Summers past. When I think of summers past, I think of a time when it was safe for kids to be in their own yards without the fear of being kidnapped or killed by a predator. Times were different. Things were different. Cd's Walkmans and Ipods did not exist. I clearly remember a transitor radio in the shape of a large red dice. It was my dream radio and I got if for my birthday. Today it is in my parents garage. It still plays.
I remember days at the beach, splashing all day in the sun. At night after those days, I would lie in my bed and for hours I could still feel the ocean waves hitting my legs. Those were the days. I remember we could only go into water no higher than our knees. My parents cannot swim and did not want us to drown. I remember sand dollars just beneath the surface of the sand. I would collect them by the 20's and they would begin to drip that awful green dye all over me and my swimsuit even before I got home. Hours would be spent collecting shells. Agels wings, baby's ear and witches fingernails. I always had a shell collection. If it was after a storm, I would be lucky to find even a star fish ot two.
I remember going to the park and vey easily getting out bikes to fit into the back seat of the car. We would ride and ride. When it was time to go home, we could never get the bikes to fit back into the car. Mom would get mad at my laughter. The more she struggled to get them in, the louder I laughed.
I remember the ice ceam truck coming around eveyday around 2 or 3. Tinny music--loud and beckoning. All the neighborhood kids racing down the street to get ice cream that kids today know nothing about. Pushups and drumsticks and red, white and blue astro bars. No Dove Bars, Starbucks or Ben and Jerry's designer flavors then.
I remember being one with my bike. My legs became the wheels and we were one. Noone could ride as fast as I could. Noone could beat me on a bike. I was like the wind, but faster. So fast that sometimes I scared myself. I thought about falling and that if I did, I might now survive the crash. It did not stop me thought. Me and my bike were one. I would race with my friends the entire length of the neighbor hood and back. Victorious--that was me. Always.
I remember playing in the front lawn with the hose and water. My father would somehow rig up the hose and have a sprinkler effect going on and soon all the kids would be in our yard, yelling and laughing and running in and out of the water in our swimsuits. Those were the days.
I remember fireflies and lady bugs being plentiful. Nowadays, you have to buy ladybugs and do fireflies even exist anymore? Fingaitors were the bain of my existance. There were everywhere and I was terrified. I remember that the older boys used to catch them and tie a string around one of the legs and they would fly around trapped like that for hours. Scary critters they were. I never see then around anymore either. Butterflies used to be big as hankerchiefs. They had colors like those in the rainbow. Nowadays the only ones I see are the small yellow ones. Sad how things change.
I remember that kids use to really PLAY outside. That was what kids did. They played outside. Now my own kids do not know what that is. To them playing is not going outside. It is playing with the Playstation, Nitendo,. the computer or I'ming friends for hours. Today's idiot box is not the tv. it is the computer. They seem to be taking ouver our lives. We cannot live without them. We are all hooked in, wired up, wirelessed out of this world. If the computer is broken for any reason, at work or at home, it is a national crisis.
To expound on that, where is cyberplace? Is it a real place? Where is it? What city and state is it in. Have you really pondered exactly where cyberspace is? What is it's zipcode? Is it all around us like the Matrix? Are we really in the Matrix? I suspect that we are. I can feel it. I know how deep the rabbit hole goes. How can a virus that originates in Japan come all around the world and destroy computers in America?
I remember when dressing for church meant a dress for girls and a suit for boys. And not just a dress, but gloves. No matter what the season women and girls wore gloves. It was the only way to be truly dressed. Today I see kids coming to chuch in blue jeans and saggy pants. Praise the Lord! Belly shirts too. Pastors and elders and deacons say, it does not matter how you dress, just as long as you come. We are in the end times. God does not care how we come as long as we do.
I remember Erica Cane on One Life to Live. She was an adult and older than me. Now I am adult and she is still playing the same role and she has not aged. On the show she is now younger than I am in real life. How can that be? In real life she is 67.
Summertime meant lemonade. Real lemonade made with lemons you had to squeeze into water and add sugar that took forever to dissolve. Today, summertime lemonade means a power from a can that easily dissolves in any liquid.
Wow! Summertime has changed. The feeling that the living is easy is still there. That will never change.
Summertime.
