The Good Old Days

Every once in a while I'll be watching an old movie, or having a conversation about the good old days and I'll suddenly remember something from my childhood/teen years/early 20s that I loved so much, but have since forgotten.  Some of them are things I just took for granted, and some are things that have been replaced with "bigger and better" in the world of technology and television.  Here are some of the things I really miss from the days when life was about having fun and being fancy free:

MTV's Singled Out

 How awesome was this show?!  Jenny McCarthy and that guy who looked like the older

brother from Boy Meets World matching up 20-something singles by way of game show. 

It was raunchy, dirty and funny.  I loved it.

Sleeping In

Ah, the days before having children who think sunrise is the perfect time to wake up.

Impulsive Road Trips

It's Friday afternoon and you're off the next Monday.  You're bored. 

Friend says, "Hey, let's go to Atlanta."  You say, "Okay!"  Good times.

 

Writing notes

You remember....spending an entire class period doodling little designs and writing your

friend's name out in multiple colors and shapes, then writing the note in alternating ink colors. 

After that, of course you had to fold it in some strange, awesome way.

Snail mail

Before the e-mail/chat/facebook era.  They usually started out, "Dear Jess."  I have a storage bin full of letters from friends who lived in different states.  We all used to write each other at least once a month before internet killed the postal service.  Sometimes I really hate the internet (until I remember if it weren't for internet I couldn't blog with you fine people, and then I get over it).

Summer vacation

No school, no work, no getting up early.  Nothing but fun, sleeping in, swimming and general laziness. 

Also, watching The Price is Right all morning because there's nothing else on tv.

Watching a movie for the 100th time and suddenly getting a

 grown-up joke or understanding what's really going on.

Above is one of the best examples.  I watched this movie a gazillion times as a child,

 and then one day when I was about 14, I realized what he was doing. 

I screamed, turned off the movie and didn't watch it again until I was 17.

Believing in Santa Claus

My sister and I every year would try to stay awake all night so we could meet him. 

We always fell asleep though.  I think Mom was slipping us NyQuil....

Slumber Parties

Makeovers, "light as a feather, stiff as a board,"  movie marathons, giggling, all-around fun.  (P.S.  I'm pretty

 sure the kid at the bottom right and the kid at the top left of the picture are boys.  This concerns me a little...)

Being in a band

I was in a band with four of my best friends from my church youth group when I was 15-16.  We practiced

 more than anything (we only actually played in front of people ten or eleven times), but we had a blast. 

What are some of the things you really miss? 

Ah, young love

It wasn't all that long ago that I was a teenager. Some parts of those years I can remember as clearly as if they happened yesterday; passing notes between classes, having ridiculous crushes on upperclassmen, football games, dances, four-hour phone conversations (on home phones because back then no one had cell phones). Other parts, though, are like this distant hazy memory that I can only grasp pieces of. I remember having relationships with boys, but not the way they seem to happen today.

Today's teen romances are like soap operas. I like you, I love you, I hate you, I love him, I love you both, I hate him, I'm sorry, I love you, I don't know if I love you, on and on and on. All withing one week, no less. (If you think I'm being dramatic, obviously you have no teenagers in your immediate family.)

Although that part of my younger life is a tad fuzzy, I do remember myself and my peers having relationships for at least three or four months at a time. Nowadays these kids play musical boyfriend, breaking up and finding new "love" within a matter of days. That's another aspect of today's youth that frustrates me. They date someone for two days and suddenly they're in love. They've found their soul mate. Are you kidding me? As someone who's always around teenagers, I often get asked for advice on relationships. I want to shake them and say, "You have no idea what love is! It takes more than a week to fall in love with someone, because you can't possibly know someone well enough to love them in seven days." And for the love of God, can we PLEASE stop having sex at fourteen and fifteen? It's like this generation is a whole new 60s hippie phase, just on a much more irresponsible level.

Another idea that is so hard for teens to grasp is that they will change in coming years. To tell a young adult that the person they'll be in five years will be so much different than the person they are today is like talking to a brick wall. I know it's a hard concept to grasp, but it's so true. Interests change, horizons are broadened. These kids meet someone in high school and think they'll be compatible forever. Granted, it is possible. I have a handful of friends who started dating in high school and are still together to this day. It's very rare though.

I guess I worry so much about the youth of today now because in twelve years I'll have two teenage daughters. The idea is terrifying. I shudder to think of teenage romance involving my baby girls. I guess I could always send them to an all-girls boarding school....