~ Remember When

Being home this week, staying with Lynsay and being able to hang out with the kids, I’ve been able to watch how they navigate through their lives. I have to say that I’m somewhat in awe of the seemingly effortless way that they have both taken control of their lives. Awed and proud. Very proud.

I watch them interact with not only each other but with their cousins and their friends. I listen to them talk and giggle. I then sit back and remember when they were small and growing up. That then takes me back to the days of my own childhood and the simple days of growing up without the worries and concerns that we have now.

Things were different when I was growing up. I grew up in a time when our parents weren’t afraid to send us out the door and let us walk to and from school. We played outside at all hours of the day, no matter what the temperature was. If we got hot and thirsty, we’d head for the nearest garden hose and drench ourselves before quenching our thirst. There were times when I’d leave the house in the morning and not come home til dinnertime.

When I was in grade school, my aunt and uncle lived around the corner and oftentimes that is where I could be found...with my Aunt Joyce. Summers with my cousins were spent playing outside, having peanut butter and grape jelly sandwiches for lunch with gallons of Kool-Aid to drink. With sugar added to the pitcher. Vitamin D milk was always on the table and pop was a special treat.

In junior high, we moved to a neighborhood where our backyards flowed into a community greenbelt. We had a community pool and during the summers, that is where I spent all of my time; we weren’t afraid or aware of the dangers of the sun. OUr house was where all the kids seemed to gather and all of my brothers friends had a built-in radar.....they seemed to know the exact moment when my mom took chocolate chip cookies out of the oven. And they were homemade chocolate chip cookies.

At night, we’d all gather after dinner and play kick the can and never worried about the fact that it was dark and we were hiding in a cornfield. Our parents weren’t haunted by the thoughts that there were bad people in the world and someone might be waiting for the perfect opportunity to snatch us from the sidewalk. They were confident in the fact that we all had a built-in compass and when the street lights came on, we knew it was time to go home.

We seemed to do things with a reckless abandon. We weren’t afraid to go off and explore our surroundings. Bike rides were an every day adventure.

You would think that after growing up in a seemingly carefree world, I would have been more confident as I got older. But looking at my kids, I don’t know that I would have been able to do what they’re doing now. They’ve made lives for themselves and they’re surviving in a world that is totally different than the world that I grew up in. They have a confidence that I don’t think I possessed at their age. At Ryan’s age, while I was married and pregnant with him, I don’t know that I could have been single, working and living on my own and with the confidence and ease that Ryan and Lynsay seem to possess.

I’m awed . . . . and a little suspicious at how they do it.....