Today’s my birthday and thought I’d share some memories of my childhood. It does seem like a lifetime ago and definitely a different era.

Growing up, I was in the generation of kids that would come home from school and go outside and play all the rest of the day until around dinner time. And on weekends, all day playing with my friends mostly outside until dark.

There was a freedom then that is sadly missing in my youngest son’s generation and the generation of young ones after his today.

I would hop on my bike and ride all over the place around my neighborhood and sometimes to my friends’ neighborhoods that were a ways off from my own.

Riding on a bike was always such a freeing feeling. The wind streaming through your hair, brushing your face. A calming feeling as well. When you’d peddle fast, you felt like nobody could touch you, nobody could reach you, that you were almost invincible.

I had the popular banana seat bike with the looped handlebars. I had a blue one. 🙂

(example of banana seat bike via public domain pics on Google)

Lots of games to play outside, too, like hide and go seek, tag, ghost in the graveyard, and bloody murder. The last one I played with a whole stairwell of kids (two apartment buildings connected on Rhein Main Air Base in Germany).

Whenever I’d say to whoever I was talking to that we played bloody murder, the person wouldn’t know what that was. It’s basically the opposite of hide and go seek. The murderer hides and the people go around a particular large object. The murderer will wait until he/she has the best shot at tagging one of his/her victims by surprising them quietly. The person who sees the murderer coming for him/her yells, “Bloody murder!” and everyone screams and runs around the large object to base, which is the safe spot for everyone. Also, you can’t turn around and go back to base. You must continue running around the same direction and get to the base that way. It was a fun game. 🙂

I grew up playing with Fisher Price Little People and Barbies.

But at a certain point, our mom made us (my sister and I) choose which sets of toys we wanted to keep because we just had too many. lol So we chose Barbies.

We had so many awesome Barbies, and ones that were famous celebrities, too!

*Dolly Parton

*Jamie Somers (Bionic Woman)

*Cheryl Ladd (Charlie’s Angels)

*Kate Jackson (Charlie’s Angels)

*Steve Austin (the Six Million Dollar Man)

*Cher

*The Archies (from the comics) characters

My sister and I made up such elaborate stories with our Barbies’ lives. lol Surviving a Tornado, a murderer on the loose, a dying relative (or the main Barbie dying of an illness), big families with lots of kids.

I was around for the introduction of the Atari system.

We owned:

Centipede, Demon Attack, Frogger, Pitfall, Kaboom!, Keystone Cops, Enduro, Maze Craze, and Asteroids. And probably others I’ve forgotten to mention here.

My first video game was a miniature video arcade game that was small enough to set on your lap and play in the car (like I did) or in your room, or whatever. It was portable. The game was, of course, Pac-Man. Ha ha!

I was also around for the introduction of the Rubik’s Cube. That was so much fun trying to figure out then. I don’t recall ever really solving it, but maybe I did. Just don’t remember!

Times were simpler then. When your family would go on road trips, your sibling and you would sit in the back seat playing card games like Crazy Eights, or Barbies, or look outside the window at the trees going by, or follow the telephone lines as they undulated soothingly up and down.

In my grade school years, while in the car, my parents would be playing their eight tracks of Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton, and others. Later, at home we’d listen to the music on the stereo Mom would play from her favorites, the BeeGees and ABBA.

We had a pet Gerbil named Lucy when I was in grade school. My dad used to sing the Beatles song, “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” to her. Hee hee. It was fun.

Board games were big in my house. Sorry, Life, Clue, were the main ones.

In late grade school, junior high, and high school, my family would play poker, rummy, Tripoli, and Trivial Pursuit. My dad won every time in Trivial Pursuit. lol

Going to the roller rink in sixth grade was a big deal. It was so much fun skating around the rink on those four cushy, fat wheels. The best part of the evening on the rink was when they’d shut off the regular lights and leave on the colored lights that would flicker around the floor. Then they’d play “The Hokey Pokey” with those flashing lights, and we’d do the dance.

As I was typing here, I must tell you what happened this evening.

My oldest son, Nicholas, and his best friend Alex, took me to Olive Garden for dinner. It was delicious. And I even splurged and had a slice of cheesecake! They treated me, and I thanked them!

Then we came home, and I was on my computer starting this blog, when my youngest son, Christopher, came home early from filling in for a coworker at his job. See, he wasn’t supposed to work today, but a coworker was asking him if he could fill his shift. So, Christopher, always so good at being dependable and helpful, went ahead and took the 4:30 p.m.-11:00 p.m. shift.

However, he came home around 8:00 or so. He came up to my room and dropped his backpack and looked sad. I was worried something had happened at work. He came over to me and gave me a hug. He broke down in tears and said he felt terrible working on my birthday. He cried at work, and they let him off early, at 7:30. I told him it was fine. It’s all right.

I was so touched.

He said in tears, “I didn’t even get to give you a hug goodbye before I went to work.”

I told him I understood.

Well, he said, “And I got you a present.”

Again, I was moved by this.

He went into the hallway outside of my room and brought in a comfy little solid and soft back rest to put against the head board of my bed. And I love it!

I told him it was so kind and thoughtful of him. I’d never forget this special gift. It was so practical and thoughtful! He knows I tend to sit here at times and type. And here he went to Target after work and bought this for me! What a sweetheart! I hugged him and told him I loved him and thanked him for his kind and thoughtful gift, once again.

I had him take a picture of me using it so I could share it with you all. 🙂

A very special birthday today. I feel completely loved and blessed. Thank you, God for my family and my life!

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