Now and Then

My granddaughters seem to think that I was never a teenager, nor can they fathom that I was ever “little”. I think I heard one say once that I was “older than dirt”. That being said, I would like to talk about the differences between when I was a child and the way things are now. I was a child in the 1970’s. It was a much simpler time than it is now. I would walk to school and home, half the time walking slowly with a group of children. It might take half an hour to get home even if the walk was only about 6 blocks. It would start out as a group of children, talking all at once about various things. As the group passed houses children would wave bye and go inside; until, one by one, the group would end up being just a couple. My mom never worried about when and if we got home. We always did. We would do our homework, if there was any and then race outside to play. The whole neighborhood was our playground. We would race through each other’s yards, playing hide and seek and freeze tag, among other games. We would come inside only when the street lights came on. It was the signal for all kids to go home, eat dinner as a family, take a bath and head for bed. In my grand children’s world, they cannot do any of those things. They cannot go for a walk, ride their bike around the block, play outside after dark or talk to a stranger. Children today cannot even stay overnight anymore if one of the parents (or grandparents) remarries without the fear of one of them being a molester of some sort. I have been asked in the past, if I could change the past, what I would change. I still say nothing, but I would love to take my grand children to “my” past childhood for just one day and let them see what it is that they are missing