Thursday, May 7, 2009

Those Were The Days: A Meme

I was tagged for this by Heather Loy over at Tech Tips & Timely Tidbits. She was tagged by Cathy Nelson over at the TechnoTuesday who was tagged by Shannon Wham over at the Books, Bytes, & Grocery Store Feet. This is as a reflection on what things we used to do that you can’t do any more.

Here is my list (and I’m really afraid it will show my age too!):

I remember when I could:

1. Roller skate in the neighborhood with skates that hooked on to my sneakers. I needed a key to tighten them up.

2. Play in the neighborhood until dinner time without worrying about being kidnapped or molested.

3. Be scolded by the neighbor and being afraid that my parents would find out. If they found out, I would be punished.

4. Shake in my boots when my mother said, “I brought you into this world…and I can take you out of it! (She never said anything she didn’t mean and she didn’t care about DSS or anything! Of course I was a PERFECT child, so I really never had anything to worry about. LOL)

5. Watch the NBC peacock feathers change colors on TV so I would know the program was in color and not black and white.

6. Use words that were in style, meant what it really meant, not considered offensive, or not politically incorrect like gay (meaning happy), bad (actually meaning bad), groovy, cool (not kewl), gross (meaning disgusting) etc.

7. Listen to music and actually understand the words which usually dealt with love or unrequited love and no profanity or violence.

8. Listen to music on 8 track tapes.

9. Remember phone numbers by the names at the front of the numbers (Mine was Juniper 66-888)

10. Leave high school during lunch when I was a senior. Of course lunch was an hour when I was in school and this was a privilege only seniors had.

11. Get paid $1.75 per hour minimum wage as a camp counselor and I thought I was going to be rich!

12. Get a ride to the local discos (I loved dancing and John Travolta back then) and never worry about how I was getting back to college. I remember fitting 12 people in a Volkswagen bug. On football nights, they had beer for .25.

13. See Jimmy Buffet in concert at my college and tickets were only about $25 (which was a lot back then!)

14. See Alabama play at a Myrtle Beach bar for free before they became famous. We had to sit with the wall to our backs and I was told to crawl under the tables to the door if a fight broke out.

That’s all that I can think of right now and I’ve probably traumatized all of my friends and family by these recollections. If you want to join in, I’d love to see what you remember!

Original image: 'Old carriage' http://www.flickr.com/photos/51813223@N00/879364034 by: Khalid Almasoud

4 comments:

Lisa Parisi said...

Well, Pat, I remember much of what you do. (2) I remember being sent outside and told to call at dinner to let all the parents know which house we ended up at. If it was nice, you went out. No cell phone, either. (5) Loved that NBC peacock. Here's how gullible I was: we had a black and white tv but I was sure The Wonderful World of Disney was in color when the peacock came on. (12) I do remember going to a Mets game with 11 people in one little car. I was stretched out across everyone's lap. (14) I saw Greg Allmann right after the band broke up. It was a rinky-dink little bar and I clung to my boyfriend (now hubby) in fear of my life.

Those were the days.

loonyhiker said...

@Lisa: Ahhh, those were the days (and I loved that song too!)

hloy said...

1. Before I got my own pair of skates, I had my mother's old metal, hook-on pair like you mention. I think I still have the key in my jewelry box!

8. My first car had an 8-Track player in it - a '75 Chevy Camaro! - a hand me down also from my mother.

11. I think minimum wage was $3.50 when I started working back in the 1988 - I worked at B.Dalton Bookseller in Columbia Mall. I loved working in that store and still miss it!

My stepfather is a huge Alabama fan and tells stories about The Bowery. Mom snapped a picture of the bar when we were in Myrtle Beach last November http://tinyurl.com/o5zktx

Thanks for playing along! I loved your examples. They aren't so far removed from adventures in my childhood!

Heather

loonyhiker said...

@hloy: The Bowery! That is where we saw Alabama! I couldn't remember the name of the place. Thanks!