Kids these days. . .

I've found myself over the last several months having conversations that end in me saying "How old AM I?"  I ask this because these conversations generally revolve around youngsters and how messed up their lives are becoming.  Am I THAT old?  Have things REALLY changed that much in 15. . .ish. . . years?

I started thinking about my fondest memories from when I was young and how if a kid tried to pull of now what we did then, they would either be to tired to keep up or bored after about seven seconds because there are no text keys.  I'm sad that my kids won't have the same crazy fun that I had. . . and at the same time, I'm more sad that my kids won't get the discipline I got growing up (you know, the kind where the neighbors mom wasn't afraid to teach you manners).  Kids need that.  Ugh, see, I sound old.

Anyway, in honor of my days of yore, I've decided to make a list of some of the "That would never happen today" activities of my yester-year.  This is good times.  I hope you can relate.

• Micromachine races down the driveway.  I always wanted the monster truck because it would make it over the cracks.  Because I was the only girl, I generally got the Porshe with no lift and got stuck every 8 feet.
• Baseball in the street.  Tag in the street.  Roller skates in the street.  We did everything in the middle of the street.  We'd yell "Car!" on the rare occasion that one of our mom's would pull in after getting groceries but generally, the street was a safe place to be.
• When mom pulled in with the groceries, we helped.  We were expected to.  My schedule was never more important than my mother's and my dad made sure we understood that.  We helped bring in groceries and then we stayed and ran them down into the storage room or the bathrooms or wherever they needed to go.  Bottom line, we helped.
• We had sword fights every year with Christmas wrapping paper tubes.  Kids now would think that is "lame and boring" but it was quite fun.  We beat the tar out of each other every year for about 30 minutes (that's about how long all of the paper rolls would last until they we annihilated).
• We had camp outs in our backyard.  My dad would humor us and set up a tent and there wouldn't be TV or phones so we played outside until it was time for bed.
• We had to pick up the phone without any idea who it was.  It was actually kind of a treat when the phone rang.  We didn't get called or contacted nearly as much as kids do now and when the phone would ring, we really hoped it was for us. . . but that's the great part, nobody knew!
• We were on time.  We had to be.  It was completely inconvenient to stop and find a pay phone and (assuming you had your day planner with the person's number written down) call them to tell them you'd be 20 minutes late.  So, we just weren't.  We scheduled things, left plenty of time for travel and didn't bail out at the last minute when something better came along.  We showed up, on time, and with everything that we needed.  Otherwise, we were a waste.
• We read and wrote our own material.  No Internet to copy from, no sir.  We had to go to this building called the library and go through card catalogs and find books related to homework.  Then, we had to read.  A lot.  We could photocopy but that does nobody any good.  We researched and read and it was actually kind of difficult.  I would say that it paid off.  We will always be more resourceful than ChaCha.
• We played Kick the Can and Sardines a lot.  If you don't know what that is, go to the library.
• We got hurt.  We had fights with neighbor kids, we wrestled in the front yard.  We got bloody noses, bloody knees, scratched faces and bad sunburns and not one person ever called protective services.  Kids sometimes get hurt. . . and it's no body's fault.  And parents, know that it's OK if your kids get hurt.  It'll make 'em tough.  Look at you.