Flashback Friday - The olden days

The mini-pearls are always asking me what life was like in the olden days when I was little. Ah yes, the olden days. Well, we didn't have cartoons 24-7 on the television. We watched them after school and on Saturday mornings. In order to research a paper for school, we either consulted our trusty set of Encyclopedias that took up two shelves of the living room bookcases or we went to the library and looked-up books - by hand with a card catalogue. (never mind) We had to roll-up our car windows by hand crank. All of our food was cooked on the stove, until we got our first microwave that was bigger than our regular oven! We played records for entertainment on our disco studio record player - oh yes we did. It had colored lights that blinked to the beat; so cool.

So, they want to know what some of my favorite things were. Well, I loved my real Cabbage Patch doll. A doll made out of panty hose with a hand-painted face, butt-cheeks and a silly name. What was my doll's name? Bonnie Blue. No plastic doll for me and paying the several hundred dollar price tag for the Xavier Roberts signed original was not in the cards for my family, so my mom made mine. Bonnie Blue really was cute and you could not tell the difference between her and the real ones. My mom is good. I think she (the doll, not my mom) is still in a closet somewhere at my mom and dad's.

I also had a thing for the Muppets. Kermit, Rolf and Miss Piggy were my furry friends! I even had the Miss Piggy paper doll set. Yes, I did. My name is Krissy and I had a Miss Piggy paper doll set. I loved it. I miss it. Things were much simpler then.

One thing that I cannot get the mini-pearls to understand is car travel in the olden days of my childhood. We only had a radio, our voices (we were a Griswold-esque singing bunch), car bingo and our imaginations. This seems to go way over their little heads. "But Mom, what did you do in the car?" My kids are under the impression that one must be doing something all the time. Doing something means watching or playing something that involves a screen and a computer chip. I really showed them! Last December when I purchased a new car, I intentionally chose one without a tv. You know what? It hasn't been all that bad! They know not to complain anymore and have accepted the fact that they will have to have actual conversations when they are in the car with me or sing. We have a lot of conversations. Thanks to the black hole that is Pinterest, I found a picture of the little handheld water ring toss game that my brother and I used to entertain ourselves in the car back in the olden days. Yes, those were the days.

Happy Friday dear ones!

Krissy