here's one for ya!!!

[jimpierce7]

Some of you are not fortunate enough to know what most of this is...



AHHHHHHHHHH MEMORIES!!!



Close your eyes...And go back...



....Before the Internet or PC or the MAC......



....Before semi-automatics and crack....



....Before Playstation, SEGA, Super Nintendo, even before Atari...



....Before cell phones, CD's, DVD's, voicemail and e-mail....



....way back....



....way.....way.....way back.....





I'm talkin' bout hide and seek at dusk



Red light, Green light



Red Rover....Red Rover.....



Playing kickball &

dodgeball until the first...no...second...no...third



Streetlight came on



Ring around the Rosie



London Bridge



Hot potato



Hop Scotch



Jump rope



Duck....duck....GOOSE!!!





YOU'RE IT!!



Parents stood on the front porch and yelled (or whistled) for you to come home - no pagers or cell phones



Mother May I?



Hula Hoops



Seeing shapes in the clouds



Endless summer days and hot summer nights (no A/C) with the windows open



The sound of crickets



Running through the sprinkler



Happy Meals



Cereal boxes with that GREAT prize in the bottom



Cracker jacks with the same thing



Ice pops with 2 sticks you could break and share with a friend



...but wait.....there's more....





Watchin' Saturday Morning cartoons





Fat Albert, Road Runner, Smurfs, Picture Pages, G-Force & He-Man,



Schoolhouse Rock



Watchin' Sunday morning oldies (Abbott & Costello, Three Stooges)



Wonder Woman & Super Man Underoos



FONZIE.....AYYYYYYYY





Playing Dukes of Hazard



Catchin' lightning bugs in a jar



Christmas morning



Your first day of school



Bedtime Prayers and Goodnight Kisses



Climbing trees



Swinging as high as you could to try and reach the sky



Getting an Ice Cream off the Good Humor Truck



A million mosquito bites and sticky fingers



Jumpin' down the steps



Jumpin' on the bed



Pillow fights



Sleep-overs



A 13" black and white TV in your room meant you were RICH



Runnin' till you were out of breath



Laughing so hard that your stomach hurt



Being tired from PLAYING



WORK: meant taking out the garbage or doing the dishes



Your first crush



Your first kiss (I mean the one that you kept your mouth CLOSED and your eyes OPEN



Rainy days at school meant playing

"Heads up 7UP" or hangman" in



The classroom, Remember that?





Oh, I'm not finished yet....





Kool-Aid was the drink of the summer



So was a swig from the hose



Giving your friends a ride on your handlebars



Wearing your new shoes on the first day of school





Class Field Trips with soggy sandwiches



When nearly everyone's mom was at home when the kids got there



When a quarter seemed like a fair allowance;



and another quarter a MIRACLE



When ANY parent could discipline ANY kid, or feed him, or use him

to carry groceries...And nobody, not even the kid, thought a thing of it.



When your parents took you to McDonalds and you were COOL



When being sent to the principal's office was nothing compared to

the fate that awaited you 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! And some of

us are still afraid of em!





Didn't that feel good? Just to go back and say, "Yeah, I remember

that!"



Well, let's keep going!!

Let's go back to the time when...





Decisions were made by going "eeny-meeny-miney-mo"



Mistakes were corrected by simply exclaiming, "do over!"



"Race issues" meant arguing about who ran the fastest.



Money issues were handled by whoever was the banker in "monopoly"



Catching fireflies could happily occupy an entire evening





It wasn't odd to have two or three "best" friends.



Being old, referred to anyone over 20. (CRAP! I'm officially old!)



The worst thing you could catch from the opposite sex was cooties.



Nobody was prettier than Mom



Scrapes and bruises were kissed by mom or grandma and made better



It was a big deal to finally be tall enough to ride the "big people" rides at the amusement park.



Getting a foot of snow was a dream come true.



Abilities were discovered because of a "double-dog-dare"



Spinning around, getting dizzy and falling down was cause for giggles.



The worst embarrassment was being picked last for a team.



Water balloons were the ultimate, ultimate weapon.



Older siblings were your worst tormentors, but also your fiercest protector



If you can remember most or all of these, then you have LIVED!!!



Pass this on to anyone who may need a break from their "grown up" life......I TRIPLE DOG DARE YA!!!!!!

And for the even older folks.............remember???

Howdy Doody Time, Kukla Fran and Olie, Diver Dan, Speed Racer, Surf Side Six, Sherri Lewis & Lamb Chop, The Lone Ranger, Maverick, Sugar Foot, Burns and Allen, Captain Kangaroo, Danny Thomas, Dobie Gillis, Ding Dong School for children, Donna Reed, Ozzie and Harriet, Red Skelton, Bachelor Father, Queen For A Day., Mayberry RFD, Andy's Gang, Art Linkletter, just to name a few.

[kvnband]

I'm not old and I did (do) most of those things. I even know the old old people like Art Linkletter (his book about Kids say the darndest things is awesome..I used to read it every summer when I went camping with my grandparents...and Red Skelton.....I've got LOTS of tapes of him.....Good stuff Jim....

[Tiki]

Dang, Jim! I think we must have gone to school together! I remember all that except for the snow part!

[grandma]

Oh my...I must be realy old. My oldest son watched those cartoons.

I do, however, remember the other section of shows you listed...Oh my, again.

[Macawlvr]

Excellant post Jim. We all need to stop and remember our childhood and remember where we came from at times...life just seems better that way. Thanks for reminding me of all that today.

Seeya............................................. ............... James

[Bela]

great post! wow, yes, that kinda made me fall back in time. But I had no Bela then :(

That and we didn't catch fireflies. Rather, my bro and I made "lightning bug smackers". I know, it's cruel to think we turned them into shooting stars but it was better than the other kids who would kill them they could rub the glowing stuff on their faces and turn themselves into glow warriers.

[Doug W]

That was great! I love it!

[habs71]

And for the even older folks.............remember???

Howdy Doody Time, Kukla Fran and Olie, Diver Dan, Speed Racer, Surf Side Six, Sherri Lewis & Lamb Chop, The Lone Ranger, Maverick, Sugar Foot, Burns and Allen, Captain Kangaroo, Danny Thomas, Dobie Gillis, Ding Dong School for children, Donna Reed, Ozzie and Harriet, Red Skelton, Bachelor Father, Queen For A Day., Mayberry RFD, Andy's Gang, Art Linkletter, just to name a few.

Yes, unfortunately I remember them all..plus the old radio shows from which a number of the old TV shows came!!


Skip

[Buteo]

It's great thinkin about all those things....

Going to the brow, lookin across the bay & lake Ontario and seeing the CN tower off in the distance.....

Sitting over by the ski hill in summer & watching the hawks cruising the thermals that are usually rushing up the edge of the escarpment on a warm day....

Or watching a couple of them sitting in the huge dead tree & hunting in the open feild near the top of the ski hill....

Walking a couple of blocks from my house down to the creek to catch frogs, minnows, bugs and whatever else I could find...

Finding a very special bend in the creek and "tickling a trout". I caught my very first brookie with my bare hands doing that....

takin that one step too far & getting soakers...

listening to the SLUGSQUELCHHHHH, SLUGSQUELCHHHHH, SLUGSQUELCHHHHH all the way home...

then watchin either Mom pouring a bit of salt on them or Dad strikin a match & touchin it to the leeches to make them let go.

Following the stream to the Brow and watching the water stream over Albion Falls....


rememberin all the dreams for the future I had back then.....

It makes me very sad when I open my eyes and see where we are now.....

When I go to the Brow today, I can barely see across the bay due to smog - it has to be an exceptionally clear day to see TO.

The ski hill has been closed, but now people come when the wind is just right to use it as a takeoff point for hanggliders & parasails.
I was lucky enough to manage to catch on video couple of parasailors a few of years ago gliding around. They were in the company of a pair of Redtail hawks, 2 Peregrine Falcons and a couple of American Kestrals.

The big old dead tree that was the Hawks favourite hunting perch was cut down & open feild turned into a new quad pad ice rink.....

That nice little trout stream I loved was "redirected" through underground culverts & pipes so the city could make another road, The Lincoln Alexander Parkway.

That cut the flow of water to less than a quarter of what it was.....
Albion Falls is only a shadow of what it once was - a trickle, not really a true "falls" at all...

[Suz Stickville]

You forgot ...Kick the Can. ..game..usually played by us at twilight

Ed Sullivan Show............ that was the highlit of the week at my parents house...until the BEATLES