Sometimes a simple email from a friend can put a smile on your face for a whole day… they re-ignite memories and fan the flames of innocence and simple pleasures back into your life.

Grab a coffee and relax, breath deep and enjoy, and my wish for you today is that you smile all day after reading this.

Remember When…

Just for a minute, forget everything stressful and read this.
Go back in time…
Before the Internet or the Apple Mac and Google. Before semi-automatic weapons were on the streets, joy-riders and crack cocaine.Before Game Cubes, X-Box or Ipods. 

We’re going way back… you and me… back when kids were kids…
I’m talking about… remember playing Hide and Seek in the park. The corner shop. Hopscotch. Butterscotch. Skipping. Handstands. Football with an old can. Fingerbobs. Beano, Dandy, Buster, Twinkle and Dennis the menace. Roly Poly.
Hula Hoops, jumping the stream, building dams. The warmth of the sun and the smell of fresh cut grass on long summer days. Bazooka Joe bubble gum. An ice cream cone on a warm summer night from the van that plays a tune – Chocolate or vanilla or strawberry or maybe Neapolitan or perhaps a screwball.

Wait…Watching Saturday morning cartoons…short commercials, The Double Deckers, Road Runner, The Whacky Races, Tom and Jerry, The Harlem Globe Trotters, Scooby Doo, He-Man, Zeebedee, Tiswas or Swapshop?, Why Don’t You? – or staying up for Doctor Who. 
When around the corner seemed far away and going into town seemed like going somewhere. Earwigs, wasps, stinging nettles and bee stings. Sticky fingers. Cops and Robbers, Cowboys and Indians, and Zorro.
Climbing trees. Building dens in the bushes and igloos out of snow banks in the winter. Walking to school, no matter what the weather.

Running till you were out of breath, laughing so hard that your stomach hurt. Jumping up and down on your bed and having pillow fights. 

When spinning around, getting dizzy and falling down was cause for giggles, and the worst embarrassment was being picked last for a team.

Water balloons were the ultimate weapon Football cards in the spokes transformed any bike into a motorcycle. Choppers and Grifters. It wasn’t odd to have two or three ‘best’ friends. You didn’t sleep a wink on Christmas Eve.

I’m not finished just yet…Eating raw jelly and orange squash ice-pops. Remember when… There were two types of trainers – girls and boys, and Dunlop Green Flash – and eventually Gola’s and Adidas Samba’s, and the only time you wore them at school was for P.E.

Then there was Harrington Jackets and Oxford Bags and High Waisters. Wedges and Platform Shoes!
When nobody owned a pure-bred dog. When 25p was decent pocket money. When you’d reach into a muddy gutter for a penny. When nearly every-one’s mum was at home when the kids got there. It was magic when dad would ‘remove’ his thumb.
When it was considered a great privilege to be taken out to dinner at a real restaurant with your parents. You knew everyone in your street – and so did your parents. When any parent could discipline any kid, or feed him or use him to carry groceries and nobody, not even the kid, thought a thing of it.

When being sent to the head masters office was nothing compared to the fate that awaited a misbehaving student at home. Basically, we were in fear for our lives but it wasn’t because of drive-by shootings, drugs, gangs etc. Parents and grandparents were a much bigger threat! – and some of us are still afraid of them!

Didn’t that feel good? Just to go back and say, “Yeah, I remember that! “
Remember when…Decisions were made by going “Ip Dip Dog S**t “, and the ‘Race issue’ meant arguing about who ran the fastest. Money issues were handled by whoever was the banker in Monopoly. The worst thing you could catch from the opposite sex was germs. And the worst thing in your day was having to sit next to one of them in class!
It was unbelievable that ‘British Bulldog 123′ wasn’t an Olympic event. Having a weapon in school, meant being caught with a catapult.

Nobody was prettier than Mum. Scrapes and bruises were kissed and made better. Taking drugs meant orange-flavoured chewable aspirin. Ice cream was considered a basic food group.
Getting a foot of snow was a dream come true Older siblings were the worst tormentors, but also the fiercest protectors…
If you can remember most or all of these, then you have LIVED.

Stay Strong, Stay positive, and play “like a kid” with the kids again, when you get home.