Courtesy of my friend Karen

*If you are 30, or older, you might think this is hilarious!* *

When I was a kid, adults used to bore me to tears with their tedious
diatribes about how hard things were. When they were growing up; what with
walking twenty-five miles to school every morning....* *Uphill...... See More
Barefoot...* *BOTH ways¦ yadda, yadda, yadda* *

And I remember promising myself that when I grew up, there was no way in
hell I was going to lay* *a bunch of crap like that on my kids about how
hard I had it* *and how easy they've got it!* *But now that I'm over the
ripe old age of thirty, I can't help but look around and notice the youth of
today. You've got it so easy! I mean, compared to my childhood, you live
in a damn Utopia!* *
And I hate to say it, but you kids today, you don't know how good you've got
it!* *

I mean, when I was a kid we didn't have the Internet. If we wanted to know
something, we had to go to the damn library and look it up ourselves, in the
card catalog!!* *

There was no email!! We had to actually write somebody a letter - with a
pen!* *Then you had to walk all the way across the street and put it in
the mailbox, and it would take like a week to get there! Stamps were 10
cents!* *

Child Protective Services didn't care if our parents beat us. As a matter
of fact, the parents of all my friends also had permission to kick our ass!
Nowhere was safe! **

There were no MP3's or Napsters or iTunes! If you wanted to steal music,
you had to hitchhike to the record store and shoplift it yourself!* *

Or you had to wait around all day to tape it off the radio, and the DJ would
usually talk over the beginning and @#*% it all up! There were no CD
players! We had tape decks in our car.. We'd play our favorite tape and
"eject" it when finished, and then the tape would come undone rendering it
useless. Cause, hey, that's how we rolled, Baby! Dig?* *

We didn't have fancy crap like Call Waiting! If you were on the phone and
somebody else called, they got a busy signal, that's it! **

There weren't any freakin' cell phones either. If you left the house, you
just didn't make a damn call or receive one. You actually had to be out of
touch with your "friends". OH MY GOD !!! Think of the horror... not being
in touch with someone 24/7!!! And then there's TEXTING. Yeah, right.
Please! You kids have no idea how annoying you are. **

And we didn't have fancy Caller ID either! When the phone rang, you had no
idea who it was! It could be your school, your parents, your boss, your
bookie, your drug dealer, the collection agent... you just didn't know!!!
You had to pick it up and take your chances, mister! **

We didn't have any fancy PlayStation or Xbox video games with
high-resolution 3-D graphics! We** **had the Atari 2600! With games like
'Space Invaders' and 'Asteroids'. Your screen guy was a little square! You
actually had to use your imagination!!! And there were no multiple levels
or screens, it was just one screen... Forever! And you could never win.
The game just kept getting harder and harder and faster and faster until
you died! Just like LIFE! **

You had to use a little book called a TV Guide to find out what was on! You
were screwed when it came to channel surfing! You had to get off your ass
and walk over to the TV to change the channel!!! NO REMOTES!!! Oh, no,
what's the world coming to?!?!**

There was no Cartoon Network either! You could only get cartoons on Saturday
Morning. Do you hear what I'm saying? We had to wait **ALL WEEK** for
cartoons, you spoiled little rat-finks!**

And we didn't have microwaves. If we wanted to heat something up, we had to
use the stove! Imagine that! *

*And our parents told us to stay outside and play... all day long. Oh, no,
no electronics to soothe and comfort. And if you came back inside... you
were doing chores! *

*And car seats - oh, please! Mom threw you in the back seat and you hung
on. If you were lucky, you got the "safety arm" across the chest at the
last moment if she had to stop suddenly, and if your head hit the dashboard,
well that was your fault for calling "shot gun" in the first place! *

*See! That's exactly what I'm talking about! You kids today have got it
too easy. You're spoiled rotten! You guys wouldn't have lasted five minutes
back in 1980** **or any time before!**

Regards,
The Over 30 Crowd* *

Life and Death

Today is a day like many other for some, but for me, it is eternally the day that my bestest friend in High School passed away from brain cancer. We were thinking that she was improving, but then within a week, she was gone. This was so difficult for me. It has been 16 years since she has been gone. And I can't even explain how hard it is to write that it has been 16 years. I loved her so very much. It was so hard. It was unfair. We were teenagers, teenagers didn't get cancer! Well, they really do get cancer and they really do die from it. I wish that was not the case. I wish that she did not die. I wish that we were able to be there for each other's weddings. The births of our children. But, that was just not God's plan. I feel like I was robbed of my best friend when I needed one so badly. And although it has been 16 years, I still miss her just as much.

She got these floweres for her 16th Birthday. I wonder if it would have made a difference then to know that she was going to be sick.

13 years ago, I had went into the beginning stages of labor with my oldest baby, Dustin. I cryed, he just could not be born on the day that Kimmie had died. I was really upset about it. Thankfully he waited until 4:25am on February 23, 1996. So this day in my mind is all Kim's. I always remember, I always take flowers, and sometimes when I am really having a hard time, I go there and talk to her. I'm not really expecting an answer, but I do feel her presence. I feel her presence around me often. I miss her terribly sometimes. Today is one of those days.

RIP Sweet Kim. I still love you. I wish we had more time.

No one compares to Ma-maw

Whenever I think about my life and my childhood, no one compares to my Ma-maw. I don't know what I'd do without her. She is the one and only person that I tell everything. She lives in Kentucky, about 400 miles from me. I wish I could visit more often, with sadness, we only seem to make it there about once a year. Our last visit was in February this year. The whole extended family made it there for a surprise birthday for Ma-maw. It was her 70th birthday. She was surprised, it was great. It's really hard to pull one over on her, but she really had no idea that it had been in the works for months. It was nice to have the whole family together. Sadly, I think that will not happen again in her lifetime. The next time we will all be together is most likely when Ma-maw passes on to her better life. She has many health problems and a degenerating bone disease that has plagued her for years. I try not to think about her not being here. I always tell her that she has to live forever! I so wish that were possible. The thought of her not being around literally makes me nauseous. I am closer to her than I am even to my mother. Well, that does not say much, since I am not close to my mother at all (very long story for another post maybe.) For years, she has been my confidant in everything. The matriarch of our family and I love her so dearly. When I think that some day she will not be here, it makes me panic. What will happen? The house that she has lived in and I have visited and considered more like home forever, will never be the same. Whenever I make the journey to Kentucky, it always feels like going home. The sights, the smells, the people, just everything about it is home to me.

This is the view from the side yard up the road. Nothing looks better to me.

When I was a kid, my sister and I would spend the summers there with Ma-maw and Pa-paw and it was some of the best times I can remember. We would visit my Pa-paw's brothers and sisters, some which have passed away now. When we went to my Aunt Pauline's house, we played with the pigs, got jolted by the electric fence and always were right back there again! Didn't learn too quick that the fence would still jolt us. We went chasing after the cows in the pasture. We were curious about the bee hives that we were told to stay away from but of course did not listen. And then there were all the dogs lying around under the porch. Never a shortage of dogs. We played in this creek right behind their house with the crawdads.

We tied strings to June bugs until their legs all came off. The poor bugs. We caught jars full of lightening bugs. They let us play in the rain. We went into town to the Dollar Store and it was always a treat to get new crayons and coloring books. We went to the Drug Store where we could get ice cream at the counter. My Ma-maw would send us outside to play and when we would run in and out after we were told not to, she would lock us outside! And these are some of the best, most cherished memories that I have. My Pa-paw died when I was 12 years old. I have many fond memories of him too. We built this bird house together and I got to hammer the nails!

This photo of my Pa-paw was taken sometime in the 80's before he passsed away.

He even held the nails. And, after all these years, it is still there. I think of that day every time I see this bird house. There are so many memories there. When I am there it seems as if I have been transformed into another place and time in my life. I'm glad that my kids are getting to know my Ma-maw, because as much as I hate it, I know that she will not always be here. I know that she will not live forever, even though I can still hope for that! I hope that some day, my children have these wonderful memories of going to Kentucky, and will then realize why I make them leave the Playstation at home!

Where does the time go?

Yesterday got me thinking about friends and family. It's incredible how things change over the years. You meet new people and lose touch with old friends. When I was young, Frankie was my bestest friend in the whole world! Our mothers were best friends so we did everything together. Frankie was the one person that I thought for sure I would always have contact with. He lives in Arkansas, I live in Indiana. A little hard to keep in touch that way, but we continued to talk on the phone every so often for years. The last time I spoke to him was about five years ago. Since then, he has got married, I have went through my own personal crises, and we have lost touch. I have his Mom's number but I have not called to check in for nearly a year now. Things are just so complicated and time gets away from you.

I was about six, maybe seven years old when this photo was taken.

Life was so much simpler then. I thought that Frankie was going to be around forever. I never thought that we would lose contact with each other. In life's busy day to day happenings, I don't always have time to reflect on how I feel about things from the past. Things I would like to change about the present. What do I want my future. Am I going to be able to pull it off and make my future what I want it to be?

I wonder if he thinks about me like I think about him sometimes? I miss him. Frankie, where ever you are, I still love you. I know we will talk again someday.

Until next time...