So many of the things on that list I can so relate to, but the one special one that lingers in my mind, is the one about catching lightning bugs...
We lived upstairs of my aunt and uncle, and both my mom and my aunt canned and jarred all kinds of veggies for winter use...so we always had tons of mason jars around
Me, my brother, and my two cousins from downstairs, would all grab a mason jar, and run around the backyard at night, catching bugs and putting them in our mason jars, and seeing who caught the most...
It was a safe time for kids, back in the 50s, and your parents never worried that much that you were running loose at night, even in the middle of Chicago....
After we had out lightening bug contest, we would all sit down at the picnic table in the dark, and set free all our bugs, hoping to catch them the next night...
It was hot and humid, as Chicago nights are, and eventually our parents would come outside and join us kids...
We would sit around, us kids all hot and sweaty, but so glad it was summer vacation...our moms would bring out Kool-aid for themselve s and us kids, and our dads would be drinking beer...
We would talk and joke and josh around, and even tho we were not well off financially, still we thought life was wonderful in those moments...to have family, fun, love, pets, bugs, and drinks all in the backyard when the sky was black and the stars were shining, is a memory very near and dear to me...
I dont know if many of the kids of today, will ever look back on their childhoods, with as much love, as I feel for my own childhood...
I am very glad that I lived when I did - I would change it for nothing, unless it was some time even earlier.
Thanks for all your good stories and recollections - they trigger good thoughts of my own.
I think we are left behind from the mass acceleration and will have to stay and play with our dollies. ;-)