Eenie Meanie Mynie Mo...

Last night Kat spent the night, and we watched all the season premieres you can handle. ER was the craziest premiere I have seen yet, but its irrelevant to my discussion here (why did I include it then you ask? well, I felt as though it needed to be said). While we were channel surfing we saw some kids playing with this paper fortune teller finger games from when we were kids. You remember, they had 4 sides each with a number or color on them, and then you moved your fingers to produce more numbers or letters on the inside, until you finally got to the right number or letter and got a fortune or an antic that was funny when you were 12. And if you don't remember this game... perhaps you should meditate and try to remember. Remembering your childhood is fun. And if you never did this stuff - your loss.

So from seeing this, I decided to make one - which led to a flood of memories. Unfortunately everyone around me is either significantly older than me, or just a little too young - causing Kat and I to be along on our big-wave-bangs-spandex-wearing days. We then remembered skipping rope with our friends and the songs we would sing, playing hand-clap games and dying of laughter when someone made a mistake - four square, tv tag and frozen tag and kick the can. Neighbourhood hide and go seek. Of course it goes on and on. The music of the time was something to be relatively ashamed of. The first song to pop into our heads was "Pray" by MC Hammer (Please Hammer, Don't Hurt Them, Circa 1991).

The point of all this? We had no idea how good we had it. How easy life was at that time. Your in grade six or seven. It's 1991, 1992 - whatever. Your only responsibilities are to go to school and if you are like me, to unload the dishwasher (you complain about the little chores you must do, which in itself is ridiculous now). Your homework was composed of writing book reports and doing simple mathematics - usually drills. You had spelling tests once a week, for which you would study twice a week. There were Spell-A-Thons, Trivia-Thons, Terry Fox and Milk Runs. This was a time, that when someone used a "swear word" you were shocked at them and thought that they were either really cool because they weren't getting caught, or really dumb - depending on which side of the fence you were on and how your parents were.

We were the products of Family Ties, Growing Pains, Facts of Life, Diffrent Strokes and Silver Spoons. We were innocent in our own right - some more than others.

Now, these kids I am talking about are 22, 23, 24.. what have you. We look around and see all these young kids coming home from school, giggling and laughing. They don't have a care in the world. This is not to say that we have the weight of the world on our shoulders, or that our lives are difficult. This isn't whinning, it's the realization that we are no longer kids. We are no longer carefree - and I don't know ONE of us, that is innocent. And I am not saying I want to go back there. That would mean alot of things, some of which I would rather not relive. I'm just saying that it is great to remember, to cherish, and every now and then - to go back and be a kid again.