All the girls had ugly gym uniforms?
It took five minutes for the TV to warm up?
Nearly everyone's Mom was at home when the kids got home from
school?
Nobody owned a purebred dog?
When a quarter was a decent allowance?
You'd reach into a muddy gutter for a penny?
Your Mom wore nylons that came in two pieces?
All your male teachers wore neckties and female teachers had their
hair done every day and wore high heels?
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?
Laundry detergent had free glasses, dishes or towels hidden inside
the box?
It was considered a great privilege to be taken out to dinner at a
real restaurant with your parents?
They threatened to keep kids back a grade if they failed . . . and
they did?
When a 57 Chevy was everyone's dream car... to cruise, peel out, lay
rubber or watch submarine races, and people went steady?
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?
Lying on your back in 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?
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?
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 greater than the threat.
