Simplicity of the Old Days

Do you miss the days of simplicity? I step back sometimes and look at just how much the times have changed. Being a 70's baby I remember what I call the "good times". I think back to when there wasn't no where near as much crime, families gathered on Sundays and holidays for dinners, there were still such things as family reunions. Children could be found outside riding bikes or exploring nature instead of sitting cooped up in the house with a video game controller or a smartphone in their hands. Mothers were in the kitchen shelling beans, standing over the stove, and sharing stories about their families. Fathers were sitting under a shade tree playing cards, throwing horseshoes, smoking their favorite pipes or cigars, and jokingly complaining about work or their wives.

As I sit and compare a typical day from my childhood past to what you would see a child doing in this day in time I really feel like crying because of how sad it is. These kids today are missing out on so many things. I grew up in a time where you might watch an hour of cartoons in the mornings while eating a bowl of your favorite cereal before you got dressed and started your outdoor excitement. You might climb trees, ride bikes, build forts in the woods, catch crawl-dads in the creeks, eat honeysuckles from the bushes, or pick muscadines from the vine. When you watched television you watched antenna tv, not cable. Yes, eventually cable and internet and cell phones/pagers came into the picture, but the cable was the basics, internet was dial-up (you prayed nobody called, as it would knock you offline), and cell phones were either huge (some in bags) or flip-style. You didn't have to worry about little wanna-be thugs jumping on you and you could easily walk or ride your bike to the corner store without being in fear for your life. At the end of your day you took a bath, at dinner as a family, and went to bed at a decent hour. And speaking about bedtime, you could actually go to bed with your windows open, the attic fan running to stay cool and leave your doors unlocked or even standing open and leave your keys in your car without fear of someone bothering something.

Then of course we had our high school years. Our idea of a fun weekend was going to the lake with our friends or if it was a family weekend you went camping or somewhere fun. Sometimes you could be found "cruising" on Main Street or hanging out at the movies or arcade. As we got older and started driving we got more mischievous and would go out with our friends. The small town skating rink was very popular on Friday and Saturday nights. And on Halloween it was nothing to find a car load of kids rolling yards and throwing eggs.

I miss the days when things were more simple and safe. Kids today don't know what they missed out on. As a parent when you try to talk to your kids they act like you are either dumb and don't know what your talking about or that you are just cruel and want to ruin their lives. All we are trying to do is protect our children from making the same mistakes that we made, but then you just have to realize that they have to learn on their own. You can't live their lives from them.

Now granted, my story comes from my memories of growing up in a small country town. And I know that city kids probably done things a lot different, but all in all no matter where you grew up, it was still more of a simple life then what we live today.