gov.nf.ca), December 06, 2001.

Way cool, Gary. Yeah, I remember a whole lot of those experiences. It is a completely different world from what it is now. Progress? Not a whole lot, if you ask me. What we need is some regress, IMHO.

-- j.r. guerra (jrguerra@boultinghousesimpson.com), December 06, 2001.

Amos & Andy on the radio, and the Honeymooners and Green Lantern too. Keystone Cops, Spanky and Our Gang, Rin Tin Tin, Laurel and Hardy, Abbot & Costello, Lone Ranger, Mighty Mouse, Sargent Preston of the Yukon, Felix The Cat (the OLD cartoon, not the NEW one)

jumping in piles of leaves, going ice-skating at the "Muck" and having hot chocolate made over an open fire; playing house with dolls (and if they drank and wet, it was wonderful!), playing dress-up (do kids do that anymore?) Saturday morning cartoon matinees at the movies (stay all morning for 25 cents) being able to ride your bike or go to the playground, and your parents weren't afraid for your safety (heck we didn't even lock our doors when we left the house!); being able to play out in the (dead-end) street, and knowing everyone who drove by

long drives on Sundays to Grandmothers house for dinner; having fun on a Friday night if mom made popcorn (or even better, fudge); the special occasions we were allowed to have a Coca-Cola (otherwise we drank only milk)

lucky enough to walk home at lunch time from grade school, and mom would read aloud to us while we ate lunch. made-up bedtime stories or more of mom's reading aloud

I was so blessed in my childhood and know it and am thankful for it. I couldn't have chosen better parents

It's sad isn't it -- that some of us don't realize how lucky we were!?

MissJudi

-- MissJudi (jselig@clemson.edu), December 06, 2001.

On July 4th each year, the local Country Club always had an extravagant fireworks display right after dark. In those days, people were less concerned about every little danger life might bring, so the club also provided free firecrackers for the kids. We would line up with paper sacks and they would hand us these great strings of firecrackers. I would go back through the line several times before they caught on. Brother Jon lit a cherry bomb one time and it went off near his head, knocking him out for awhile.

The evening before the fireworks display, another fellow and myself decided to "liberate" some of the fireworks stored in the upper story of the clubhouse for our own personal display. After dark we climbed the side of the building and entered through an unlocked window. We loaded up a large box with all kinds of powerful starshells and aerial bombs and one of us dropped it to another on the ground. We decided our take was too valuable to just touch off and watch it burn up in a few minutes, so we decided to use the innards for our own personal "fireworks bazookas" we would make. The "bazooka" consisted of a 1/2 inch piece of steel pipe about a foot long with threads at one end on which a cap could be screwed. We drilled a small hole through the side of the cap through which the fuse of a firecracker could stick out. The firecracker was the propellant for bazooka projectiles which in this case were the innards of aerial bombs and star shells. The individual "bombs" within each rocket that exploded in the air with a bright flash were round and about the size of a marble and fit nicely into the half inch pipe. We would put a firecracker into the pipe, drop a "marble bomb" down the pipe, light the firecracker and aim the pipe at some distant object. The charge exiting from the pipe would be on fire and would streak out fifty to seventy five yards in a fairly straight arc, and when it struck an object, the bomb would shatter with a flash of light.

We decided this would be perfect to use against car windshields at night. So one night, we climbed onto the high school roof and as cars came past, we would shoot our bombs off to strike against passing windshields. When they hit and disintegrated with a blinding flash, I can only imagine what the driver thought was happening.

Aaah, those innocent, bygone days!

-- bruce (rural@inebraska.com), December 06, 2001.

Thanks Gary, we needed that.

-- Rosalie (deatline@globalsite.net), December 06, 2001.

Tom Mix and Bobby Benson of the B-BAR-B! On radio, which still exists, but not as well!

-- Brad (homefixer@SacoRiver.net), December 06, 2001.

roasted corn on the cob, stick fishing poles, who caught the first fish or the biggest or the most, big bond fire,homemade roasted sausages on a stick, [called hotdogs now], sled riding on a real sled. Lexi

-- Lexi Green (whitestone11@hotmail.com), December 06, 2001.

Great memories! How about riding your horse all day bareback with your very best friend, going to the lake to ride out in the water and play. Catching fireflys, long drives with dad when he would stop and buy bananas and Butterfingers to eat. We never knew where we were going so it was always an adventure. Playing by the hours in the woods, by myself, building dams in the creek and secret hideaways with branches. Mom used to let me build little campfires and boil an egg in a tin can . . . took hours! Going to family reunions where I got to see all my really neat cousins. Working with my calf to get ready for the 4-H show was fun to. Lots of good memories, it's nice to be nudged to go back and remember this morning. Thanks

-- Bets (betsyK@pathwaynet.com), December 07, 2001.

Cindy in ky, What is this TV thing that you mention? What does tv stand for???

-- Jim-mi (hartalteng@voyager.net), December 07, 2001.

Radio, I am so glad they still have it since we unplugged the TV years ago. Does anyone remember FibberMcGee and Molly?? Sargent Preston of the Yukon?? The Shadow Knows?? I feel so ancient when I tell people how old I was before my family got television. There was one in our whole neighborhood and occasionally they would invite all the neighborhood kids in to watch. I wish I could remember the name of that space show. Hopalong Cassidy was a big one also.

-- diane (gardiacaprines@yahoo.com), December 07, 2001.

How about The Green Hornet" on radio along with The Shadow",,..no TV in those days,,,than went to a neigbors as time went on and watched "I love Lucy", Jackie Gleason, Red Skeleton, Jack Benny ,,and even Amos and Andy, Fury,,and a lot of the ones already mentioned. Now those were fun filled, (clean fun)..Played with Magnet Scotties,,black and white. anyone remember those? cut out dolls, and good old coloring books..when prizes came in candied popcorn boxes,,riding tractor with dad,,riding work horses home after a long days work..so much simple fun,,nice, trip back in time,,Thanx for the wonderful reminders...:-)..Take care,,,,

-- Patsy, MT (cozyhollow-gal@care2.com), December 08, 2001.

you forgot Johnny dollar and the lone ranger. We sat quite as a mouse to hear every last word. great old radio shows!!! Lexi

-- Lexi Green (whitestone11@hotmail.com), December 08, 2001.

Diane: The space show---Flash Gordon or maybe Buck Rogers?

-- john (natlivent@pcpros.net), December 09, 2001.

There is a syndicated radio show of olde tyme radio shows (!!!)...the host is Stan Freeburg (gee, talk about radio personalities!) Anyway, you might do an online (Google?) search to find a local radio station that plays it. Each week he replays various radio shows....from The Shadow, to Grand Central Station, to Fibber McGee, etc. I don't remember them much (I'm a *late* Truman baby) but they are fun to listen to! Unfortunately for me, they are broadcast during the middle of Saturday night here in Western Washington. If I awake in the middle of the night on Saturday, though, you can bet I'll try to tune in and find a good episode to listen to.

Thanks for the memories, Gary. Think I'll go put playing cards in the spokes of my mountain bike....

-- sheepish (WA) (the_original_sheepish@Hotmail.com), December 09, 2001.