Is is just me, or does time seem to be going faster? The number of times I have heard someone say something about how fast time is moving in the last couple of days, makes me think maybe it actually did speed up. I know that's what happens when you get older. When you're 5, one year is a fifth of your life; when you're 35, one year is a thirty-fifth of your life. Doesn't it still seem like someone has moved the clock hands forward a little each time you look away?
I still remember lying in the back window of my parents 1974 Buick, and baking in the sun. Today, they would have been arrested for allowing such a thing. Have to restrain children in seats these days. Is that because our cars are no longer built like tanks? Most barely even have any real metal in them now. I remember my family being rear-ended in the Buick, on the bypass in Marion when it was still two-lane, buy one of those little new cars. Wasn't much left of that poor guys sub-compact. In fact, that's exactly how it looked, COMPACTED. The Buick's damage amounted to a dollar bill sized chunk of rubber missing from the back bumper.
Yes, I spent many of hours in that back window. Why not? It was bigger than my bedroom. I remember my oldest sister learning to drive, while I slept in the back window, only to wake up in the floor of the back seat when she took the stop sign at 10th and main a little too hard.
Remember the heavy doors on those cars? Took both hands to shut them, and they would most definitely take off fingers if you weren't careful. I remember riding with that same sister in her 1978 Monte Carlo on main street, when that door swung open on a corner. As I was leaning up against it, out I went. She caught me right before my head hit the bricks. That made up for the stop sign episode.
Times are definitely different now. Now, we gather our kids up and head inside when returning home. Heaven forbid WE fall asleep on the ride home when we were kids. Our parents would just crack the windows and head inside. Hours later, after waking up in the huge sauna of a car, we would make our way inside, sweat soaked clothes and all. Maybe that's why I stayed so skinny as a kid?!?! Could that change in parenting styles be the real cause of childhood obesity today?
Maybe things have changed. Maybe our parents just sucked and needed CPS called on them. (Sorry MOM!) Whatever the case, times change and time changes everything. Somethings get better with time, like wine and cheese. So don't, like bread and birthdays.
