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| Hey Ladies of the '80s, a show of hands who had this poster hanging on their bedroom wall?! (ME!) |
There was a LOT of reminiscing going on a few weeks ago. #TBT (throw-back Thursday) was a week-long celebration. Why you ask? One simple, gorgeous and rockin' reason - BON JOVI! I saw them in concert at Quicken Loans Arena on March 9th . They were my first full-on MANIA band. I remember having a complete meltdown in seventh grade because my Walkman (um, yeah - remember those things? If not, google it) broke and my dad took it to work to give to an engineer to fix. He took it without taking my cassette of "Slippery When Wet" out first. The Walkman was gone for week, and you would've thought someone performed a lobotomy on me by the way I languished around the house.
Ah. Teenagers...Middle Schoolers...can't wait to experience those years from the parent side.yeah.
can't wait.
But Jon and the Boys got me thinking about my days growing up and how much I LOVED my adolescence. I wouldn't have changed anything about those days in my neighborhood and my schools. I am an only child, but never felt like one. I had 10+ kids living on my block, all within +/- 4 years of my age.
It was amazing.
When we were little, the roaring of the Big Wheels signaled the start of the day; up and down the driveways all morning long. As we got older, summers were spent kicking the can, painting bases on the street and sidewalks for wiffle ball and kickball, waking up and heading straight into the pool until lunch and then back in until dinner - unless we had softball or baseball games that night. We played tennis in the turn-around behind our houses and tackle football in the field next to it. We rode our bikes anywhere and everywhere. I could easily ride to my grandparents' house on the other side of the city, a good 20 minutes over major streets, and my mom wouldn't give it a second thought. We played in our neighbors' yards without fear of being yelled at, walked up to Southgate on a regular basis to grab an ice cream cone or to shop, or down to Henry's Bi-Rite for some candy or to run a grocery errand for Mom. The neighborhood memories are endless.
Same can be said for school. I loved school - obviously enough to become a teacher ;-) If I could go back and do it all again; from elementary all the way through to high school, I wouldn't change a thing. Not that it was all rainbows and unicorns, but knowing how some people are absolutely miserable through junior high and high school, I feel pretty lucky.
Now, if you ask me about college and my early 20s, it would be a different story. I guess I had my "angst" a little later in life.
I am hoping Sweet Pea and Monkey can look back as fondly on their youth some day. I will do everything in my power to provide the opportunities for them. But I think the most important thing I learned while thinking about this post, is some of the best things just happen....all by themselves.
I didn't realize you were an only child either. I remember how we used to leave the house in the morning, all have lunch at someone's house until that mother made us get out, then we would be gone until dinner (usually at our own house, but being an only child, I was often invited somewhere or vice versa), then our mother's kicked us out if it was summer and we didn't have music lessons or sports or what not. I never see kids outside playing any more, let alone care-free.
ReplyDeleteAnd I think you and I turned out ok