Take a stroll with me....

close your eyes... and go back...

before the Internet... before semiautomatics and crack, when the Ten Commandments were still in the school... way back...

I'm talking about sitting on the curb, sitting on the stoop, about hide and go seek, Simon Says, Red light - Green light. Lunch boxes with a thermos, chocolate milk, going home for lunch, penny candy form 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.

Running through the sprinkler, circle pins, bobby pins, Mickey Mouse Club, Rocky & Bullwinkle, Kookla, Fran & Ollie, Spin & Marty... all in black & white.

When around the corner seemed far away, and going downtown seemed like going somewhere. Climbing trees, making forts, backyard shows, lemonade stands, Cops and Robber, 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... Remember that?

Not stepping on a crack or you'll break your mother's back, paper chains at Christmas, silhouettes of Lincoln and Washington.

The smell of paste in school and Evening in Paris. What about the girl who dotted i's with hearts? The Stroll, popcorn balls, & sock hops. Remember when there were only 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 had those ugly gym uniforms.

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 piece. When all of your male teachers wore neckties and female teachers had their hair done, everyday 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, dished or towels hidden inside the box. When it was considered a great privilege to be taken out to dinner at area restaurants 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.

And 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 ....  cloud."

And playing baseball with no adults to help kids with the rules of the game. Baseball glove hanging from your handlebars. A baseball wrapped with electrical tape. No one had a bat that wasn't taped.

Remember when stuff from the store came without safety caps and hermetic seals because no one had yet tried to poison a perfect stranger. 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 today....

When being sent to the principal's was nothing compared to the fate that awaited the student at home. Basically, we were in fear for our lives, but it wasn't because of drive by shooting, drugs, gangs, etc. Our parents and grandparents were a much bigger threat!

But we survived because their love was greater than the threat.

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, The Shadow Knows, Nellie Belle, Roy and Dale, Trigger and Buttermilk... as well as 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!"?