The Good Old Days

 Last week on my morning walk, I went down one of the dirt paths at the park and I noticed that some child had been drawing in the dirt with a stick. I got to thinking that I rarely see kids do that anymore. Even my own grandchildren. I don't think I have ever seen them draw in the dirt. Granted, I don't have any dirt patches in my yard for them to draw in, but I am half tempted to make one!! I remember as a child doing that with my siblings. It was a lot of fun drawing then erasing it with our hands. We got dirty. We were outside all day long during the summer and we found plenty to do, including drawing in the dirt. 

My granddaughter is very artistic. She won the Art award at her school this past year. The only child to get that particular award for exceptional creativity and ability.  I have supplied her with everything she would need to be a creative artist, but I don't have a dirt patch. I need to do something about that.

This morning as I rode my bike, I passed several young people along the way waiting for the school bus.  Some of them were alone, but mostly it was groups of kids standing together. I remember standing outside every morning with my siblings and the neighborhood kids waiting for the bus. We would talk and laugh and horse around while we waited. Everyone interacting with each other.  It was fun.

What I noticed this morning though, was that every one of the kids in these groups had their face stuck looking at their cell phones. None of them were talking or even looking up at each other. I thought how sad that was, that kids don't even interact with their peers these days. Or I could be wrong, maybe they were texting each other!!

Last week I went to the grocery store. At this particular store they have what they call "reward cards" except the cards are not actual cards. You punch in your phone number to get the rewards.  My youngest daughter and I share a reward card just because we have had this one since she was living here and it is under her telephone number.  Now I normally have no trouble punching in her number, but that day I must have punched in one digit wrong and it rejected my rewards.  The cashier, who was a young girl, maybe late teens said she would punch it in because once in awhile that keypad sticks and it goes in wrong. So I give her the number and it rejects it again.  I was like "What??".  Then I asked her to hold on a second so I could look on my phone to get the number and sure enough, I was one number off.  Old age I guess. 

I told her that was one number I actually had memorized and I kind of laughed about the old age forgetfulness.    I was telling her that back in the day (you know, way back in the olden days) I knew everyone's number by heart.  That I had memorized all the numbers of the people I knew. She looked at me so funny and asked "why?:   I said "because back then there was no such thing as cell phones where you could program the numbers in. We had to memorize them or at least write them down or look them up in the phone book, and then we had to actually dial the numbers"   She looked kind of bewildered for a moment.  But then she said that maybe that was a better time because things are way too easy for everyone now and we just take everything for granted. 

The good old days.  Some things are better now, but I miss those days when kids actually talked to each other and drew in the dirt. 

Much love,

Lia

9/1/2022