by K M Draughn

Created on: February 09, 2009

I was born in the early 1960's in fact I was only a couple of months old when President Kennedy was shot. Where has the time gone, it seems that just yesterday I was riding bikes, picking berries and building playhouses or forts (that would have been considering who my playmates were at the time) and climbing trees. If my playmates were girls it would be playhouse and we would have our baby dolls and tea sets, if I was playing with boys it would be forts and I would of course have my own cap pistols, and we would ride our bikes pretending they were horses.

I loved the Summer time and still do but back then we would stay outside from early in the morning until late in the evening, even after dark we stayed outside and caught lighting bugs and played shadow tag. We ate our lunch on the back porch and had a water cooler out there so we did not have to go inside to get a drink. It was not that our parents were punishing us by making us stay outside it is that we wanted to be out there.

When school would start and the days got shorter as soon I got home in the evening I would do my homework so that I could go out and play, and then in winter we I would watch TV in the evenings that is about the only time I would watch cartoons.

I was not allowed to talk on the phone but a few minutes at the time, for one thing we were on a party line, so we could not tie the line up, there were no time for gossip sessions, cell phones was something you might see on a show like "The Jetsons".

Kids don't play like we used to anymore, my kids who are grown now did not really even play that way, the kids now have to have cable tv, video games, cell phones and air condition.

Everyone did not have air conditioners, in fact I was in high school when we finally got air conditionin Before that we slept with the windows open with the attic fan running. People say there is a global warming, the fact is that our bodies have adjusted to being inside all of the time with air conditioning, and air conditioning in our cars, that when we have to be with out it for a time we feel like it is hotter than it has ever been. I remember riding for hours going on vacation with the windows rolled down, we were comfortable.

Dishwashing was one of our chores, along with hanging out the clothes, most families had clothes dryers, but still chose to hang out the sheets in the summer time. The feel and the smell of those clothes line sheets is something special in my mind. We did not have quick fix it foods, no microwaves, our moms cooked, some meals would take all day, and you know I did not appreciate what my mom did then, but I do now.

Thinks were simpler and we made it, without cell phones, microwaves, dishwashers, air conditioners. Sometimes I wish we could go back to those simpler times.

I think our lives would be better for it, don't get me wrong I enjoy being able to go home at night and relax in the summer time in nice air conditioning, but if I had never had it I would not have know what I missed and would not be spoiled to it.

But going back the being a kid and enjoying playing, pretending, using imagination. Seeing nature, picking flowers, catching lightning bugs, smelling the fresh night air. This is a simpler better thing, everyone once in their lives need to enjoy.

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