REMEMBER WHEN -- JUST FOR THE FUN OF IT !!!

Before the Internet or the PC. Before semi-automatics and crack.
Before SEGA or Super Nintendo...

Way back....
I'm talking about hide and seek at dusk.
The Good Humor man. Red light, green light.
The corner store.
Hopscotch, butterscotch, doubledutch, jacks,
kickball, dodgeball.
Mother May I?
Red Rover and Roly Poly
Hula Hoops
Running through the sprinkler
The smell of the sun and licking salty lips...
Eating Kool-Aid powder
Wax lips and mustaches
An ice cream cone on a warm summer night
Chocolate or vanilla or strawberry or maybe
butter pecan...

A cherry coke from the fountain at the corner drug store.
Candy cigarettes
Wax coke-shaped bottles with colored sugar water inside.
Soda pop machines that dispensed glass bottles.
Coffee shops with table side juke boxes.
Blackjack, Clove and Teaberry chewing gum.
Home milk delivery in glass bottles, with cardboard stoppers (and
in the winter the milk froze, popped the cap and made a "tower").
Telephone party lines.
Newsreels before the movie.
Saturday matinees at the neighborhood theater.
Butch wax.
Telephone numbers with a word prefix...(Drexel-5505).
Pea shooters.
Howdy Doody.
45 rpm records and hi-fi's.
Metal ice cube trays -- with levers.
Smelling mimeograph paper fresh from the machine
Blue Flash bulbs.
Beanie and Cecil.
Roller skate keys.
Cork pop guns.
Drive-in theaters and drive-in restaurants.
Studebakers.
Wash tub wringers.
The Fuller Brush man.
Reel-to-reel tape recorders.
Tinker toys, erector sets, the Fort Apache play set.
5 cents packs of baseball cards with that awful pink slab of bubble gum.
Penny candy.
Red-Ryder BB guns.
50/50 popsicles.

Wait...
Watching Saturday Morning cartoons...
Short commercials
Fat Albert, Road Runner, He-man,
The Three Stooges, and Bugs,
Or staying up for Gunsmoke.
Or back further, listening to Superman on the radio.
When around the corner seemed far away,
And going downtown seemed like going somewhere.

A million mosquito bites.
Sticky fingers,
Cops and Robbers, Cowboys and Indians, 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.
War was a card game.
Water balloons were the ultimate weapon.
Baseball cards on the spoke transformed any bike into a motorcycle.

Remember when...
There were two types of sneakers for girls and boys( Keds and PF Flyers) and
the only time you wore them at school was for "gym".
It wasn't odd to have two or three "best" friends.
When nobody owned a purebred dog
When a quarter was a decent allowance and another quarter was a miracle.
When milk went up one cent and everyone talked about it for weeks?
When you'd reach into a muddy gutter for a penny.
When you got your windshield cleaned, oil checked, and gas pumped, without asking, for free, every time. You
didn't pay for air. AND, you got S & H trading stamps to boot!
When laundry detergent had free glasses, dishes or towels hidden inside the box
When nearly everyone;s Mom was at home when the kids go there.
When it took five minutes for the TV to warm up, if you even had one.
When you Mom wore nylons that cam in two pieces.
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 girls neither dated nor kissed until late high school, if then
When all of your male teacher wore neckties and female teachers had their hair done.
When any parent could discipline any kid, or use him to carry groceries,
and nobody, not even the kid,
Thought a thing of it.
When they threatened to keep the kid back if they failed. And did!
When being sent to the principal's office was nothing compare to the fate
that awaited a misbehaving student at home.

Remember when....
Decision were made by
going "eeny-meeny-miney-mo."
Mistakes were corrected by simply exclaiming, "do over!"
"Oly-oly-oxen-free" made perfect sense.
"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 cooties.
It was unbelievable that dodgeball wasn't an Olympic event.
Having a weapon at school meant being caught with a slingshot.
Nobody was prettier than Mom.
Scrapes and bruises were kissed and made better.
Taking drugs meant orange-flavored chewable aspirin.

Ice cream was considered a basic food group.
Getting a foot of snow was a dream come true.
Abilities were discovered because of a "double-dog-dare."
Older siblings were the worst tormentors, but also the fiercest protectors.

And then there were THE FANTASTIC FORTIES!

Baby Snooks, Big Little Books
And Gangbusters who caught the crooks;
Fireside chats and Easter hats,
Those crazy dancers called "Hep-Cats";
Major Bowes' gong, a Kate Smith song
Dorothy Lamour and her sarong;
Dick Haymes and Harry James
And "Leo the Lip" at Dodger games;
A war bond rally and Rudy Vallee,
And Mrs. Nussbaum of "Allen's Alley";
Amos 'n Andy, Mahatma Gandhi,
Little Orphan Annie and her dog, "Sandy";
Errol Flynn and "Gunga Din",
Evelyn and her "Magic Violin";
Rosemary Clooney and Mickey Rooney,
Louis Pasteur was really Paul Muni.
Count Basie, George Burns and Gracie,
That wonderful team of Hepburn and Tracy;
Joel McCrea and Turhan Bey,
Jack Benny, his Maxwell and Dennis Day;
Gable was King, Benny Goodman was Swing,
The Andrew Sisters could really sing!
The Burma Hump, the "One O'Clock Jump"
And that chinless wonder, Andy Gump;
Priscilla Lane and "Mule Train"
And those westerns starring John Wayne;
Milton Berle and Minnie Pearl;
And Betty Grable, the "Pinup Girl";
The London "Blitz" and Messerschmitts,
The Katzenjammer Kids were Hans and Fritz.
Vic Damone, "To Each His Own",
And Garbo "Vanted to be alone!"
Louis Prima and Hiroshima
And raising the flag on Iwo Jima;
Frankenstein, the Maginot Line,
The "Breakfast Club" each morning at nine;
Vaughn Monroe and "Vinegar Joe",
Lifebuoy really stopped B.O.
Blind dates and Ford V-8's
And there were only 48 states.
A rumble seat and Cream of Wheat,
"Bull" Halsey commanded the Seventh Fleet.
A Pepsodent smile was right in style,
Like "Your Hit Parade", it's "So Long for a While"!