- sockhop1_1.jpeg (52.73 KiB) Viewed 235 times
Remember when ... Not stepping on a crack or you'll break our mothers back ... paper chains at Christmas, silhouettes of Lincoln and Washington ... the smell of paste in school and Evening in Paris?
What about the girl who dotted her letter I with hearts? The Stroll, popcorn balls, & sock hops?
Remember when ... there were two types of sneakers for girls and boys (Keds & PF Flyer) and the only time you wore them at school was for gym class. And the girls had those ugly gym uniforms?
Remember when it took five minutes for the TV to warm up and nearly everyones Mom was at home when the kids got home from school?
Remember when nobody owned a purebred dog, when a quarter was a decent allowance and when you'd reach into a muddy gutter for a penny?
Remember 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 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 and, you got trading stamps to boot!
Remember when ... laundry detergent had free glasses, dishes or towels hidden inside the box.
Remember when ... it was considered a great privilege to be taken out to dinner at a real restaurant with your parents. When they threatened to keep kids back a grade in school if they failed ... and did!
Remember when ... the worst thing you could do at school was smoke in the bathrooms, flunk a test or chew gum. And the prom was in the auditorium and you danced to an orchestra.
Remember when ... a 57 Chevy was everyones dream car ... to cruise, peel out, lay rubber or watch races, and people went steady and girls wore a class ring with an inch of wrapped medical tape, dental floss or yarn coated with pastel frostnail polish so it would fit her finger. And 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.
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 to help kids with 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, just once, you could slip back in time and savor the slower pace ... and share it with the children of today ... When being sent to the principals 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.
So pass this on to someone who can still remember Nancy Drew, The Hardy Boys, Laurel & Hardy, Howdy Doody and The Peanut Gallery, The Lone Ranger, 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 and visits to the pool ... and eating Kool-Aid powder with sugar.
Didn't that feel good, just to go back and say, Yeah, I remember that...?
I am sharing this with you today because it ended with a double dog dare to pass it on.
And remember that the perfect age is somewhere between old enough to know better and young enough not to care.