These Are The Good Old Days…
Ahhhh… the easy, breezy days of childhood. There’s a pretty popular quote floating around Pinterest and Facebook right now: “My curfew was the street lights, and my mom didn't call my cell, she yelled “Time to come in." I played outside with friends, not online. If I didn't eat what my mom made me, then I didn't eat. Hand sanitizer didn't exist, but you could get your mouth washed out with soap. I rode a bike without a helmet, and getting dirty was okay.”
And, yes, I get it – as you get older you tend to think that the past was so much better than the present. And sometimes, it is. I liked my childhood. It was a great one. But we didn’t have street lights out in the country – but we did run in the woods and take long bike rides down back roads. I never had my mouth washed out with soap and my mom definitely made me special meals. (She still does that, by the way!)
My kids played outside, jumped in muddy puddles, explored the woods, and went boating and fishing, and rode bikes while wearing helmets. And guess what, I started to wear a helmet, too. It’s safer, folks! We still don’t have streetlights where we live. We didn’t have cable TV until my son was 4 and my daughter was almost 7. I admit it – I wanted cable so I would watch that Anne of Avonlea based TV series. My kids had those little handheld game devices and much later Xbox. They watched VHS tapes but also went outside and we had epic water gun battles that would last for hours. We camped in the woods, sleeping in tents with no fancy cots, just a sleeping bag on the ground.
My granddaughters are outside ALL the time, in all kinds of weather. They love to dig in the dirt and jump in muddy puddles. They fish, they go for boat rides, and they ice skate and go sled riding. They have craft time with their Mommy and create finger paint masterpieces. They are awesome eaters, unlike their picky Gaga.
I guess the point I am making is that life is what YOU make of it. The world was a bad and scary place even back when all of us were little kids. You just didn’t know it. Yes, you have to be vigilant and strive to keep your loved ones safe. But let’s get real – when you take a second or third glance back at “the good old days”, there was room for improvement. Those 1960 and 70s TV programs that you thought were the bees knees – well, that was some pretty bad acting! Ha ha!
I loved my childhood but I also love the present with modern conveniences. I can honestly look back at my five and a half decades of life and say, “these are the good old days.”