Neff Zone Column

Print Edition: December 9, 2006

‘TIS THE SEASON FOR NOSTALGIA

They say Christmas is for kids, but for those of us who no longer qualify as "kids" in a chronological sense this is the season where memories of our past kidliness comes rushing back. It’s a time to remember bygone Christmases and become kids again daydreams and fleeting images running through our thoughts.

This week’s snowfall triggered such an episode for me. Through the miracle of e-mail I’ve been able to keep in touch with my boyhood buddy Ronny Sack. When the snow fell Ronny reminded me (tongue in cheek) that it was time to grab our snow shovels and make some money for Christmas presents.

We’d grab Tommy Gartland, the other member of our crew, and the three of us would scramble into our Flint neighborhood whenever the white stuff fell and clear snow until our clothes were soggy and we could no longer lift our arms. No one had snowblowers back then so we’d make a fortune – 45 cents for a sidewalk and a driveway. At the end of a morning we’d split the loot three ways, stash the cash in our respective sock drawers, and grab our skates and hockey sticks for an afternoon of puck chasing at the nearby frozen frog pond.

I responded to Ronny’s e-mail with a bit of Internet flotsam sent to me by pal Wes Westmaas, former McBainite now residing in St. Louis, MO. It’s one of those Web things with no traceable author, but fun nonetheless. It’s titled "To All The Kids Who Survived the 1930's 40's, 50's, and 60's."

‘First, we survived being born to mothers who breathed in floor wax fumes while polishing their floors when they were pregnant. They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can, and had a home remedy for everything.

Then after that trauma, we were put to sleep on our tummies in baby cribs covered with bright colored lead-based paints.

As infants and children, we would ride in cars with no car seats, booster seats, seat belts or air bags. We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, locks on doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes we had no helmets.

We drank water from the garden hose and not from a bottle. We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle, and no one actually died from this.

We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter and drank kool-aide made with sugar, but we weren't overweight because we were always outside playing!

We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on. No one was able to reach us all day and we were O.K.

We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride down the hill only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, video games, 150 channels on cable, video movies or DVD's, surround-sound or CD's, cell phones, personal computers, Internet or chat rooms. We had friends and we went outside and found them!

We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents.

We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt and the worms did not live in us forever.

We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays, made up games with sticks and tennis balls and, although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes.

We played pick-up baseball in the summer, football in the fall, and hockey in the winter. We chose up sides, made sure the teams were evenly matched, created the ground rules and did so without adult interference.

We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just walked in and talked to them!

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!

We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned how to deal with it all. We had the luck to grow up before everything in our lives was regulated for our own good. Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn't it?’

Still nostalgic? Get on that new fangled Internet thing and go to http://home.hiwaay.net/~singer/Fifties.htm. Tommy thought this was pretty cool and sent it to Ronny and me. If you’re a young old timer like us, you might find yourself saying to yourself, "Hey I remember that."

Jim Neff is a local columnist. Comments to neffzone@gmail.com. Read Neff Zone columns online at www.neffzone.com/cadillacnews.