Reminiscing About The Good Old Days

Today I was driving my car to run an errand, listening to my radio and stopped at a red light. I was relax and doing what most of us do, just looking around waiting for the light to turn green when an old blue and white car passed me. It brought back a flood of memories in just that one second.

As I drove along to my destination, I was remembering my wonderful childhood and would like to share some of it with you. 

On the street that I was born and raised on, one of the neighbors had a car just like that old blue and white car. I can remember playing in the street with my buddies, the neighbor kids and seeing that car coming down the street. It was that time of day when all the fathers were getting off work. We would stop playing in the street and move to the sidewalk for him to pass. We would wave and he would wave back.

I grew up in the 50’s and 60’s and lived on a wonderful magical street. It was a short dead end street where you could walk outside your front door and know everyone of your neighbors. All the kids on the street were your playmates and you didn’t have to go far to find something to do.

It was a time where we didn’t lock our doors at night and slept with all the windows open to let in the cool breeze. It was a time that mothers didn’t have to worry about their kids playing outside in the front yard because we knew all our neighbors and it really was a village that helped raise us.

At one time I counted all the kids on the block and their were sixty of us, so who needed to leave to find someone to play with? We had the big boys, older then me and the little kids, that were my age. I played with both girls and boys and it didn’t matter who you were.

Summers were the greatest. Kickball, water fights, hide and seek, green light red light and kick the can, just to name a few, were some of the games we played. If one of the kids was out of line, any parent could step in and scold. Imagine that happening these days.

When all of us were getting older and the heat never left the day, our parents would let us sleep out at night. The girls would be in one backyard and the boys in another and of course we would meet up and just talk, some would hold hands and maybe steal a kiss, all a part of adolescents.

When I was twenty my parents decided to sell their home…I was devastated and didn’t want them to sell but it wasn’t my decision. Life moves on and it did for me too.

It has been 40 years since I have lived on that street and I think of it often, as you can see. The great part is that I am still friends with my childhood buddies, although, we don’t see each other like we did as kids and it can be years since we have seen each other, our feelings never change. We still have that connection and always will. I consider these people my second family.

There have been funerals and weddings that we all attend because that is the cycle of life. Some of the kids that are now adults have remodeled their family homes on the block and will retire there, while others never left. A great tradition had been a Christmas get together that happens every two years with most of us attending…and it’s a wonderful night filled with reminiscing about the good old days.