Things you miss...

I ran into this site that listed twenty-five things that this group missed and it got me thinking about things that I grew up with that are either no longer around or that have changed dramatically from what I remember them being. Thought it might be fun and/or interesting to hear what ya'll long for from the "good old days." I'll start my list and invite you to add to as you wish (or not!) Guess with the imminent departure of two of our children to a mission and to college, I'm waxing nostalgic.

And thus... (in no particular order):

I loved Necco wafers. I think it was something my mom must have liked growing up. My favorite flavor was probably the chocolate (or was it rootbeer?) Looks like they still make them, but maybe I just don't buy them any more because I'm not much of a candy eater now.

Speaking of candy, I also loved Rolos! Frozen was my favorite way to eat them. Interesting how many of our childhood memories revolve around food...

Playing "Capture the Flag." We used to have neighborhood-wide contests that would go on for hours. I remember hiding in people's backyards. working my way through bushes in an attempt to capture someone's flag. I probably remember wrong, but it seemed like we would play out there during the summer for 5-6 hours, almost every night. Wish my kids could've had more of these type of non-electronic experiences...

Listening to the radio. As mentioned in a previous blog, I aspired to be a radio DJ growing up ("Yes folks, it's the Doc of Rock once again on your radio dial. While others talk, we just rock!") I even worked at the high school radio station for several years and served as the news director, whatever that meant. I really just wanted to play my records for my own enjoyment and the three people that happened to be listening. I also went to bed every night listening to my favorite station, KZEL 96.1. They would play long blocks of my favorite songs or even entire albums long into the night, virtually commercial-free.

Church dances. Unlike my teenage children, who wouldn't be caught dead within ten miles of a church dance, these were something my friends actually looked forward to with great anticipation. Not for the dancing, so much (our "dancing" looked more like we'd been afflicted with the palsy) as having the opportunity to be seen and recognized as cool. One of our favorite tricks was to stop on the way to the stake center and buy round cans of shredded beef jerky to put in our back pockets so that the "Standards Police" would ask us "what's in your pocket?" Yes, we were bad and yes, we knew it. The jerky was pretty good, though...

Lastly (for now), I miss wiffle ball. Maybe I miss playing wiffle ball, something my brothers and I used to do whenever we had the chance to do so. Our backyard had literal tracks in a diamond shape running through the grass! So many homeruns over the fence...The worst was when one got hit into our neighbor Tony's yard. To us he was "mean" and we were scared of getting caught in his yard. He did make really good frosted filberts at Christmas-time, come to think of it...

So there you have it. Your turn!