My dad sent me an email that was full of nostalgia and good feelings. Here is my response. The original email is quoted at the bottom.
Over half of these things still happen… I know, because they happened to me growing up, even in the faster pace and bigger world in which I lived.
Warm, happy, safe memories still exist. I remember the puppet rack at the Shelby Twp. Library. The dirt bike track in Clio. The Dukes of Hazzard. Transformers, The Smurfs, Soul Train, Hardy Boys (remember how I ate those up once I got a library card?), skinning my knee because I thought I’d fall over if I braked when I was learning how to ride a bike.
I remember Aunt Della Henderson and how we’d sit next to each other and read.
I remember Grandpa Bean’s obsession with useless little toys that did cool stuff.
I remember Uncle Al smiling in those few rare times when he thought nobody was looking.
But that doesn’t mean that those warm feelings don’t exist for me today. The smile of a beautiful woman, someone letting me over in a lane during a traffic jam, knowing that I’m the best that any ISP has ever seen, dreaming about possible future worlds while I write my first novel (oh, didn’t I tell you guys about that? Heh. ;) ), Transformers (wait, that was above), listening to Eric’s daughter babble in kid-speak, listening to my co-workers babble in geek speak, pretending to be something I’m not so I know what it feels like to be me (gaming, duh)…..
My life is full, and I wouldn’t have it this way if it weren’t for my past. But it wouldn’t be this way if not for my future, or for right now, either.
Those things that this email talks about aren’t missing. Go to Stony Creek Park and watch the clouds. You certainly don’t have to worry about drive-by shootings there. Watch cartoons on Saturday morning and remember how your parents didn’t understand what was so cool about the Peanut Gallery as you boggle at crazy Pokemon names. Don’t blink too hard when you see that Transformers is still on, in a different form. :)
Think about how things were, but don’t ignore how things are, and how they could be.
My parents, whom I love dearly, once told me that I can do anything. I choose to enjoy the things around me. I choose to make things around me better as I better myself. I choose to live life and love it, because I _CAN_ do anything.
And so can you. :)
On Thursday, August 1, 2002, at 06:22 PM, xxxxxxx@xxx.com wrote:
>
> STROLL WITH ME…
> Stroll with me…. Close your eyes…. And go back…before the
> Internet…before bombings, aids, herpes, before semiautomatics and
> crack…before SEGA or Super Nintendo … way back!
>
> I’m talking about sitting on the curb, sitting on the stoop…about
> hide-and-go-seek; Simon says and red-light-green-light. Lunch boxes with
a
> thermos … Chocolate milk, going home for lunch, penny candy from the
> store, hopscotch, butterscotch, skates with keys, jacks and Cracker Jacks,
> hula hoops and sunflower seeds, wax lips and mustaches, Mary Jane’s,
saddle
> shoes and Coke bottles with the names of cities on the bottom.
>
> Remember when it took five minutes for the TV to warm up.
> When nearly everyone’s Mom was at home when the kids arrived 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 pieces.
> When all of your male teachers wore neckties and female teachers had their
> hair done everyday and wore high heels.
>
> Remember running through the sprinkler, circle pins, bobby pins.
> Watching Mickey Mouse Club, Rocky and Bullwinkle, Kookla, Fran and Ollie,
> Spin and Marty…Dick Clark’s American Bandstand .*. all in black and
white
> and your Mom made you turn it off when a storm came.
>
> Remember when around the corner seemed far away, and going downtown seemed
> like going somewhere.
> Climbing trees, making forts, backyard shows, lemonade stands, cops and
> robbers, 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’d break your mother’s back… paper-chains
at
> Christmas, silhouettes of Lincoln and Washington, the smells of school, of
> paste and Evening in Paris.
>
> What about the girl who dotted her i’s with hearts? (that was before that
> stupid smiley face)!
> Remember the Stroll, popcorn balls and sock hops?
> Remember when there were just two types of sneakers for girls and boys –
Keds
> and PF Flyers, and the only time you wore them at school was for gym. And
> the girls had those ugly gym uniforms.
>
> 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 either, and you got trading stamps to boot!
>
> Remember when laundry detergent had free glasses, dishes or towels hidden
> inside the box.
> When it was considered a great privilege to be taken out to dinner at a
real
> restaurant with your parents.
>
> When the worst thing you could do at school was flunk a test or chew gum.
> And the prom was in the gym or the lunchroom and you danced to a real
> orchestra.
>
> When they threatened to keep kids back a grade if they failed – and did!
>
> Remember when being sent to the principal’s office 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
> shootings, drugs, gangs, etc. Our parents and grandparents were a much
> bigger threat!
>
> But we survived because their love was so much greater than the threat.
> Remember when a ’57 Chevy was everyone’s dream car — used to cruise, peel
> out, lay rubber, scratch off or watch the submarine races?
> Remember when 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 their finger.
> When no one ever asked where the car keys were because they were always in
> the car, in the ignition, and the car and house doors were never locked!
>
> 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
needed
> to enforce the rules of the game.
>
> 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, that just once you could
> slip back in time and savor the slower pace…and share it with the
children
> of today?
>
> So send this on to someone who can still remember Nancy Drew, The Hardy
Boys,
> Laurel and Hardy, Howdy Dowdy and The Peanut Gallery, The Lone Ranger and
> Tonto, 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, visits to the pool… and
eating
> Kool- Aid powder with sugar from the palm of your hand.
>
> There, didn’t that feel good? Just to lean back and say: “Yeah…I
> remember…….”
>
> Pass this on to those who might remember, and to those who can see what might
> be missing.
—
Dave “Skippy” Crampton
—
http://childe.ofdoom.com