Do you ever sit and think about your childhood? Ever compare the person you were then to who you are now? See the way you've changed over time?
Remember when you rode your bike
everywhere? Even though Grandma's house was just a few yards away you
had to take your bike. It was just so much better than walking. Now you drive your car or ride a four-wheeler. No physical effort required.
How about in fourth grade when you and your two best friends had that worm saving committee? It rained and all the slimy creatures are popping up all over the playground and sidewalks. You feel bad for them. People are stepping on them on purpose as well as on accident. So you would pick them up and try to save as many as you could. But now, what do you care? What was the last thing you cared about besides yourself? When was the last time you stood up to the bully and told them to leave the little guys alone?
Remember growing up, and dolls were your pretend children? You had over 50 hot wheels in your garage and had french fry pizza delivered to your huge pretend house every night. Now real children have replaced those dolls. Now the 50 hot wheels is a Chevy Impala, the back passenger door has a leak so half a gallon of rain water is pooled on the floor. Kids muddy footprints and candy wrappers smear the back seat. The insurance comes around like clockwork taking up your whole paycheck. And that french fry pizza is Great Value spaghetti sauce poured over semi cooked noodles. At least you got the cuisine right. And that house, it's a small apartment, a 10 by 10 bedroom, outrageous rent and hopefully free utilities.
Back in the day, you were the one that walked up to everyone and said hello. You were the one that made sure you became friends with someone. Now you are afraid of strangers. That sweet innocence of childhood is over. You don't know who the bad guys are so you watch your back now. You have a horribly intimidating face that make people scared of you.
You read Junie B. Jones books and Little House on the Prairie. Now it's CNN, Facebook, Yahoo, and that waste of time futuristic novel your colleague recommended cause the world is going to end.
Instead of Saturday morning cartoons it's The Hangover, 27 Dresses, Fast and the Furious, and the Departed.
Cursing as a child meant soap in your mouth, and lots of it. Now it's an accepted vernacular in most social circles.
Remember when your day consisted of all play. Now it's all study and work.
Remember when helping Grandma bake was the best activity in the world! And Barney and Lambchops before kindergarten?? Only to be replaced with video games and Barbie movies.
Remember catching grasshoppers and crickets, then ripping their legs off and feeding them to the ducks and the goose that thought it was a duck?
Remember purposely making stink bugs stick their nasty butts in the air and then running as fast as you could so you didn't have to smell it?
Remember pretending the laundry baskets were cars on a train and filling them with anything you could find?
Remember playing with your older sister and she insisted that you could only color with boy colors and she got the girl colors?
Remember when the TV didn't have a remote?
Remember making your own fake money by cutting paper in rectangular pieces and writing $1 on it?
Remember playing swoggle? (Yes, swoggle). Or getting a whole bunch of big boxes in the basement, taping them together, and having your big brother be the monster that lived in the back and trying to touch the back without the "monster" getting you? Forts in the living room made of pillows and blankets? Riding pizza pans and mattresses down the stairs when mom and dad went to town?
Remember having an imagination?
Remember jumping on the trampoline and your brain didn't bounce around in your skull? You could do back flips and land on your feet? What happened?
Remember when you kept falling off your bike after taking the training wheels off? And then, after learning to ride your bike, your shoelaces were too long and kept getting caught in the chain? You played cops and robbers and raced to see who had the fastest bike. And your siblings always had time to come ride with you and get eaten to death by all the mosquitos.
