Time and Time Again

My son asked me what I liked most from being a kid—as in, what I had then in comparison to what kids have now. I thought about it for a little bit and said this:

I liked how we were outside from as soon as we got home from school till the lights came on in the streets and we had to go home.

I liked how every minute of every day was spent doing something, like running around the neighborhood, making fake spears out of bamboo chutes, and throwing them at each other.

I liked how there were no cell phones or computers that our eyes were stuck to all day; that we actually lived life outside of technology, and made really good childhood memories.

I liked how the only time we stayed glued to the television was on Saturday mornings when it was "cartoon time," and you were thrilled to watch the Bugs Bunny & Road Runner Hour, and Pink Panther. After which, we'd sneak out of the house before our parents got up so as not to be stuck at home doing chores.

I liked how we could hitchhike into town without fear of being kidnapped, and sexually abused, or murdered.

I liked how laws weren't so strict back then, and we could jump in the back of a pickup and go anywhere.

I liked how we knew who the neighborhood crab was, and made her life even more uncomfortable with childhood pranks—like the night we went 'gigging' and stuck a bunch of frogs, cooked their legs, and ate them, and put the remains of the frogs on her door knob, car door handle, in her car seat on her porch, the works!! (I know, I know... but, she realllly deserved it!).

How watching a movie was really special—because they weren't on 24 hours a day, on fifty channels or PPV, and if they were, we couldn't afford them anyway.

Then he asked me what I like about what kids have today. My answer was kinda weird. I told him I love his childhood for all the same reasons I loved mine, only in reverse.

I love how you can settle an argument with one five second search on Google. How information is available to you instantaneously without hardly any effort.

How your phone keeps you in contact with all your friends almost whenever you even think of them, that you know they are okay, what they're thinking, what they're going through, and where they are any time you want to know.

That music and film are so easily obtainable at any time of the day or night.

That movie special effects are so incredible nowadays that they actually blow you away, and are constantly changing and improving so rapidly. Like, the film, Gravity would have never been made, not even 15 years ago.

How pornography used to be so hard to come by (I know, I know, but even that can be nostalgic, for adults anyway!). Meaning, when we were younger, we had to sneak into our parent's room, find my dad's girlie magazine stash, and then put it back as though it had never been touched before they got home! Today, it's available at the click of a button! (Not that I even check that shit out... Heh heh... and I'm sure He doesn't either!!).

How you can be at home, and on your computer or smart phone, see and talk to someone halfway across the world like they did in the Jetsons cartoon.

When I told him these things, it was right 'off the cuff', you know, off the top of my head. What an amazing bunch of memories my young and innocent childhood gave me, and he was amazed at the difference in our timelines.

At the same time, I am really sad that they'll never know what we knew as kids back then... But, I know the world is always rapidly changing as fast as ours was for us, and their childhoods will be like everything and nothing their children will know.

It's just the way of the world... And so time goes on... time and time again.