Those were the Days

It is one of those summer days that reminds me of yesterdays long gone by.

My best friend and I would meet at the municipal pool.
I would walk or ride my bike, a mile from the south
side of my home town and she would walk the mile from the north side..
We would spend most of the afternoon there, and leave with wrinkled skin.

By the time we were 14 or so, you wouldn't catch us dead at that pool.
After that we spent our time at the lake, or just cruising the town with which ever
friend happen to have a car that day. Usually it was one our little rink rat crew,
black leather jackets and all.
If you saw Grease you pretty much know what my teen years were like,
never boring but sometimes so intense, in love one day and in hate the next.
We never knew if we wanted to be Sandy or Rizzo, so we bounced back and forth.
Our parents were so confused, but in many ways luckier then they are today.
(More about that in a later post.)

We didn't have to worry about some kid coming to school with a loaded gun
and we didn't even have to lock our doors at night.
The worst you could expect from any of the kids back then was a hidden beer party
in the middle of a cornfield or maybe by a lake.
We had our bullies back then too, but most of the time the parents took care of any problems.
They stuck together, because many of them worked together at the State Hospital,
and if any of their kids got out
of line and it got back to them they were taken care of with a firm hand.

It wasn't a time of entitlement, most of us had jobs before we were 16 years old,
if we wanted money for roller skating, movies
or new clothes, we had to earn the money.
The lucky ones had mothers that sewed, I wasn't one of them and neither is my daughter.

Four years of Home Ec and I still can't put a zipper in..

Yes those were the days..