From time to time I like to switch gears and cruise, but a different kind of cruise.

I like to set back and remember things from the past and my childhood that made those days special to me. Quite often I get an email from someone telling me they enjoyed the article for that week because it brought back many memories. This week let's go for a cruise but instead of going in a classic car, lets take a trip down memory lane in our mind.

Do you remember any of these days? Days when there were no air conditioners but every house you passed had an electric fan in the window. All the kids on the block had a pair of roller skates that clipped on to your regular shoes with a roller skate key. Everyone wanted a coonskin cap so they could play Davy Crockett.

When Rock and Roll first started you bought the music on a 78 RPM record and later we were amazed at the size of a 45 RPM Record and an album with 12 songs on it was truly amazing!

We would make a trip to our favorite drug store or soda shop for an ice cream or a cherry Coke. Not the kind you get in the bottle today. These were REAL cherry cokes where they added the juice from the maraschino cherries to a glass of fountain coke.

Where I lived, I went to school in the city and we were allowed to go home for lunch. Some of the kids who lived a ways from school brought their lunch in a Roy Rogers lunch box. But when you got older you had to carry your lunch in a brown paper bag. Lunch boxes just weren't cool.

We played games like marbles, tag, hide and seek and many more. We didn't have to be told to go out and play. That was just something that was expected of us. We played baseball in the empty lot down the street. We didn't have computers, electronic games and things that keep kids in the house today.

I remember Dad bringing home our first TV. It was huge but the screen was a small circle in the middle. TV was only on at certain times of the day, the rest of the time there was what we called snow or the test pattern. Dad had a pair of rabbit ears hooked to the TV with aluminum foil in the shape of a bow tie around each antenna for better reception. If you were able to get more than two channels you were lucky.

It seems like people lived in simple houses with the front door always open.  We didn't worry about someone breaking in. Most to the time we left the house unlocked when we went someplace. If something would happen the neighbors had to get in to take care of the problem if we were gone.

For those who had a telephone there were usually several families on one line. You had to listen to the ring to see if the call was for you or your neighbor. Can you believe that some people would actually listen in on your call. There was no such thing as a private line back then.

The living room was a place where the family sat and talked and listened to the radio or watched a show on TV, that is if you had a TV.

The kitchen was a place to eat your meals setting at the table. Most kids shared a bedroom with a brother or a sister. There were no family rooms or special rooms to dine in, just a living room and a kitchen.

Weekends were a time for family to take a ride and enjoy time together. Then on Sunday we all dressed up and went to church as a family and after church it was off to Grandma's house for dinner. Sometimes on a Friday night Dad would pop the pop corn and Mom made a picture of Kool Aid and we went to the Drive in move. I usually fell asleep before the first movie ended. Yes I said the first movie, because back then you got to see two movies at the Drive in. Today there are very few Drive in movies left.

Boy, I could go on and on about back then and the memories I have but space is limited so we will have to pick up on this another time, and we will for sure. I hope I was able to bring back a memory and put a little grin on you face triggering a memory of long ago.

Those of you too young to remember those days missed out on a lot, but the way things are going today enjoy every second of it. One day you will look back at these days as a much simpler time and have fond memories of the past.  

I can't help but wonder, what it's going to be like when our Grandchildren are our age. Until next time … Keep Cruisin.