When did I grow old?

I look around at the flurry of activity going on and know that things have certainly changed since I was a kid.

Now, I’m not going to spout out or go on and on about how I walked 5 miles to school each day in 3 feet of snow. To actually set the record straight, it was 2.3 miles to school (one way) and in Wisconsin we only walked in lake-effect snow for about five months.

Our only form of communication was tethered to a wall with either a large or medium curly cord, so, yeah – we didn’t have rules against carrying our phones in school. But then again… we didn’t have instant internet privacy. God forbid that we were called to the office to take a call from one of our parents.

The only phone that was off limits was the payphone in the foyer of the high school – and was “to be used only for emergencies.” And no, “I have no date for Prom” was not an emergency. Evidently. True story.

We would have “Two-a-day” football practices in the hot August sun until the last full week of the month where families knew that it was the best time to plan family vacations. Because school never started until after Labor Day, and that first football game came also the first full week of September.

Now, here it is still August and I think they already have multiple games under their belts in all the sports – and it’s a good thing I have the best sports guy in the state working for the Bladen Journal. Thanks Sonny Jones.

Back then, if I wanted to watch television, we had four channels. NBC, CBS, ABC and UHF. By 1969, PBS started broadcasting, but there were no such things as 24/7/365. Some nights when I couldn’t sleep, I can remember hearing the national anthem and then hearing that eerie tone that told you to look at the television and see an image of an Indian as the test pattern. You could then choose to continue to watch that for the next few hours, or you could go to bed. And yes, we still used the word “Indian.”

A lot of the “verbiage” has changed since then. We used words like, “going steady,” and “necking” and “far out,” “groovy,” “cool,” and “out of sight,” “boss,” “right on,” “split,” “peace out,” “can you dig it,” “catch my drift,” and “hang loose.”

Toward the latter years, my kids would say, “DAD. STOP – you are harshing my mellow.”

Evidently – today we no longer ask people, but we AX people. Although I still can’t find the definition of AX as “to inquire” We don’t button our shirts, we buh-on our shirts. Imagine, some people are boycotting the letter “T” and nobody knew! Oh the humanity!

It looks kind of funny now to remember some of those sayings.

One thing that has seriously changed is how much more we are allowed to see on television, in movies and especially on YouTube and TikTok. They say we lost our innocence in the 60s and I forget how nice it was to live in that simpler time.

We saw stories each night on the major television stations about kind things, fuzzy things and stories that would inspire us to do good works.

Today the trickle-down from the unenforced and uncensored media is causing some sick things that go on in our world that nobody blinks an eye at today. I do suppose that somewhere along the line, someone or some group will do research on how the openness of the heinous and absurd have affected our culture. But like Pandora’s box, once it’s out there, it’s out there for good.

We don’t eat as a family anymore. We don’t go to church as a family anymore. The compliments have given way to political barbs and anger. Just when you thought you could feel comfortable with the color of someone else’s skin – it becomes the main issue and excuse for great debate and all of a sudden, we who felt as if we took a step forward are taking two steps back. Apologies to my mentor and black evangelist Mansfield Samples who bled the same color I did.

Lately and into the twilight of my years, I like to take a break from the insanity of the news, the reports of the infamous and step back in time just for a moment to remember how wonderful it was back there. At least to me it was.

I can remember in my novel “In The Always,” reminiscing and penning the phrase about childhood as “Watching cloud bears and smelling fresh-cut grass – the only fear was if we were going to have Lima beans for supper.”

This month of the year, when I was very young and I was being dropped off at County Stadium in Milwaukee to watch the Braves play a double-header on a hot August day. Seeing Hank Aaron crank one over the fence and I can close my eyes and see that slow “lope” as Hammerin’ Hank made sure he “touched ‘em all.”

I have to find the movie Field of Dreams again – and that famous speech by James Earl Jones who played the character, Terence Mann.

“They’ll come to Iowa for reasons they can’t even fathom. They’ll turn up your driveway, not knowing for sure why they’re doing it. They’ll arrive at your door as innocent as children, longing for the past.

“’Of course, we won’t mind if you look around,’ you’ll say. ‘It’s only $20 per person.’ They’ll pass over the money without even thinking about it. For it is money they have and peace they lack.

“They’ll walk out to the bleachers, and sit in shirt-sleeves on a perfect afternoon. They’ll find they have reserved seats somewhere along one of the baselines, where they sat when they were children and cheered their heroes.

“And they’ll watch the game, and it’ll be as if they’d dipped themselves in magic waters. The memories will be so thick, they’ll have to brush them away from their faces.

“America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It’s been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt, and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game — it’s a part of our past, Ray. It reminds us of all that once was good, and it could be again.”

I have to pause to swipe at a tear not brought on by allergies – but memories. I know it’s almost time for NFL football, but here we are – still in August – maybe someone, somewhere is playing baseball.

And just maybe we should invest a little time to harvest some of those memories of an easier time. A simpler life. A brighter day.