Looking back

Listening to the 70s music again to try and drown out the baying Bumpus beagle (drowning dog ... sorry, I was daydreaming) and Rockin' Robin by Michael Jackson came on and it made me smile. When I was a kid, I played on a competitive fast-pitch softball tournament team. All the girls would pile in the van of the head coach and listen to old music. It ranged from 50s, 60s and early 70s music, but our favorite was Rockin' Robin.

I miss those days. We'd spend all weekend playing softball. In between games, we'd go jump in someone's swimming pool to cool off. Those were the days.

Thinking about those good memories made me think of other things I miss:
*Drinking Dr Pepper from a new-fangledy two-liter (what the heck was two liters anyway?)
*Sharing a large pizza with a friend
*Burping the alphabet on the phone when boys would call us after drinking a two-liter of Dr Pepper
*Hanging out by the pool all day on a Saturday and playing Barbies while listening to Men Without Hats singing Safety Dance
*Being able to drink a two-liter of soda and eat half a large pizza without pain and still remaining teeny tiny thin
*Hanging out at my Granny's with my cousin and playing in the playhouse down by the train tracks.
*The Indian Paintbrushes that would cover Granny's pasture every spring.
*My Granny singing her own offensive version of the Monkey Wrapped His Tail Around the Flagpole or the Daniel Boone song
*Remember Spuds MacKenzie?
*Fonzie and Happy Days, Three's Company, The Hulk, Fantasy Island, Love Boat, Charlie's Angels, Hart to Hart, Dukes of Hazzard, Vegas (remember Dan Tanna?), CHiPs
*Leif Garrett, Shaun Cassidy and Rick Springfield
*the old Van Halen
*Hall and Oates
*my very cool and state-of-the art vertical turntable to listen to records
*playing Atari on my little black and white TV and talking on the phone to Kenny (the cutest boy in school)
*getting picked for sides for sports before half the boys on the playground at recess (this always pissed off new boys who didn't know I could kick their asses at baseball and basketball)
*Schoolhouse Rock and Saturday morning cartoons
*my Big Wheel
*blue and yellow roller skates that looked like sneakers
*the SuperBowl era Cowboys of the 70s and Tom Landry
*Going places with just my dad and me.

There are a lot of things I don't miss, like my trips to M.D. Anderson for my cancer treatments. I don't miss my parents yelling and screaming all the time and my mom's manic-depressive/bi-polar behavior. But, overall, I had a good childhood. Those were the days.