Remember Yesteryear

The prom was in the auditorium and we danced to an orchestra, and all the girls wore pastel gowns, and crinolines, with shoes dyed to match, and the boys wore suits for the first time and we stayed out all night ? When a '56 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 wad of tape wrapped around it so it would fit her finger ? And no one ever asked where the car keys were 'cause they were always in the car, in the ignition, and the doors were never locked ? And you got in big trouble if you accidentally locked the doors at home, ''cuz no one ever had a key ? 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 to help kids with the rules of the game ? Back then, baseball was NOT a psychological group learning experience - it was a game... for everyone! Remember when stuff from the store came without safety caps and hermetic seals and warning labels, 'cause no one had yet tried to poison a perfect stranger ? Remember going bare-foot for the first time in spring ? Seeing how long you could stand barefoot on hot pavement? Or, the old trolley tracks in the summer? Trying to dig to China, in your back yard ? Wading the creek ? Or, swinging in the porch swing for hours in the evenings hush ? And... with all our progress...don't you just wish... just once... you could slip back in time and savor the slower pace...and share it with the children of the 80's and 90's. So send this on to someone who can still remember Nancy Drew, The Hardy Boys, Laurel & Hardy, Howdy Doody and The Peanut Gallery, The Lone Ranger, and, "the Shadow Knows." Roy and Dale, Trigger and Buttermilk....Gene and Champion......and do you remember who "Nellie Belle" was ? And the sound of the old push mower on Saturday morning ? ... and summers filled with bike rides, playing cowboy's, baseball games, and visits to the pool (remember the "footbath" before swimming, and the smell of too much chlorine ?) ...Eating Kool-Aid powder without the water ? ...and the smell of freshly cut grass which, to this very day, can conjure up all of the old memories with one whiff ? When being sent to the principal's office was nothing compared to the fate that awaited you 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 all survived because their love was greater than any threat ! Now, didn't that feel good, just to go back and say, "Yeah, I remember that!" And was it really so long ago? Isn't it still a part of us ? Count your life by smiles, not tears. Count your age by friends, not years.