Everybody makes fun of our childhood! Comedians joke. Grandkids snicker.
Twenty-somethings shudder and say, "Eeeew!"
But was our childhood really that bad? Judge for yourself:
In 1953, the US population was less than 150 million... Yet we knew more people then, and knew them better... And that was good.
The average annual salary was under $3,000... Yet our parents could put some of it away for a rainy day and still live a decent life... And that was good.
A loaf of bread cost about 15 cents... But it was safe for a five-year-old to roller skate to the store and buy one... And that was good.
Prime-time meant I Love Lucy, Ozzie and Harriet, Gunsmoke and Lassie...So nobody ever heard of ratings or filters... And that was good.
We didn't have air conditioning... So the windows stayed up and half a dozen mothers ran outside when we fell off a bike... And that was good.
Our teacher was either Miss Matthews or Mrs. Logan or Mr. Adkins... But not Ms. Becky or Mr. Dan... And that was respectful and good.
The only hazardous material we knew about... Was a patch of grassburrs around the light pole at the corner... And that was good.
We loved to climb into a fresh bed... Because sheets were dried on the clothesline... And that was good.
People generally lived in the same hometown with their relatives... So "child care" meant grandparents or aunts and uncles... And that was good.
Parents were respected and their rules were law... Children didn't talk back... (and we weren't confused about our place in life)... And that was good.
TV was in black-and-white... But all outdoors was in glorious color... And that was certainly good.
My dad knew how to adjust everybody's carburetor... And the dad next door knew how to adjust all the TV knobs... And that was very good.
Your grandma grew snap beans in the back yard... And chickens behind the garage... And that was definitely good.
And just when we were about to do something really bad... Chances were we'd run into our dad's high school coach... Or the nosy old lady from up the street... Or our little sister's piano teacher... Or somebody from Church... ALL of whom knew our parents' phone number AND our first names... And even THAT was good!
We were taught to respect people in uniforms... The uniform did not register "attack" in our minds... And that was good.
REMEMBER........
Send this on to somebody who can still remember... Nancy Drew, The Hardy Boys, Laurel & Hardy, Abbott & Costello, Sky King, Little Lulu comics, Brenda Starr, 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 movie reel on Saturday morning; summers filled with bike rides, playing in cowboy land, playing hide and seek, kick-the-can, Simon Says, baseball games, amateur shows at the local theater before the Saturday matinee, bowling and visits to the pool, ... and eating Kool-Aid powder with sugar, wax lips, 3-for-a-penny black-ball candies, bubble gum cigars, Cherry-cola made and served at the drugstore soda fountain, and that marvelous invention ... the juke box.
Didn't that feel good? Just to go back and say, "Yeah, I remember that!" And was it really that long ago?