Day Twenty-one - Decades

As I write these posts and ponder about certain specific times in my life, the passage of time weighs heavy on my mind. Just recently I was talking to my brother, and I was relating something to him and I off-handedly said that it was something that I had done just a while ago, and then I realized that that 'while ago' was actually really over a decade ago. And now, these recent writings of mine, I'm relating things that are now either four decades old or fastly approaching that mark. I remember, as a kid, that my school years seemed to last forever - each term an eternity that went on and on and on, until at last that cherished break came along. But it wasn't just school, the summer holiday also seemed to be a time that stretches for far longer than it really did. Maybe because as a kid I managed to pack those days with just as much fun as I could? It's a true thing that those pre-internet, pre-videogame, pre-enterntainment 24/7 were somehow better. If anyone would have told me back then that not that very far into the future I'd have a portable slim rectangle that could play any music I desired, any game I wanted, any comic book I wanted, any show  I wanted, I would have called them crazy. It would have been science fiction for me, really - something so far out there that not even the movies or TV show I was watching could conjure up. And who'd want such a thing, anyway? I truly loved my moments spent in my bedroom reading my first comic books, and making my first forrays into the realms of the sci-fi classics. I truly treasured the moments I spent in my living room watching the cartoon classics of my childhood. But just as important, the freedom I enjoyed as a kid to just basically go anywhere I wanted, as long as I let someone know I was going out, and made sure to be home before it got dark, was something that I'll never lose the sight of. 

Those were the parts of my childhood where I'd take the time to know the lay of where I lived, the town first, then the village later, and even later the big city - all of which I'll write about in the future. I loved just walking around -  something that to this day I still love, but unfortunately fell out of the habit of doing. Maybe this year I'll be able to resume that good habit. But as early as maybe five, my mom would give me money to go to a grocery store not far from where we lived to go get some things she might need, or she'd give me money to go to buy an ice-cream elsewhere in the town. There really were no limits, I could freely go from one side of town to the other, and never once did I feel that I was in danger. 

Simpler days. Better days.