DO YOU REMEMBER WHEN....?


All the girls had ugly gym uniforms?





It took five minutes for the TV warm up?

Nearly everyone's Mom was at home when the kids got home from school?



Nobody owned a purebred dog?
When a quarter was a decent allowance?
You'd reach into a muddy gutter for a penny?
Your Mom wore nylons that can in pairs?


All your male teachers wore neckties and female teachers
had their hair done every day and wore high heels?


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?


Laundry detergent had free glasses,
dishes or towels hidden inside the box?




It was considered a great privilege to be taken out to
dinner at a real restaurant with your parents?



They threatened to keep kids back a grade
if they failed....। and they really did?
When a 57 Chevy was everyone's dream car...to cruise,
peel out, lay rubber or watch submarine races, and people went steady?

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?




Lying on your back in the grass with your friends
and saying things like, "That cloud looks like a
(whatever you desired) "
and playing baseball with no adults to
help kids with the rules of the game?


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 just wish, just once,
you could slip back in time and savor the slower pace,
and share it with the children of today?



When being sent to the principal's office was nothing
compared to the fate that awaited the 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, grandparents, adult neighbors and
friends parents were a much bigger threat!

Yet we survived and learned how to behave!
And that we weren't the center of the universe.

Do you remember
Nancy Drew, the Hardy Boys, Laurel and Hardy,

Howdy Doody and the Peanut Gallery,

the Lone Ranger, The Shadow Knows,

Nellie Bell , Roy and Dale, Trigger and Buttermilk.



As well as summers filled with bike rides, baseball games,

Hula Hoops, bowling and visits to the pool,

and eating Kool-Aid powder with sugar.

Didn't that feel good, just to go back and say,

"Yeah, I remember that"?

I am sharing this with you today

because it ended with a double dog dare to pass it on.

To remember what a double dog dare is, read on.

And remember that the perfect age is somewhere between
old enough to know better and too young to care.

How many of these do you remember?

Candy cigarettes



Wax Coke-shaped bottles with colored sugar water inside

Soda pop machines that dispensed glass bottles.



Coffee shops with tableside jukeboxes.



Blackjack, Clove and Teaberry chewing gum.



Home milk delivery in glass bottles with cardboard stoppers.



Newsreels before the movie, and of course your favorite pair of P.F. Fliers
emember telephone numbers with a word prefix...(Raymond 4-601).
Party lines

Peashooters

Howdy Doody

45 RPM records

Green Stamps

Hi-Fi's
Metal ice cube trays with levers

Mimeograph paper

Beanie and Cecil



Roller-skate keys

Cork pop guns

Drive ins



Studebakers




Washtub wringers

The Fuller Brush Man

Reel-To-Reel tape recorders

Tinkertoys


Erector Sets

The Fort Apache Play Set

Lincoln Logs



15 cent McDonald hamburgers

5 cent packs of baseball cards -

with that awful pink slab of bubble gum

Penny candy

35 cent a gallon gasoline

Jiffy Pop popcorn

Do you remember a time when...

Decisions were made by going "eeny-meeny-miney-moe"?

Mistakes were corrected by simply exclaiming, "Do Over!"?

"Race issue" meant arguing about who ran the fastest?





Catching the fireflies could happily occupy an entire evening?

It wasn't odd to have two or three "Best Friends"?




The worst thing you could catch from the opposite sex was "cooties"?



Having a weapon in school meant being caught with a slingshot?

A foot of snow was a dream come true?

"Oly-oly-oxen-free" made perfect sense?

Spinning around, getting dizzy, and falling down was cause for giggles?

The worst embarrassment was being picked last for a team?

War was a card game?



Baseball cards in the spokes transformed any bike into a motorcycle?

Taking drugs meant orange-flavored chewable aspirin?



Water balloons were the ultimate weapon?



If you can remember most or all of these,

then you have really lived!!!!!!!

For Our Mother's



For those lucky to still be blessed with your Mom,this is beautiful.
For those of us who aren't,this is even more beautiful.
For those who are Moms, you'll love this!
The young Mother set her foot on the path of life.
"Is this the long way?" she asked.
And the guide said:"Yes, and the way is hard,
you will beold before you reach the end of it.
But the end will be better than the beginning.
"But the young Mother was happy,
and she would not believe that anything
could be better than these years.
So she played with her children,
and gathered flowers for them along the way,
and bathed them in the clear streams;
and the sun shone on them,
and the young Mother cried,
"Nothing will ever be lovelier than this.
"Then the night came, and with it, the storm.
And the path was dark,
and the children shook with fear and cold.
The Mother drew them close and covered
them with her mantle,
and the children said,
"Mother, we are not afraid,
for you are near,and no harm can come.
"And the morning came,
and there was a hill ahead,
and the children climbed and grew weary,
and the Mother was weary.
But at all times she said to the children,
" A little patience and we are there."
So the children climbed,
and when they reached the top they said,
"Mother, we would not have done it without you.
"And the Mother, when she lay down at
night looked up at the stars and said,
"This is a better day than the last,
for my children have learned fortitude
in the face of hardness.
Yesterday I gave them courage,
today I've given them strength.
"And the next day came strange
clouds which darkened the earth,
clouds of war and hate and evil.
The children groped and stumbled,
and the Mother said:
"Look up. Lift your eyes to the light.
"And the children looked and saw above
the clouds an everlasting glory,
and it guided them beyond the darkness.
And that night the Mother said,
"This is the best day of all,
for I have shown my children GOD.
"And the days went on,
and the weeks and the months and the years,
The Mother grew old, and she was little and bent.
But her children were tall and strong,
and walked with courage.
And when the way was rough,
they lifted her,for she was as light as a feather;
and at last they came to a hill.
Beyond it they could see a shining road
and golden gates flung wide.
And Mother said,
"I have reached the end of my journey.
Now I know the end is better than the beginning,
for my children can walk alone,
and their children after them.
" And the children said,
"You will always walk with us, Mother,
even when you have gone through the gates."
And they stood and watched her as she went on alone,
and the gates closed after her.
And they said:
"We cannot see her but she is with us still.
A Mother like ours is more than a memory.
She is a living presence......."
Your Mother is always with you....
She's the whisper of the leaves as youwalk down the street;
she's the smell of bleach in your freshly laundered socks;
she's the cool hand on your brow when you're not well.
Your Mother lives inside YOUR laughter.
And she's crystallized in every tear drop.
She's the place you came from, your first home;
and she's the map you follow with every step you take.
She's your first love and your first heartbreak,
and nothing on earth can separate you.
Not time, not space... not even death!

If you would like to read more stories like this please visit
www.littlebitscloset.com

Warm Wishes~ Susan