WHEN I WAS A CHILD

This is my favorite time of the year. However I do not care for the time changes. Spring forward...Fall back.

When I was a child we did not have this. We never had to change our clocks, be home earlier because it was getting dark an hour earlier, get up and go to school in the dark.

Live was much simplier when I was a child. We were allowed to play out side without our parents keeping an eye on us every minute. We walked through two small towns to get to the only public swimming pool without being afraid. We went to the movies and sat through seeing it twice. We loved the cartoons before the movie.

We dressed our age and acted our age. I feel sorry for kids today as they try to keep up with what they see on television. Girls want to dress far above their age. And teenage girls want all the new makeup and they wear too much of it.

I think the boys want to dress like what they see on television also. Pants too big and hanging down on their butt. Baseball caps being worn every way but the way they were meant to be worn. Chains hanging from their jeans and earrings in at least one year.

When I was young we walked every where went as we could not afford a car. If we did not walk we rode our bikes. We actually could not afford a television until I was 9 years old and there was very few shows to watch. Most of our time was spent outside playing hop scotch, hide and seek, marbles or kick the can.

It was simple and it was fun. We shared toys and games. We shared almost everything even our food. Heck my brother let me wear one of his extra pair of pants under my skirt as we walked to school and it was cold and snowing. Once we got to school girls had to take off the leggins, or in my case my brothers pants, and put them in the cloak room. Yes cloak room as we did not have lockers back then and girls were not allowed to wear anything but dresses or skirts and sweaters or blouses.

It is not as easy for kids these days as there is such a thing as peer pressure. We did not have that back then. Yes there were some kids at school who dressed better than others and had better homes but that did not seem to matter to us. We were happy with what we had.

I would not change a thing about my childhood. I grew up to respect others and be grateful for what I do have. I am so blessed to have been able to get good grades and go to college (worked my way through). I am happy with the life I have led and proud that my parents raised us to the best of their ability.

My morher dies when I was 22 and my father died when I was 29. I love them and miss them and I thank them for loving me enough to let me be a kid when I was one.

Be safe, be healthy and be happy