Things I Miss
- Thread starter HarrisburgDave
- Start date
There is a haiku hidden in there somewhere. I trust this is a work from your formative era?
There was always a fireworks show at Temple Stadium in Mt. Airy which was proceeded by a Drum and Bugle Corp band competition. We'd either walk or ride our bikes there (parents didn't drive kids everywhere back in the day). If I remember correctly "Reilly's Raiders" were usually the winners. I still love the sound of a good Drum and Bugle Corp. This would have been in the mid-late 50's.
I’d love to have that truck today WOWCruising around in the 70’s with illegal cold beverages and “substances” blaring Zeppelin on the 8 track of a friend’s Pinto or Willys truck.
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I am an excellent critic. But like most critics I fall short in execution.
The band talk sprung another memory.
Our high school band had a huge brass section. When they played “25 or 6 to 4” it was incredible.
Our high school band had a huge brass section. When they played “25 or 6 to 4” it was incredible.
Sadly, the antithesis is "Wisdom is wasted on the old."
Just out of college, got my first real job and bought a brand new '71 MG Midget. Monthly payments were $67 and my monthly rent was $33 since I rented a house with 2 other guys. Didn't make much money but didn't need much. The best thing: went anywhere I wanted with no one asking me where I was going or when I'd be back. Spent many weekend nights at the local bar and went home as the sun came up. Then I got married.
I miss a society that experienced things other than tragedy and the Super Bowl together. I miss being disconnected, when phones didn't dominate everyone's attention. I miss Blockbuster video on a Friday night after school, hoping they might still have a copy of the latest video game release. I miss having to go to a mall at Christmastime to buy gifts and experience the hustle and bustle of the season, though I'm sure that was a source of nothing but frustration for many.
There's so much about modern society I'm very thankful for, but I still long for what was a much simpler time, even as recently as the 90s when I grew up.
There's so much about modern society I'm very thankful for, but I still long for what was a much simpler time, even as recently as the 90s when I grew up.
I miss that a lot. I even remember playing outside in the winter and our hair was full of ice from sweat.
The older we get the better we were.
My youngest just graduated from High School this year. My wife has running line on me about high school stole from the anchorman when "I was kindofa big deal." I was all league at a dinky school in rural PA, but I also cleaned up with the academic awards. With my daughter finishing school she heard that line in jest probably half dozen times over the week of graduation. "You couldn't be like dad, he was kindofa big deal." stuff like that.
We go to my mothers house for a graduation party. My 93 year old mother is cleaning things out. She gives me some momentos she had saved. Priceless to me, useless to anyone else. Program from senior night. Stuff like that. Things I never kept around. My daughter got to it first. Top item was a newspaper article, Headline "PSU89er leads team into league championship game." big picture of me making a move on some kid.
She is like, "Dad, were you good?" My wife responded before I did.
"He was kindofa big deal."
If said enough, maybe it was true or maybe its a joke, probably a little of both.
I still do all of my personal Christmas shopping (not the shopping from both my wife and I but the gifts I get for my wife and each of my daughters) at the mall within a week of Christmas. I love it.
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I miss crisp cold nites in the 60s and the smell of the roasting peanuts at the stand outside the Sears at the Colonial Park Plaza shopping center.
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Here is one many of us will agree with..
I miss my Dad. Every day, no exceptions. I lost him when he was forty and I was ten. He will always be young, strong, good and the most handsome man I ever saw.
I miss my Dad. Every day, no exceptions. I lost him when he was forty and I was ten. He will always be young, strong, good and the most handsome man I ever saw.
I had a girlfriend I lost to a guy who drove a green MG. I can’t blame her.
Are you one of those guys I see picking through whatever flowers Wegmans has left at 5:00pm on Valentine's Day?
I was a guard but our center was 6'9" and most opponents had guys just as big. I remember thinking I can play against those guys. Then I met Wes Unseld before a Baltimore Bullets game. I shook his hand and it felt like it was twice the size of my hand. His body was think and muscular and I quickly realized that all 6'9" players aren't built alike. It was quite humbling.
No, I’m one the guys trying to box you out in the card aisle the night before because I forgot all about it.
I shook Mark Eaton’s hand once in a bar in Jersey. I think his hand wrapped around mine three times. I never felt so small in my life.
I miss the large family reunions either in South Jersey or NE Philly. Food galore. Grandprents, aunts, uncles, cousins, with competition at those reunions in baseball, softball, volleyball, and basketball. Our family was very competitive. Whenever it was held in the park next to one of the Delaware River public boat ramps, my dad had our boat in the water and took relatives out on rides. My Uncle Milton had model gas powered airplanes he built that he would allow us to fly. Miss riding my Raleigh ten speed bike everywhere with loads of friends, hanging out, pick up sports, going to the mall, etc. Miss the "shore" mostly OCMD and Fenwick Island, DE. Cruising the beaches and boardwalk looking to meet girls. Learned about crabbing in the bay. Couldn't beat that fresh crab meat. HS sports participation and watching games of sports I didn't play while school was in session. I guess we could all go on & on about the sixties & seventies. It was certainly different, I have to say it was a unique time.
So many things I miss... buying penny candy from Dennis Reninger at the Hillsgrove General Store in Hillsgrove, PA in the 70s and 80s along with our house up on Elk Creek Road in Sullivan County. Sitting on a mountain top at the edge of cliff having lunch looking out over vast expanses during hunting season. Standing in a trout stream with no one around with the sun glowing on your face and no sounds but the water rushing by you. Growing up on LBI in the summer's and surfing at sunrise watching the sun come up over the Atlantic ocean. I miss the days before cell phones when people with actually sit and talk to each other without their faces buried in their phones.
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Some things I hang on to. Every Christmas I break out the Lionel train set(s) just as I did in the 50s with my father. I know I'll have to eventually let it go but I'll keep going as long as I can
Thinking about this. If you are honest with yourself, the exact opposite is true.
I used to think I was pretty good. Then I got to play against some D1 players and understood I wasn't all that much of anything. Playing hoops against guys on the football team at PSU, thinking if I had that athletic ability with my skills. I'd be a freak.
Fact is, they were the freaks and I was not. Maybe the older I get the better they were.
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I remember playing against Wally Walker from Lancaster area and holding my own. He went on to star for Virginia and then in the NBA. I think he got better more than I did.
To me - this is an excellent topic and conversation. So many stories from different viewpoints of athleticism or the vitality of family and friendships.
I will not bore you with the many names and events that my reverie has brought to mind - other than, as an older (not old) poster, I am very happy to have been part of the overall story. Right now, I wonder where and what happened to those we have met and mingled with. As my mind is able to remember - times of 'then' were far different than times of 'today'.
Here's to no more regrets of the past - just Take Care of the .... now.
I will not bore you with the many names and events that my reverie has brought to mind - other than, as an older (not old) poster, I am very happy to have been part of the overall story. Right now, I wonder where and what happened to those we have met and mingled with. As my mind is able to remember - times of 'then' were far different than times of 'today'.
Here's to no more regrets of the past - just Take Care of the .... now.
Ceasar, sounds an awful like my "early days" growing up in late 60's - early 70's in the Skook!
Just last summer, I got rid of the train "platform" my dad had made for our Lionel train my brother and I woke up to one Christmas morning in the mid 60's! My son didn't want it. My brother didn't want it. At 66, I had no use for it anymore. So sad, but great memories! I still have the tracks and the whole train set!
I treasure this as much as anything in life. I know my Dad held those trains and cherished sharing them with me. When they come out in December my heart hurts, I’ll never forget Dad.
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