If your not smiling by the end of this...

Just for a minute, forget everything stressful and read this...............

Close your eyes and go back in time...

Before the Internet or the Apple Mac.

Before semi-automatics, joyriders and crack....

Before SEGA or Super Nintendo...

Way back........

I'm talking about Hide and Seek in the park.

The corner shop.

Hopscotch.

Butterscotch.

Skipping.

Handstands.

Football with an old can.

Fingerbob.

Beano, Dandy, Buster, Twinkle and Dennis the menace.

Roly Poly.

Hula Hoops, jumping the stream, building dams.

The smell of the sun and fresh cut grass.

Bazooka Joe bubble gum.

An ice cream cone on a warm summer night from the van that plays a tune - Chocolate or vanilla or strawberry or maybe
Neapolitan or perhaps a screwball

Wait......

Watching Saturday morning cartoons....short commercials, The Double Deckers, Road Runner, He-Man, Zeebedee Tiswas or Swapshop?, and 'Why Don't You'? - or staying up for Doctor Who.

When around the corner seemed far away and going into town seemed like going somewhere.

Earwigs, wasps, stinging nettles and bee stings.

Sticky fingers.

Cops and Robbers, Cowboys and Indians, and Zorro.

Climbing trees.

Building igloos out of snow banks.

Walking to school, no matter what the weather.

Running till you were out of breath, laughing so hard that your stomach hurt.

Jumping on the bed. Pillow fights.

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

Being tired from playing....remember that?

The worst embarrassment was being picked last for a team.

Water balloons were the ultimate weapon

Football cards in the spokes transformed any bike into a motorcycle.

Choppers and Grifters

I'm not finished just yet.....

Eating raw jelly. Orange squash ice pops.

Remember when...

There were two types of trainers - girls and boys, and Dunlop Green Flash - and the only time you wore them at school was for P.E.

You knew everyone in your street - and so did your parents.

It wasn't odd to have two or three "best" friends.

You didn't sleep a wink on Christmas eve.

When nobody owned a pure-bred dog.

When 25p was decent pocket money

When you'd reach into a muddy gutter for a penny.

When everyone's mum was at home when the kids got there.

It was magic when dad would "remove" his thumb.

When it was considered a great privilege to be taken out to dinner at a real restaurant with your parents.

When any parent could discipline any kid, or feed him or use him to carry groceries and nobody, not even the kid, thought a thing of it.

When being sent to the head's office was nothing compared to the fate that awaited a misbehaving student when he got home.

Basically, we were in fear for our lives but it wasn't because of drive-by shootings, drugs, gangs etc.

Parents and grandparents were a
much bigger threat! - and some of us are still afraid of them!!

Didn't that feel good?

Just to go back and say, Yeah, I remember that!

Remember when....

Decisions were made by going " Ip Dip Dog @#%$ "

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

Money issues were handled by whoever was the banker in Monopoly.

The worst thing you could catch from the opposite sex was a cold.

And the worst thing in your day was having to sit next to one.

It was unbelievable that 'British Bulldog 123' wasn't an Olympic event.

Having a weapon in school, meant being caught with a catapult, or a pea shooter.

Nobody was prettier than Mum.

Scrapes and bruises were kissed and made better.

Taking drugs meant orange-flavoured chewable aspirin.

Ice cream was considered a basic food group

Getting a foot of snow was a dream come true

Older siblings were the worst tormentors, but also the fiercest protectors

If you can remember most or all of these, then you have


LIVED.

Pass this on to anyone who may need a break from their "grown up" life...



I DOUBLE-DARE YOU

Smiling now...

but a tear comes to the eye too...

Yeah,
Definately a tear.

Some may have lost a bit in translation from British things, but it's mostly true of all countries I think.

Bazooka Joe bubble gum!! I'd forgotten that.....must get some

And you mean British Bulldog isn't in the Olympics? ####, I'm still in training :

Thanks Colin......I remember ummmmmm some of it

Roger

A sign of age I guess - but I remember 99% of it. BIG SIGH.

How about a nickle Coke and pack of gum for also a nickle.....

Moving the outhouse two feet behind the hole, yes those were the days..........

Ray

Ray,
I don't think anyone else is quite THAT old :evil: :rollin: :rollin:

Ray, you did that too...? I would move it behind the hole and start a fire in front of it, just to get them running to it!? :evil:

Where have the years all gone?

I never did that, that was my Dad.......

[BladeZealot]

Does anyone remember this??...the fogger truck {for misquitos} coming through the neighborhood and the kids all running behind it playing in the fog???

[Roger Gregory]

No Russ, only you

Roger

[jar]

Does anyone else remember getting a brain freeze? When it was really, really hot you'd get a snowcone and take a big bite and hold it in your mouth until you got this terrible pain right between your eyes.

[CPKnives]

Oh yeah still get 'em! I remember all this stuff too! What happened? Those were better more innocent times, sad to say never to be recaptured, but it does make the heart ache a bit to think back!