Bring Back the Good Old Days

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I don’t consider myself old, by any means.  In fact, I’ve actually started to embrace my forty-oneness! When I was a teenager, I vividly remember giving my parents the side-eye when they would talk about missing the “good old days,” but as I get older, I think I know exactly what they were talking about.  Over the four decades that my life has spanned, so many things have changed.  Here are 10 things that I miss the most:

10. Handwritten letters.  I have an old jewelry box that I had when I was a senior in high school.  Inside that box are several handwritten notes from my boyfriend.  Just this week my boyfriend (who is now my husband of 19 years) and I sat and read most of those letters.  It was nice to see someone spend more than 11.5 seconds to send a text message to someone.  Bring back those days!

9.  Long telephone conversations. I can remember spending hours on the phone talking to my friends.  No one talks on the phone anymore.  I’m guilty, too!  If I’m not commuting to/from work, I usually can’t find the time to engage in telephone conversations that exceed the time needed for a simple question or request.

8. Watching TV with my family.  I used to love sitting with my family watching television.  I miss the times when, believe it or not, a child could sit with his parents and watch TV without feeling awkward or tensing up in anticipation of inappropriate content appearing on the screen of what is supposed to be “family” TV.  Bring back those days, please!!

7. Sunday dinners with my family. There was a time when I knew, without question, where I’d be eating after church on Sundays.  My family would get together each Sunday for a delicious meal and some good old quality time.  Nowadays, life just has us all pulled in different directions, so it’s hard to make a standing appointment to enjoy those days of old.

6.  All-day shopping trips with my mom. I can remember when shopping with mom meant being ready to leave home at 9:00 am and not returning home until about 7:00 pm. Sometimes, it would be just the two of us and others, we’d bring the whole girl gang. Those were the best times.

5.  Long walks in the summertime.  I grew up in Winterboro, Alabama, a small, rural community in Talladega County.  (Don’t bother trying to find it on the map.)  In the summertime, you could easily find my childhood friend and me taking long walks on the country roads, always outside of boundaries set for us by our parents. (Shhhhh!!!) 

4. Living life without an hour-by-hour schedule. I had a great childhood.  I can remember very vividly having lots of fun with my friends playing games, talking on the phone, traveling, shopping, etc.  But I don’t remember having to “schedule” appointments to play. Now, everyone’s life is so schedule-driven that having fun must be scheduled in my Erin Condren Life Planner in order for it to take place.  Bring back the good old days!!

3.  Coffee pot coffee. I begged and pleaded for a Keurig coffee machine, even though my Mr. Coffee coffee maker was working just fine.  I can’t lie, most mornings, I have to squeeze in the 90-second wait for the cup of Joe that my Keurig produces.  However, I must also admit that I miss the smell of freshly-brewed coffee creeping through the house from the old-school coffee maker.

2.  Hanging out with my friends. This kind of goes along with #5 and #4.  I miss the days when the biggest decision I had to make was which friend’s house I was going to hang out at or which friend I was going to invite over!

1.  Christmas Cards! The number 1 thing that I miss from the good old days is……CHRISTMAS CARDS!  As hard as it is, I make it my business to squeeze in the time to send Christmas cards.  And, I force myself to personally address each envelope.  One of the highlights of the holidays for me is going to my mailbox and receiving holiday greetings from my friends and family. Sadly, each year brings fewer and fewer Christmas cards.  People are simply too busy or have opted for online versions of this holiday tradition.

Take a minute to reflect on some things that you miss.  Comment below to share the thing(s) that you miss most about the good old days!