I grew up in Carroll County Md. in the 70's and 80's. Man, those were the best of times. No computers, just do it yourself fun. A time when you could be driving down the street on a saturday afternoon and look out the window from the back seat of your mom and dad's 73 chevrolet station wagon and see 3 or 4 kids in each yard playing together in the dirt with their G.I. Joes or their Hot Wheels cars, or just playing a game of freeze-tag, or bicycle tag or whatever. You dont see that anymore, and probably never will again. Now kids just want a video game controler or a pc for a best friend. There was no internet, so instead of meeting people whom you never talk to face to face or really get to know, we actually went out to the movies, the mall, the skating rinks and made friends the right way...face to face, and stayed friends for years to come! I remember getting my nerve up at the sportsmans hall skating rink enough to go ask a girl I liked to skate with me on the next couple's skate. I remember staying out till 12:00 midnight playing hide-n-seek or flashlight tag (a game that is now extinct) with the neighborhood kids and having the entire neighborhood as the boundries. No fear of abduction, or getting murdered. That was just something you only heard about on tv once in a blue moon. I remember walking down to simmons ice cream store and spending an unheard of 2 dollars for an INSANE amount of assorted candies....gummy fish, marathon bars, links bars, cow tails, skull crushers, pop rocks, hubba bubba or bazooka joe gum, jaw breakers, everlasting gob-stoppers, candy necklaces, candy whistles, wax teeth, ect... It's a miracle we didnt lose all our teeth back then. I remember sneaking around with my buddies in the Snydersburgh gang (our neighborhood gang) late on Halloween night (we called it "Moving night") pranking folks, egging people, soaping windows, shaving creaming people's cars, and just plain having fun! I remember how Christmas time in the 70's and even 80's was so very MAGICAL! How you could feel the magic and enchantment...the joy of christmas in the air back then....people really did care about each other! There really was such a thing as "peace on earth and good will towards man"! I remember watching "Santa Claus is coming to town", "Frosty the Snowman" and "Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer" on the nbc tv christmas special every year. Piling wood in a neat stack just outside the sliding glass door of our den to burn in our wood stove when it got cold outside, and smelling the smell of burnt wood and feeling so cozy and warm in the den while it snowed all night long. I remember the yellow shag carpet in our living room where the christmas tree was. I remember falling asleep under a lit artificial christmas tree, watching lights blinking and fading in and out while listening to Burl Ives on our 8 track player sing me to sleep with his soft cheerful christmas carols like only he could do. I remember waking up christmas morning to find so many presents heaped up under the tree, that santa had to stack them all the way over behind the green velvet armchair next to the fireplace, behind which, I proceeded to build myself a fort out of christmas presents and played there all morning until my folks woke up around 7:30 am to come open them with me. The joy, the happyness, the love we had together back then! I also remember how we would all get out our runner sleds after the first snow had fallen and going out to play sled tag down the frozen street.....we neighborhood kids pouring buckets of hot water all the way down the hill above our bus stop and freezing up the street so that the bus couldnt make it up the hill to take us to school in order to get out of going! lol God, how I miss those times! Seeing kids coming home from school in the fall and raking up huge piles of leaves just so we could all take turns jumping in them over and over! Hanging out every long summer day at Cascade Lake (our local swimming hole)just down the street from where I lived. collecting superman and starwars trading cards, playing with the coolest toys in the world, like shogun warriors, tzr's cars, stomper 4x4's, my remco frankenstein monster playset, my ghost gun, my 18 inch tall kenner alien figure, my bionic man doll, my hot wheels cars, my huffy bmx bicycle, my flying nurfman, my frizbee, and too many more to name. Playing with my friends until it got dark and we could hear our mom's yelling for us to come in. These were such great times to be a kid! It's true what everyone on these memory posts are saying....the 70's were so much more innocent and happier times....now, it's all about money, material possesions, technology and trivial things. Nobody wants to be my friend anymore. They have all faded into my past. Everyone's so pissed off at the world now. They want "retribution" or "political correctness" but they dont even know what for. The term "Best friends" is all but a joke now. Everyone's so afraid of everyone else too, I've noticed this. I find myself more and more going out of my way to try to spend time with my so-called friends, only to find that they wont return the favor or even bother to call me on the phone, yes those damn cell phones that we all have glued to our ears 24-7. Everyone has a phone now, but no-one wants to just talk as friends and say "Hey, how ya doin?" or "Hiya! just thought I'd call to see what your up to!" or "Mind if I stop by for a while?" Now it's all about "What do you have that I want?!" or "What can you do for my benefit that I dont have to repay you for?!" It's really sad. Give me the 70's any time, any place! God, how I miss those golden years! 70's people, please come back!
Rob
Deerlodge, Tn USA