Top 10 things my kids will never get to experience, some I am happy about, others not too much.

10. Pumping gas at .99 a gallon, filling up the tank, getting a candy bar, coke, pack of gum for $20.00.

9. Having to actually watch a show when it comes on, so if your butt wasn’t on the couch on Thursday night at 8pm, you missed the Cosby’s and there was no telling when you would catch that rerun, no internet to search to find out what happened, no Itunes, your best hope was your bestie at lunch has a good memory.

8. Having to wait 30 minutes after you ate before you swam, it didn’t matter if it was just 18 inch kiddy pool, your butt sat right on the steps and the oven timer ticked away. If you even thought about getting close to that water, you would cramp up and fall right in and drown. There are times I want to take a picture of my children eating in the pool and send to my parents, just to get their reaction.

7. Putting a VHS tape in the VCR and having to wait because it has to rewind. I seriously remembering thinking as a kid, how I wanted to just buy the little machine that just rewind tapes that they had at the video store, so I could rewind one while I was watching another one. You learned patience by having to rewind a VHS.

6. When Saturday mornings meant something, it didn’t matter that I was up at 7am, could somehow lift the jug of milk, get a bowl, and have the best pure sugar cereal in the world. From 7am until 11am was it, the best cartoons, Looney Tunes, Jetson’s, Jem, ohhh the good ole days.

5. Tan M&M’s, do you remember the two shades of brown M&M’s before the blue ones were introduced? I miss those tans M&M’s

4. A Rotary phone, my kids dial the phones on a touch screen or a cordless handset. I, for much of my life had to wait to for the dial to return to 0 before I dialed the next number, and actually stand next to the base, winding and playing with the cord while I talked on the phone.

3. The card catalog – I loved Southern Elementary Library, we had a pit that we would sit in while the Librarian read books, we would have to look up the book and then scratch down the aisle on a little piece of paper. Now if my children want to read, they grab their Ipad’s search for the book and download it. They will never understand the smell of an old book.

2. Outhouses – Our church is one of the oldest in Pulaski County and until my 20’s had an outhouse. It never failed, when it was raining or cold I always had to go to the bathroom, which meant going outside, running to the back of the church, going in a little building, raising the seat to check for spiders, sitting on a very cold cold seat, and then throwing some white powder in after I was finished. This may be one I am glad they won’t get to experience.

1. Staying out until dark and roaming the neighborhood. It’s no joke that the hubby and I grew up in the best subdivision, it was fairly new when we moved in, fairly large, and full of kids. We would roam all over that subdivision from day light to dark and only come home when the sun went down. My parent’s never worried, I didn’t have a cell phone that they could track me on, and the thought of someone kidnapping me, well I just don’t believe it ever entered their minds. Our subdivision was beyond awesome, we would have water wars, hide-n-seek, and camp outs that would span out to at least 20 acres. We knew all the neighbors so we still had to behave just incase they called our parents and if one of them offered us a drink or snack, it was rude to say no. Growing up in the 80’s and early 90’s was something I am very thankful for and something I am sad my children won’t be able to experience.