What do you remember? Do you remember playing baseball in a sandlot down the street? Do you remember riding your bike as far away from home as you could, knowing that you better be able to get back home when the street lights went on, or there’d be hell to pay for sure? Do you remember picnics at grandma and grandpas house in the yard with hot dogs and hamburgers and freshly made potato salad? Do you remember hiding in the undeveloped lot around the corner, and even though it was no bigger than a postage stamp it was Sherwood Forest in Robin Hood, or the place where Snow White was kept away from her prince? On other days though it was behind enemy lines and you and your men, (The other kids from the neighborhood), were hunkered down with nothing but your Tommy guns and your wits. At least until your mom called you in for supper.
Do you remember setting up the cinder block and a small piece of plywood from your dad’s workshop in the middle of the street and jumping your sting ray bike up the ramp and landing on the other side, just like the stunt car drivers at the County Fair the weekend before.
Do you remember the kid from the other side of the housing tract when he learned his brother had just been killed in Viet Nam? Do you remember the rainy night he came to you crying, not understanding why? Do you remember how you didn’t know what to say, so you just let him cry it out, the two of you listening to the thunder? Then, one day, he and his mom moved away.
Do you remember the high school you went to the following year and how you actually had two of the same teachers your mom and uncle had when they went there? Do you remember the next three years of your life being the best you had ever had? They were filled with love, lost love, heartbreak, unimageable joy and bittersweet times of growth and promise. Disappointment and accomplishment. Do you remember? Of course you do!
Now, don’t you want that for the generation in the 21st Century? Don’t you want your kids and grandkids to know these things? Those things were a lifetime ago for you, in a world that was not as complicated as the one we have made today. They exist only in the pages of stories and fledgling fairy tales. Those days all start with the phrase, ‘Once Upon a Time….’ The naivete of a world like ours is so long gone, it can only be a whisper to kids today. The sadness in that is not that children will never experience it, but that some of us did, and we will never be able to go back. Even though we cannot give that world to our children or to theirs, we can hold on to it for us. We can still hear the sounds, smell the smells and feel the touches of those days so long ago. That, we can give to our kids. We can help them see what we saw, feel what we felt, and touch what we touched. It may not be theirs, but it is ours to share, and ours to covet.
The world is moving very fast these days, and if we are going to keep up, we need to hold onto our past. We need to share it, not impose it. We need to open it up, not shut it away. We need to be honest with it, not embellish or even lie about it. The past is a precious commodity and once it becomes today, then tomorrow, then next decade it can risk being lost forever. The past can serve us today, and it can help us have a better tomorrow. All we need to do is remember, and talk about it!
