Cyndi's Two Cents

Time flies when you are having fun!

Commentary.

Fourteen birthdays have come and gone since I started writing this column for you.  I turned “double nickels” earlier this month.  As I sat down to pen today’s column, I was reminded of the piece I wrote when 40 was the biggest number in my rear view.

I was a child in the 60’s and 70’s, graduating from high school in 1980.  All things considered, it is a miracle I made it to this age.

There were no airbags in the ’73 Chevy I drove in high school and college.  I remember riding in my parents’ white ’66 Impala without seatbelts, and swinging my legs off the tailgate of the pick-up truck or sitting atop a stack of corn or soybean seed as my dad drove to the next field.  If we were helping build fence or out playing far from home and got thirsty, we would drink from a spring, and if were close to home and our boots were muddy, we would pump water from the well to quench our thirst.

We picked apples right out of the tree and wild blackberries from a thorny bush and ate them without washing them or our hands first.

Racing down the hill to the creek bottom on bicycles, I wiped out and bloodied my mouth.  Dad told me my injuries were too far from my heart to cause any real damage.  Nobody scolded me for not wearing a helmet or long pants.

We spent summer afternoons riding our bikes on gravel and sand roads to Grandma’s, a friend’s house, and to her Grandma’s.  We didn’t have to call ahead and make an appointment or have a reason for visiting.  Anyone living within 5 miles of your farm was considered a close neighbor.

There were no childproof lids on medicine bottles, but since we weren’t allowed to get into the medicine cabinet anyway, it didn’t really matter.  Mom would slide a wooden spoon into the handles of the kitchen cabinets to keep the youngest sibling or cousin from getting into the pots and pans.

If we did something we were not supposed to do, we did not get a “time out.”  We got spanked.  Sometimes hard.

We did not have cable tv when I was a kid.  We did not have computers with social networks.  We read books and wrote letters.

We were not allowed to talk on the phone after 9pm, and were limited on the amount of time we could spend on the phone during the day.  The phone was in the kitchen, so everyone heard everything you said, anyway!

We would leave the house right after breakfast and run through the pastures and timber playing cowboys and Indians and army and pioneers and other games we made up. . using our imagination.  We would swing on grapevines across ditches.  We had school clothes, everyday clothes, and church clothes and we knew the difference.

We ate homemade brownies, red meat, and drank sweet tea.  Sometimes we even got a cold Pepsi.

We fell out of trees, skinned our knees, and sometimes, came home from school with wounded pride.  We got hit by softballs, footballs and tetherballs.  We were kids.  We had accidents.  Nobody was to blame.  We were responsible for our actions.  We knew there was a line that, if crossed, meant that we would have to face some serious consequences.

Time sure flies when you are having fun!