REMEMBER WHEN

     After receiving an e-mail from a long-time friend of mine.  I sat down to fully absorb every word.  As I read it.  I returned to my childhood once again with all the fun that I had forgotten long ago.

     So, sit back, relax and let me take you on a walk down memory lane.  If we are close enough in age, I’ll probably be ringing a few bells for you too.

     DO YOU REMEMBER?

     When nearly everyone’s Mom was at home when the kids got home from school?  How about when she had cookies and milk waiting for you after school. Yum! 

     How about when Mom painted on her stockings, because all the nylon was being used for the war effort...World Was II that is.

     The world was a different place in those days.

     Remember when all the male teachers wore neckties and female teachers wore dresses and high heels?  I also remember when they threatened to keep kids back a grade if they failed...and they did.

     If you were sent to the principal’s office, it was nothing compared to the fate that awaited you at home?  I can remember when the principal would spank you with a paddle when you misbehaved.  Yes, I got paddled, but only once.

     Remember when a boy would give his letterman sweater to his girl to prove they was going steady.

     Those were the days when you got your windshield cleaned, oil checked, and gas pumped, without asking.  All free, every time.  You didn’t pay for air either, and you got trading stamps to boot.  Need I mention that gas was only about 35-cents a gallon?

     I can remember when laundry detergent had free glasses, dishes or towels hidden inside the box.

     Do you remember the neighborhood ice cream parlor with a jukebox on every table?

You could choose your record and drop in a dime to listen to your favorite song.  Those were the days.

     In the ’40’s the convertible was a big thing, especially in California.  But, later on the ’57 Chevy was everyone’s dream car...to cruise, peel out, lay rubber or watch submarine races.

     No one every asked where the car keys were because they were always in the car, in the ignition, and the doors were never locked? 

     How many of these do you remember?  Candy cigarettes, wax Coke-shaped bottles with colored sugar water inside, soda pop machines that dispense glass bottles, Blackjack, Clove and Teaberry chewing gum?  They were so good.  I loved the clink of the bottles as the milkman delivered our milk, in glass bottles with cardboard stopper?  When it froze, the cream would push up out of the bottle, with the cardboard stopper looking like a hat.

     Do you remember telephone numbers with a word prefix, and party lines, where you could listen in on your neighbor’s conversations?

     If you remember most, or all of these, you must be as old as I am?

     Don’t you wish, just once, you could slip back in time and savor the slower pace of those wonderful days?  

     Did you enjoy our walk down memory lane?  If you did, share it with your children.  But be prepared, they will probably just roll their eyes and say, “Get real Mom!”