Published: January 04, 2008 12:27 pm         

Remember when...

Close your eyes and let’s go back to a time before the Internet, e-mail or cell phones.

I’m talking about a time long before speed dial, CMT or DVD’s.

Remember playing hide-go-seek at dusk and catching lightening bugs in a Mason jar? There’s nothing like the good old days when life was simple and friends were forever. It was a time when the most vulgar thing on television was a guy in his underwear and when everyone argued whose turn it was to adjust the rabbit ears.

Let’s think about when nearly everyone’s mom was at home when the children returned from school. And kids actually did their chores to receive that 25 cents allowance. Remember when a handshake was all a person needed to make a loan?

Oh, and who can forget the mom and pop grocery stores with wooden floors, pot-bellied stoves and screen doors. A time when a penny could actually buy a piece of candy and hula-hoop was the bomb.

What about getting your windshield cleaned, oil checked and gas pumped, even without asking? And you got trading stamps to boot!

Do you recall laundry detergent having free glasses and dishtowels inside the box? Oh, I bet you do.

A time when a parent could discipline any child in the neighborhood and getting a switch taken to your legs was not child abuse.

A time when punishment at school meant a good old-fashioned paddling and then another whipping when you got home.

Remember when smoking a cigarette was the worst thing a kid could do. And who could forget the rotary phone and trying to make a call on a party line? Didn’t that feel good, just to say, yeah, I remember that!

What about a time when decisions were made by saying, eeny-meeney-miney-mo? Or when the worst thing you could catch from the opposite sex was cooties!

Can you recall when having a weapon in school was being caught with a slingshot? Or when butter was churned and the eggs were gathered?

Remember when olley-olley-oxen-free made perfect sense and everyone went to Sunday school? It was a time when grace was said at the dinner table and families actually ate together.

Who can forget when Fonzie was the coolest and Elvis rocked! And when the highlight of the evening was watching Barney make a mountain out-of-a-molehill.

Or when crack was something you wouldn’t step on in fear of breaking your mother’s back. A time when Coke was soda and a water balloon was the ultimate weapon.

And my favorite…tying thread to a June bug’s leg just to watch it fly! If you can remember most or all of these, then you have certainly lived.

Now, it’s your turn, to recall some memories from the past that make you smile. In fact, I double-dog dare you to try and think of more than me. E-mail them to me and we’ll continue to remember when…