Mom was at home when the kids got home from school; when nobody owned a purebred dog; when a quarter was a decent allowance, and another quarter a huge bonus; when you'd reach into a muddy gutter for a penny; when all of your male teachers wore neckties and female teachers had their hair done and wore high heels; when you got your windshield cleaned, oil checked and gas pumped without asking, all for free, every time, and you didn't pay for air, and, you got trading stamps to boot. When it was considered a great privilege to be taken out to dinner at a real restaurant with your parents; When the worst thing you could do at school was smoke in the bathrooms, flunk a test or chew gum; and people went steady and girls wore a class ring with an inch of wrapped yarn so ! it would fit her finger. And 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. And you got in big trouble if you accidentally locked the doors at home, since no one ever had a key. Remember lying on your back on the grass with your friends and saying things like "That cloud looks like a bunch of cotton." Remember jumping waves at the ocean for hours in that cold water; and playing baseball with no adults to help kids with the rules of the game because baseball was not a psychological group learning experience, it was a game. Remember when stuff from the store came without safety caps and hermetic seals because no one had yet tried to poison a perfect stranger. And with all our progress, don't you wish, just once, you could slip back in time and savor the slower pace and share it with the children of today. Remember when being sent to the principal's office was nothing compared to the fate that awaited a misbehaving student 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! But we all survived because their love was greater than the threat. Go back with me for a minute.... Before the Internet or the MAC...before semiautomatics and crack...before SEGA or Super Nintendo... Way back .... I'm talking about hide and go seek at dusk, red light, green light, kick the can, playing kickball & dodgeball until your porch light came on...and mother may I? red rover, roller skating to music, running through the sprinkler... And catching lightning bugs in a jar; Christmas morning; your first day of school; bedtime prayers and goodnight kisses;climbing trees; getting an ice cream from the Good Humor truck; a million mosquito bites and sticky fingers; jumping on the bed; pillow fights; running till you were out of breath; laughing so hard your stomach hurt; being tired from playing! ; your first crush...remember that? Kool-aid was the drink of summer; toting your friends on your handle bars;wearing your new shoes on the first day of school and class field trips. Didn't that feel good, just to go back and say, Yeah, I remember that! There's nothing like the good old days. They were good then, and they're good now when we think about them. I want to go back to the time when............ Decisions were made by going "eeny-meeny-miney-mo" and mistakes were corrected by simply exclaiming, "do it over!" "Race issue" meant arguing about who ran the fastest; catching fireflies could happily occupy an entire evening; and it wasn't odd to have two or three"best" friends. Scrapes and bruises were kissed and made better; 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 weapon; and older siblings were the worst tormentors, but also the fiercest protectors. 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 DOUBLE-DOG DARE YA * * * * * * I don't mind going nowhere as long as it's an interesting path. * * * * * *