Tonight we kicked back to watch the perennial favourites: Frosty the Snowman, the Grinch, and my lil' guy, Rudolf the Red Nose Reindeer. Afterwards, we slapped on the festive tunes and trimmed our Christmas tree - oh, I was feeling downright jolly. Supah Stah, who has decided he loves me again (?!) poured us all some egg nog; I think he secretly yearns to be a bartender. He tried something new for himself - Tequila & egg nog - oh, blech!! I was admirably hiding my snickers until Prince asked if the egg nog curdled. Ever the optimist, Supah Stah shouted, "Look! I made Tequila curd...YUMMM..."
It was such a welcome relief from all the tension of late. As happens each year, I began to get a little blue for times gone by, with each ornament that came out of the box. That tight feeling in the throat began, and I choked back tears by the time I pulled out the framed photos of the kids on Santa's knee. The holidays do it to me without fail - nostalgia bit me on the butt again. Why would I expect any different?
The tree looks wonderful and we agreed (as we do every year) that this is the best one ever! After the kids headed off to bed, I checked my email and found the following...perfect for my mood tonight. Thanx, D.S. : )
REMEMBER WHEN
When all the girls had ugly gym uniforms? It took five minutes for the TV warm up? Nearly everyone's Mom was at home when the kids got home from school? Nobody owned a purebred dog? When a quarter was a decent allowance? You'd reach into a muddy gutter for a penny? Your Mom wore nylons that came in two pieces?
All your male teachers wore neckties and female teachers had their hair done every day and wore high heels? You got your windshield cleaned, oil checked, and gas pumped, without asking, all for free, every time? And you didn't pay for air? Laundry detergent had free glasses, dishes or towels hidden inside the box? It was considered a great privilege to be taken out to dinner at a real restaurant with your parents? They threatened to keep kids back a grade if they failed. . and they did? 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?
Lying on your back in the grass with your friends and saying things like, "That cloud looks like a ..."
Playing baseball with no adults to help kids with the rules of the game? Stuff from the store came without safety caps and hermetic seals because no one had yet tried to poison a perfect stranger? When being sent to the principal's office was nothing compared to the fate that awaited the student at home?
Who could forget...
Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys, Laurel and Hardy, Howdy Doody and the Peanut Gallery, the Lone Ranger, The Shadow Knows, The Green Hornet, Gang Busters, Sgt Preston & King, Nellie Bell, Roy and Dale, Trigger and Buttercup...
Summers filled with bike rides, baseball games, Hula Hoops, bowling and visits to the pool, and eating Kool-Aid powder with sugar. Remember what a double dog dare is? Or...candy cigarettes, wax Coke-shaped bottles with colored sugar water inside, soda pop machines that dispensed glass bottles, coffee shops with tableside jukeboxes? Blackjack, Clove and Teaberry chewing gum, home milk delivery in glass bottles with cardboard stoppers? Newsreels before the movie, P.F. Fliers, telephone numbers with a word prefix...(Liberty 9-4980), party lines? Peashooters, Howdy Dowdy, 45 RPM records, Green Stamps, Hi-Fi's, metal ice cubes trays with levers, mimeograph paper, Beanie and Cecil? Thumbelina?
Roller-skate keys, cork pop guns, drive ins, washtub wringers, The Fuller Brush Man, reel-to-reel tape recorders, Tinkertoys, Erector Sets, The Fort Apache Play Set, Lincoln Logs, 15 cent McDonald hamburgers, 5 cent packs of baseball cards - with that awful pink slab of bubble gum, penny candy, 20 cent a gallon gasoline, Jiffy Pop popcorn.
Decisions were made by going "eeny-meeny-miney-moe"? Mistakes were corrected by simply exclaiming, "Do Over!"? "Race issue" meant arguing about who ran the fastest? Catching the fireflies could happily occupy an entire evening? It wasn't odd to have two or three "Best Friends"? The worst thing you could catch from the opposite sex was "cooties"? Having a weapon in school meant being caught with a slingshot? A foot of snow was a dream come true?
Saturday morning cartoons weren't 30-minute commercials for action figures? Cartoons read on the radio? Spinning around, getting dizzy, and falling down was cause for giggles? Kick the can? The worst embarrassment was being picked last for a team? War was a card game? Baseball cards in the spokes transformed any bike into a motorcycle? Taking drugs meant orange-flavored chewable aspirin? Water balloons were the ultimate weapon?
"Oly-oly-oxen-free" made perfect sense?
It was such a welcome relief from all the tension of late. As happens each year, I began to get a little blue for times gone by, with each ornament that came out of the box. That tight feeling in the throat began, and I choked back tears by the time I pulled out the framed photos of the kids on Santa's knee. The holidays do it to me without fail - nostalgia bit me on the butt again. Why would I expect any different?
The tree looks wonderful and we agreed (as we do every year) that this is the best one ever! After the kids headed off to bed, I checked my email and found the following...perfect for my mood tonight. Thanx, D.S. : )
REMEMBER WHEN
When all the girls had ugly gym uniforms? It took five minutes for the TV warm up? Nearly everyone's Mom was at home when the kids got home from school? Nobody owned a purebred dog? When a quarter was a decent allowance? You'd reach into a muddy gutter for a penny? Your Mom wore nylons that came in two pieces?
All your male teachers wore neckties and female teachers had their hair done every day and wore high heels? You got your windshield cleaned, oil checked, and gas pumped, without asking, all for free, every time? And you didn't pay for air? Laundry detergent had free glasses, dishes or towels hidden inside the box? It was considered a great privilege to be taken out to dinner at a real restaurant with your parents? They threatened to keep kids back a grade if they failed. . and they did? 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?
Lying on your back in the grass with your friends and saying things like, "That cloud looks like a ..."
Playing baseball with no adults to help kids with the rules of the game? Stuff from the store came without safety caps and hermetic seals because no one had yet tried to poison a perfect stranger? When being sent to the principal's office was nothing compared to the fate that awaited the student at home?
Who could forget...
Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys, Laurel and Hardy, Howdy Doody and the Peanut Gallery, the Lone Ranger, The Shadow Knows, The Green Hornet, Gang Busters, Sgt Preston & King, Nellie Bell, Roy and Dale, Trigger and Buttercup...
Summers filled with bike rides, baseball games, Hula Hoops, bowling and visits to the pool, and eating Kool-Aid powder with sugar. Remember what a double dog dare is? Or...candy cigarettes, wax Coke-shaped bottles with colored sugar water inside, soda pop machines that dispensed glass bottles, coffee shops with tableside jukeboxes? Blackjack, Clove and Teaberry chewing gum, home milk delivery in glass bottles with cardboard stoppers? Newsreels before the movie, P.F. Fliers, telephone numbers with a word prefix...(Liberty 9-4980), party lines? Peashooters, Howdy Dowdy, 45 RPM records, Green Stamps, Hi-Fi's, metal ice cubes trays with levers, mimeograph paper, Beanie and Cecil? Thumbelina?
Roller-skate keys, cork pop guns, drive ins, washtub wringers, The Fuller Brush Man, reel-to-reel tape recorders, Tinkertoys, Erector Sets, The Fort Apache Play Set, Lincoln Logs, 15 cent McDonald hamburgers, 5 cent packs of baseball cards - with that awful pink slab of bubble gum, penny candy, 20 cent a gallon gasoline, Jiffy Pop popcorn.
Decisions were made by going "eeny-meeny-miney-moe"? Mistakes were corrected by simply exclaiming, "Do Over!"? "Race issue" meant arguing about who ran the fastest? Catching the fireflies could happily occupy an entire evening? It wasn't odd to have two or three "Best Friends"? The worst thing you could catch from the opposite sex was "cooties"? Having a weapon in school meant being caught with a slingshot? A foot of snow was a dream come true?
Saturday morning cartoons weren't 30-minute commercials for action figures? Cartoons read on the radio? Spinning around, getting dizzy, and falling down was cause for giggles? Kick the can? The worst embarrassment was being picked last for a team? War was a card game? Baseball cards in the spokes transformed any bike into a motorcycle? Taking drugs meant orange-flavored chewable aspirin? Water balloons were the ultimate weapon?
"Oly-oly-oxen-free" made perfect sense?
1 comment:
Thanks, now I feel old :)
S.
Post a Comment