Just Remembering

There are photos that someone posts on Facebook with the caption:
"Remember this?" or "Remember these ?"

Pictures of things like percolators, phones with dials and cords, Etch-a-Sketches, and so on and so forth.

I've not yet not remembered any of those things posted. I keep hoping something will show up that was 'before my time' so I don't feel so old ancient.

After having this conversation with my youngest daughter, I decided to 'just remember' and realized how different (and how alike) my childhood was from the kids' childhoods today.

Me: Don't forget to reset your clocks.

Her: Our phones automatically reset themselves.

Me: You don't have any of those things that hang on the wall ?

Remembering things like:

catching crawdads at the creek that ran by our house (the ones with the red pinchers seemed to pinch the hardest)

playing marbles

playing marbles for keeps and getting myself into a lot of trouble

riding a horse named Cracker bareback

riding in the back of the car (not in a car seat)

riding in the back of the car (not buckled in with a seat belt)

riding in the back of the car . . . literally THE BACK of the car, you know, that place below the back window ? not in the seat ! in the back of the car

building miniature forts with sticks and twigs under three big old oak trees

smoking grape vines and almost burning my lips off (probably a very good reason I never smoked)

playing softball - first base was a tree, second base was a stump, and home plate was a bald spot on the ground (there was no third base)

playing basketball and getting goat heads in my hands

kicking over rocks looking for tarantulas and scorpions

throwing dirt clods at the water mocassins in my friend's pond

throwing dirt clods at the out house to scare the snakes away

hoping the Black Widows wouldn't wake up while in the out house

hoping there was still some of the Sears and Roebuck catalog left in the out house

watching the test pattern on the tv for at least an hour hoping something else would eventually appear

changing from one channel (KTEN-Ada) to another channel (KXII-Ardmore, Sherman, Denison)

using a pipe wrench to turn the antenna so we could see either of those two channels

finally getting a rotor that automatically turned that antenna

walking outside the next day to see the antenna draped over the roof after the wind came sweeping down the plain the night before

hoping it wouldn't be more than a week to get it fixed

remembering how long the Beatles' hair was in 1964

watching American Bandstand in awe

not understanding New Math

getting into trouble for saying, 'screwed up.'

digging holes in the ground

playing indoor games like jacks, pick up sticks, heads-up-seven-up . . .

playing outdoor games like Red Rover Red Rover, Mother-May-I, dodge ball, h-o-r-s-e, hopscotch, red light green light, drop the handkerchief, tag/chase

playing chicken (this involved bare feet and a pocket knife) don't ask !

doing forward and backward flips on the monkey bars

trying to sling people off the merry-go-round

lying on a blanket watching the clouds turn into different animals

going 'to town' on Saturday to buy groceries for the next week

swimming in the Kiamichi River

at home, eating warm cornbread in cold milk, peanut butter and banana sandwiches, and mayonaise sandwiches

in the school lunchroom, eating commodity cheese, wacky cake, mixing honey and peanut butter and slathering it over hot yeast rolls (everyday M-F)

sitting in my dad's lap and learning to drive on Kellond Road when I was seven

catching fireflies (lightnin' bugs) and putting them in a Mason jar

tying a string to a locust

knowing how to tell time with a real clock that hung on the wall that had 'hands'

taking my baths in a number two warsh tub (not wash tub) WARSH tub

remembering when I was 9 years old we had a real flushable toilet, bathtub, and sink installed on the back porch

having one stove that heated the house (that meant the 'back porch bathroom' was very cold)

not having an air conditioner (that meant the 'back porch bathroom' was very hot)

swinging for hours . . .

. . . and . . .

. . . playing make-believe. . .

. . . and . . .

. . . having invisible friends . . .

JUST REMEMBERING gives me the warm fuzzies !

Sad some things have changed.

Glad some things have changed.

But, given the opportunity, don't think I would have changed any of it.

Comments

many similar "remembers"
no scorpions, snakes, or black widow spiders where we lived east of Seattle area.
But there were nettles that stung when we were playing in the woods.

You forgot to mention our parents telling us how we had so much compared to when they were kids. Well, my mom for sure, had nothing.

Posted by: Pamela | March 10, 2013 at 08:35 AM

I did so many of these things too! We used to chase and be chased by blue racer snakes. Now you never see these snakes anywhere. We would catch horny toads and pet their tummies to make them sleep. Now you hardly ever see a horny toad. We always said "worsh" for wash. I still have to make myself say it correctly because my kids noticed it. My dad moved to Antler's area after I got married around 1976. He lived in Snow, Ok.

Posted by: Terri | March 10, 2013 at 02:31 PM