A Stroll Down Memory Lane

Yesterday morning, on my way to Caleb's Pine Wood Derby (I'll post pictures later!), I drove through my hometown - the town where we lived until 1978. I was 13 when we moved, ready to start 7th grade at a private, Christian school.

As I was driving past the houses yesterday, many of them looking somewhat the same, it brought back a lot of memories.

• "Back in the day" when we would play outside all day.
• We didn't have GameBoys, videos, X-Box, Nintendo - we came up with our games or played tag, kick ball, dodge ball, hide and seek.
• I remember making mud pies. Do kids nowadays know how to make mud pies?!
• Inside, I remember playing school and house with my 3 siblings. As the oldest, I was in charge! The teacher or the mother. We played store, too, so I was the cashier!
• We also played board games, especially Parcheesi!
• We rode our bikes with our friends, all around town, without our parents! I guess kids today really can't go bike riding without their parents. That's sad.
• We had a barn that we used as a garage and storage. I remember getting caught playing doctor with a boy my mom babysat. He was reclined in a child-size lawn/lounge chair!
• We were limited in how much television we watched. Of course, "back then," there weren't a whole lot of choices, but we could watch The Waltons, Little House on the Prairie, The Brady Bunch, The Flinstones, all shows I enjoy watching in reruns!
• I remember going fishing with mom in the creek that ran behind our house. We'd catch catfish. I hate fish!
• The old post office is now a pizza shop. A new post office was built, along with a library, which used to be an old building where we would spend our summers - making crafts, playing on the play ground, going on field trips. FUN TIMES!
• The Grange, beside my great-grandmother's house, is now an antique shop. There are new owners, probably several times over, of my great-grandmother's house.
• I remember walking to Great Mammaw's. She would give me a dime for going to Yinger's (the store across the street from us) to get her some milk. I would spend that dime on penny candy at Yinger's. I remember the wooden floor creaking and the BIG wooden candy case and Mr. Yinger putting my choices in the small brown paper bag!
• Mom's favorite item from Yinger's - Orange Fanta...in a bottle!

All good memories.