What Was So Good About The Good Old Days?

My best friend Joyce and I were at Peter’s Pond ocean when she found a quarter-a shiny, amazing quarter. It translated into 25 penny candies, half of a movie admission, a balsa wood airplane from the Five and Ten. She was so lucky! I wished and I wished that I too would find a quarter that day, and low and behold I did.

There was a time that finding a quarter felt equivalent to winning the lottery. That someone’s misfortune of losing a pencil or a pen-meant a found treasure. There was a time that we had to ask permission to use my father’s nails to build a tree fort as each nail held value. Wheels from a broken garden cart became the wheels of a go cart. Large wire spools became driveway balancing fun. We learned to be resourceful.

 There were empty lots in each neighborhood where we gathered for kickball, kite flying and tag. We spent hours playing games like ‘Red Light-Greenlight’, “Red Rover’, ‘Mother May I?’, and ‘SPUD’ that kept us outdoors and having fun for hours. We learned to play fair.

 There were miles of trails through the woods for us to explore as long as we were home by dinner. We climbed trees, dug mussels, skated on hidden ponds. We had no cellphones in our back pockets-no one checking in. We learned to be adventurous.

 When writing a research paper for school we referred to our set of World Book Encyclopedias-they seemed as valuable as gold on our shelves. We would also go to the library for a book or order one from interlibrary loan. There were no immediate resources, we learned how to wait. 

 Papers were either handwritten or keystroked on manual typewriters. If you were lucky enough to have erasable bond typing paper you were lucky enough. Otherwise, each typo meant starting over again. Spooling typewriter ribbon was even more challenging than spooling film onto your camera. We learned determination.

 Photos were sent in mailers through the post office-or brought to the local photo shop. You only had 12 or 24 or 36 photos per roll so each was precious and not to be wasted. It could take a week or two to get those photos developed and returned. I used to check the mailbox every day in anxious anticipation. We learned to be patient.

 There were crazy things like Sunday dinners with our grandparents. Ice cream sodas were a treat we waited for all week along with the ‘Ed Sullivan Show’. My grandmother would clap after each performance and there was no need to ever change the channel-the rabbit ears only brought one into our house. Other days we might have a can of fruit cocktail for dessert and we bickered over who got the half of cherry or two. We learned to share.

 Three of us fit into a tiny bedroom. There was no need for expansion or McMansions because this is how families lived and shared and grew together. There weren’t separate wings on the house or playrooms or studios or libraries-that was what a ‘living room’ was for-living. Our hallway was always great for a game of ‘Monkey in the Middle’ or pitching pennies. Along with meals, the kitchen table was for homework, folding laundry, filleting fish, jigsaw puzzles and games of poker. My father taught us all different card games which really helped build my math confidence. We learned to work together.

 We now live with the world literally at our fingertips. Photos, videos, emails, texts, novels, research, commerce, movies, music production all just a click away. The wooded trails are littered with houses-some so large they dwarf the quiet ponds they’ve been built next to. I imagine you could live within the walls of some of these homes for days without having to cross paths. Larger, richer, faster, trendier yet seemingly so much more alone.

 Life is certain to change-it is the one thing we can count on. But there seem to be values and ideals being lost right before our eyes. We keep riding this roller coaster of life without being able to pull the emergency cord-to slow it down-to retreat into the comfortable, kind, reverent world we grew up in. Wouldn’t it be great to remember all that we learned about life from our childhood, put away our phones, listen to the wind blow, the birds sing and the truth from our inner voices? 

 Who’s ready for a game of SPUD?