How times have changed.

The other day I watched a little kid wobble down the street on a two wheeled bicycle. The wheels were about ten inches across. It reminded me of when I got my first two wheeler but there was quite a difference! When I got my two wheeler, it had twenty inch wheels. Until then I zipped around the 'hood on a tricycle with a big front wheel and a metal seat. All of us kids did, but just boys not girls. Boys had them and it was quite a step upward to get a real bike. I don't remember training wheels either. My father held onto the back of the seat and he sort of fast-walked me around until I got the hang of balancing. When I did, I called back to my father that he could let go, not realizing that he had done that a block ago. Getting two wheels isn't such a big deal now, not like it was. Too bad. Bikes are just taken for granted.

Skateboards, that was another thing, not like now. We had skateboards that we made ourselves. First we would take apart one of the metal shoe skates using the same key that you needed to adjust the skate to fit your foot. It worked on the sole clamps and for the length. Skates back then were made to fit lots of foot sizes so they could be passed along or used even though your foot got bigger. And they had metal wheels too. Once in two pieces, one half would be nailed to the front of a 2X4 and the other would get nailed to the back. Finally we would liberate a fruit crate from a store and nail that to the board, on end, Now THAT was a skateboard and a scooter. When you put so much sweat into that project, it meant something.

We were not the first on the block to have a TV. Maybe it was because we already had a big Haliburton radio console in the living room or maybe my parents thought it would just be another fad. More likely, they didn't have the money. When I was a kid there were no credit cards. You paid cash or used the layaway to secure something until it was paid for. We did finally get one, a 13" screen, a big set at that. It came in a really large piece of furniture with tubes inside and a smell when they heated up Some of our neighbors had a magnifying lens that fit over the screen to make it bigger. We didn't. Mom did get us Winky Dink kits. You put a piece of clear plastic over the glass and when Winky Dink came on we would use special Crayola crayons to connect dots and stuff to follow the story as it unfolded. Video games today are so much more real but Winky Dink challenged the imagination.

Of course, we didn't stay inside much. After school us kids would go all over the neighborhood playing. We had mommies everywhere who watched out, kept us from getting into things we should not, provided discipline and band-aids if we skinned a knee. Also cookies, milk, fruit. It worked. If we stepped out of line, our real mommy would hear about it, we knew. Maybe not by phone though. We had a party line with the neighbors down the street and so personal issues got solved personally, in person, Mom to Mom. They had plenty of chances for that with the groups they belonged to. My mother was in the Twins Club, having had my twin brothers. Incidentally, they were born at home. There was a garden club, a book club and Sunday School. All within walking distance or a short drive.

There weren't school related sports activities for little tykes either, no karate, no soccer, no baseball. We did have swings in the park and would spend hours seeing who could power pump their way into the highest orbit. And we climbed trees, played hide and go seek and cowboys and Indians. Did I mention sandboxes? Dad had made one for us in the back yard. and it provided endless amusement as we changed the landscape, made forts and detoured around the occasional cat dropping. I passed a playground in a park nearby the other day with a fire truck, tree house, rope walk, slide, rock climbing wall and more. That probably cost the town $35,000. It was empty.

No I-Pads, no smart phones, no computers back in the day. The library was where you got books to take you to faraway places.

Yes, how times have changed.