Mama Says Monday: My Dirty Childhood

Image found on SchwinnCruisers.com.

Another post about my childhood. You know, back when we played with dinosaurs. Well, at least back before computers, electronic games etc. We did get a TV when I was about six. But my father and mother did not consider daytime TV shows to be appropriate for children. So, of course, this was before Sesame Street. We spent our days playing outside. We got lots of Vitamin D. Now that I’m older, I’m Vitamin D deficient, probably because I don’t play outside a whole lot.

Our house sat in front of a large pecan tree. Our backyard was where I remember playing most when I was young. Because we were a farming family, that was what we pretended to do. Now while I did get dolls and such for Christmas, what I really liked to play with was my brothers tractors and implements. Grass didn’t grow under the pecan tree, which gave us good sand in which to farm. We plowed our fields, and would have grass blades that we pulled up for our plants, or leaves from that pecan tree. And, boy would we get threatened when we pulled off green pecans to put in our fields for pigs or cows. The pecans were a cash crop for my parents and was what paid for our Christmas.

That was back in the day when children got dirty playing. We played in the dirt, we sweated in the sun and had dirt beads under our necks. Parents didn’t mind because you were outside, out of their hair. Houses were smaller, so there wasn’t a lot of room for play inside the house. The best thing about kids is that they do clean up nicely with a little soap and water.

We learned to ride our bike on the road in front of the house, because the yard was sandy and you couldn’t ride in the sand. So, we rode in the road. It was safe because it was rare for anyone to ride by in a car and if they did, they weren’t going 100 mph on the dirt road. That is all changed today in our neighborhood. The road is still a dirt road, but there is a lot of traffic. People fly by, it’s not safe for a kid to ride his bike out there. (I must admit that I am sometimes one of those people who drive by too fast. We all seem to be in such a hurry to get somewhere fast.)

Times have sure changed. I’m thinking that I might just have grown up at the perfect time, the perfect place and in the perfect family.

Until Next Week,

Cynthia Kay