I was raised on the Southside of Tucson. We didn’t HAVE to wear designer clothes but wore designer jeans (Levi’s 501’s) or we wore what our parents bought us. You thought your parents were rich if you went to, JC Penney’s, Mervyn’s and Sears. Socks with the ball on the back ankles were cool! Jellie shoes, white sandles or Converse.
Shopping at K-Mart for a blue light special eating the popcorn and drinking a cherry icee. Eating ice cream or popsicles on the front porch was a real treat. Or going to the drive-in (De-anza) movies riding in the car with no seat belts. The popcorn in a paper bag with so much butter on it you could see it seeping through the paper.
You took your school clothes off as soon as you got home and put on your play clothes (Hell yes). We had to do our homework before being allowed outside to play. We ate dinner at the table as a family. We walked to school even in the rain .
TV’s didn’t have remotes, we had to actually get up to change the channel, and mess w/ the bunny ears maybe add some foil . We played Mother May I, hopscotch, cowboys and Indians, cops and robbers, 1,2,3 not it, Red Light Green Light, Red Rover, Hide & Seek, marballs in the dirt, Truth or Dare, Tag, Baseball, 4 square, kickball, dodge ball, tetherball, Chinese jump rope, rode bikes, and skated (skates/skateboards) used grocery buggies as our go carts all over the neighborhood. Girls could spend hours jumping double dutch rope with an extra long telephone cord, played Barbies or house. Boys played football in the street (girls too!). Making mud pies was awesome (yumm)!
Staying in the house was a punishment, the only thing we knew about “bored”, “You better find something to do before I find it for you to do!” We ate what mom made for dinner or we ate nothing at all. There was no bottled water; we drank from the tap, the water hose (hot) and the playground water fountain. We watched cartoons on Saturday mornings, and rode our bikes for hours without a cell phone.
We weren’t AFRAID OF ANYTHING. If someone had a fight, that’s what it was and we were friends again a week later, if not SOONER. We played in the streets (kickball/football). The street lights were your curfew. School was mandatory and teachers and police were people who you could TRUST & RESPECTED. We watched our MOUTHS around our elders because All of our aunties, uncles, & cousins were also our PARENTS (they could and would whoop your ass) and you didn’t want them telling your PARENTS if you misbehaved (oh man so true).
These were the good o’l days. Kids today will never know how it feels to be a real kid. I loved my childhood!
Kids these days will never understand how we grew up!