The World of Grandpa Don

Definitely…these thoughts are warm fuzzies…

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. 

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 and wore high  heels.

Remember running through the sprinkler, circle pins, bobby pins, 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. 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 perfume, 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! 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! 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 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?"  When people  went steady; and girls wore a class ring with an inch of wrapped Band-Aids  or yarn coated with pastel-frostnail 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 real 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......."

Alex K remembered ... and sent it to us.

Back in Time

The "How I became Grandpa Don" page was starting to fill up with "stuff" about the Good Old Days. So, ... I moved that "stuff" to this page.

Definitely…these thoughts are warm fuzzies…

The World of Grandpa Don
www.plefka.net 

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