Last weekend I headed to South Georgia for my nephew’s fifth birthday party. Lots of screaming kids, but I had a wonderful time with my little buddy. After the party I went to stay with an old dear friend and we stayed up until the early hours drinking some wine and talking about good ol’ times. He is quite a character, and he never fails to make me laugh. NEVER. I can’t wait for my family and new friends to meet him at my wedding. He’s pretty awesome.
We were talking about how things were when we were kids. It doesn’t seem like it was THAT long ago that I was running around Mrs. Crosby’s yard with the other kids she babysat. But the other night made me think…It’s been almost 30 years! 30? Really? YES.
Mrs. Crosby was quite a character herself. She was an old lady back then (and I’ve recently learned that she is still alive) and she smoked the longest cigarettes I’ve ever seen. She would hold them in her between her lips while she yelled at us. She had talent. HA! She locked us, literally, outside all day during the summers. Her yard was a pretty fair size, with a chain link fence all around it.
There were other kids there too, about seven in all, and we played outside all day in the South Georgia heat. None of us ever had a heat stroke. We played football, baseball, and kickball. The boys would tackle the girls just as rough as they would the boys, and we never cried, because we didn’t want to be the “crybaby”. We played without pads and helmets, and we never ended up seriously hurt. We learned what it’s like to lose. We learned how to be nice to the losers when we won. We had wonderful tans, and since we never used sunblock, our noses were red most of the summer. We played Red Rover, Mother May I?, Red Light-Green Light, and Simon Says. We learned how to take turns, and be respectful of the “Mother” and, of course, “Simon”. When we were thirsty, she would tell us to drink from the hose, but somehow we managed to never get sick from it. At lunch time she would let us come in long enough to wash our hands and face, then out we went. She would bring us a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and if we were lucky, some Kool Aid. We ate at a big picnic table in the backyard.
We thought she was just as ruthless as can be. The meanest lady in the world! But in hindsight, I think those were some of the best days of my childhood. We didn’t have a care in the world in that backyard. And now, we live in a different world, where kids can’t go outside unattended, for fear they may be snatched.
Hopefully, if I ever have any children, I will live somewhere where they can run around outside and enjoy the same games that we played, and be as worry-free as we were.
