Rambling

June 2024

Today, I ponder the good old days. Yes, I’m feeling nostalgic today.  That doesn’t happen to me very often. Typically, it is after some big event, like a graduation party, a wedding, or a funeral. Or maybe a birthday or anniversary of something. I’m not sure what it is today. I was at a bar yesterday and saw some old colleagues from 2 companies ago. Lots of hugs and slaps on the back.  Maybe that’s it. Who knows? I preach living in the now, but occasionally to fully appreciate the now, you must look back on the then. I guess.

For some reason, I’ve been thinking about parades lately.  Memorial Day and Fourth of July types of things.  Back in the day there were guys on stilts that looked like Uncle Sam. Kinda creepy! And those little Shriner cars with fat old men in tasseled, fez hats driving crazy, twisting paths. Even creepier! Of course, there were marching bands and guys throwing candy at kids.  Firetrucks blaring their sirens as they passed.  Truthfully, I don’t remember enjoying going to parades as a kid.  But it sure seems sentimental to me now.

That leads me to think about other fond memories, like drive-in restaurants where a person, invariably a young girl, came outside to take your order and then put the tray on your partially rolled up drivers’ side window.  My brother and I always made a total mess as we ate off the rear deck beneath the back window.  I don’t think those even exist anymore. Both those types of drive-ins as well as large back window spaces.

Once I get started thinking about the past, the memories seem to gush forth.  Like pickup baseball games at picnics. Or even picnics themselves. My mom’s chip dip and getting yelled at for scooping up too much. Canoe trips. No, not kayaks! Or just floating down the river on an innertube. Never actually sure where you were but there was only one way to go.

Now I’m thinking of laundry hanging out in the yard, flopping in the breeze. Flying kites in that same breeze, even when they invariably got caught in the trees or around wires. At night, catching fireflies and putting them in a mason jar, making sure to let them all go when you were done.

Speaking of mason jars, my mom used to preserve everything. That included canning, freezing, pickling, and dehydrating. The smells would permeate the house for months on end. Of course, we picked our own produce. Asparagus, strawberries, then blueberries, then apples and peaches. Finishing up in the fall picking cabbage and making sauerkraut.  Whatever was in season was going to pass through our kitchen. It was awful work then, for a kid, but it seems like fun now.

Summertime brings back loads of memories.  In the summer as kids, my friends and I would never be indoors.  We would shoot baskets for hours.  Playing horse.  If you don’t know what that is I feel sorry for you.  To cool off we would just drink from the garden hose.  If we had a couple bucks between us, we would walk over a mile to the 7-Eleven to get a Slurpee.  I hope you know what that is!

For some reason, I am thinking fondly of newspapers, even with all the ads.  Just sitting down and reading the whole thing.  Paper boys delivering them, not a politically correct term but that’s generally what we called them. Even if they were girls. My dad would be waiting at the same time every day. If it was 15 minutes late, he was likely getting ready to call to see why.  Same with the mailman.

Yes, summers were the best.  I cherish the memory of piling in the car to go to the beach. Or, better yet, piling in the back of my dad’s old, beater truck.  It had a topper on it with an ancient mattress in the back.  We could get 5 or 6 guys back there.  It was not safe at all, but no one cared. We would get dropped off and spend the whole day.  No, we didn’t use sunblock.

I could keep going. But it’s time to start my day. It’s difficult to stop.  It just seems like there were so many good things. I seem to forget the bad things, which there surely were plenty.  I think we all do.  That’s why they are, “the good old days”. I hope I can look back in 30 years and have added to this list.  Like... “Remember when I only took 2 pills a day?” “Remember when we only had 50 channels on the TV?” “Remember cooking our own meals!” “Remember cell phones, those things were so cumbersome, and we were glued to them all day!”

Ok, maybe I’ll go out and try to make a memory for someone else. It will be like... “Remember that old man who used to write all that mindless crap while he was in the bathtub?” Whatever happened to that old rambler?