My Granddaughter's History Essay of My Life

The Blessings of the Wild '70s

The doorbell rings, and Nana rushes to the door to see who it is. There she is, the beautiful granddaughter that is going to college. Nana was so surprised to see her; she opened the door. “Hey, sweet girl, what brings you this way?”

As she brushes back her beautiful long blonde hair, she says,” Nana I am doing a History essay and I thought I would do it on the changes you have seen in your lifetime.”

"Oh my yes, I am the generation that has seen the fastest changes. Technology moved too fast, and I could not keep up, so I gave up. There are changes for good and bad. I am beginning to think for the worse. This book right here is the only book we ever needed. The Holy Book."

“Dezarae, sit down and I will get us some coffee. How would you like yours? “Three sugars and two creams.” Nana went over to the counter and made the coffee and guided Dezarae to the living quarters to sit down.

"Are you ready to start?" Dezarae asked the elderly lady as she got out her pad and pen to get ready to start taking notes.

Nana watched the beautiful young lady as she got ready and thought about how grown she had become. This girl had never had to study a day in her life.

She came from a broken home with her mother, a drug addict. Her father was a workaholic, but they had a Nana that adored her and her siblings. Dezarae was an overachiever determined to be the one to succeed in life.

Dezarae was taking notes and listening to Nana.

"When I was a little girl, we always played outside. We watched tiny TV, and there were no video games then.

We walked to school every day in a crowd. I would leave school around three o clock and get a snack while watching one TV show. Then outside, I would go to play with the neighborhood kids. We played kickball and baseball, built things, and walked to the store. Fifty cents would buy a drink and a bag of penny candy. When the sun started going down, we would catch lightning bugs and put them in a jar. I let them go into my closet one time. They stink.

Parents did not worry about us being outside back then. There was hardly any crime. When the time came, your mom would yell for you. People looked out for one another back then. Neighbors knew each other. Now people hardly know their neighbors.

"That is awesome, Nana. What else did you do?"

"Well, we took plywood and board and built a tree house on the bank's side once. It was funny because we thought the bank was so huge. We went there recently, and it was small. We had all the neighborhood kids on there, and it broke, so we tumbled down it.

We always played in the creek that was below. We would catch tadpoles and crawfish. There were also snakes, but I only encountered one small one. Those were the good old days.

In today's society, kids get taken off the street and disappear. I feel so sorry that they do not have the freedom that we have. Parents are scared for their safety.

Every year we had day camp where we had arts and crafts. We would have games. This was fun, but now these activities are expensive."

"Oh Nana, this sounds so great!! I wish Jeremiah were involved in activities and not games on computers. I am slowly getting him away. I do not have TV service." pause. "Tell me more."

"Well, I started dating way too young. I cannot imagine anyone in your generation dating at fourteen. But I did. I would hang out with a girl that had her driver's license, and she was dating your dad's dad. We ended up together, and we used to go everywhere together."

“We would go to the drive-in where we watched movies outside the car. They had speakers that hooked to the window. I loved this time. The big screen. This was the making out place.”

Dezarae giggled. "it was $5.00 a carload."

"The movies outside now are nothing compared to them."

"Indoor movies were one dollar for matinées. We had midnight movies and bands playing. Lynard Skynyrd, Alabama, and others got their start at our movie theatres playing after midnight. We had these Battle of the Bands. It was at the fairgrounds. Of course, there was Sun Valley Beach. We went every Summer. It was an artificial beach. All kinds of bands would play. The drinking age was 17, then it turned 18, then 21. I was safe except before 17.

"We hung out at the bowling alley and the skating rink.

We never bowled. We always went to a friend's house that lived near there.

Monday night was ladies' night at the skating rink. All the girls went."

There were few places to eat there. You had McDonald's, Burger King, and Krystal. People ate at home back then. It was a privilege to eat out. It is the opposite, and it is a privilege to get a home-cooked meal. We always ate at the table. Now, people eat at different times. It is so important to share a meal with someone."

"After I married David, he was in the Navy, and we were so young.

I did not have anyone to counsel me and give me advice. He would come home, leave me and play basketball. I felt lonely. I did not know how to be a wife and mother. I met two excellent friends. I should have been more aggressive like you, Dezarae, and asked for help. They would have helped me. I was so homesick. I should have thought of staying and raising your father with his dad. Instead, I returned home and partied for the next 15 years."

"My friends at home were into drugs and partying. I got a job at Burger King, and there it started. I met new friends and mixed old friends with new ones."

"Nana, did David try to get you home." "Yes, but you know sin is good for a while. I was having too much fun."

"I was having a rough time with this guy. Long story, but David came down and asked for a divorce. He was going to remarry. It had been two years. The sin was biting my butt now. Bad men, too much drinking." "I made it each time they raised the drinking age from 17, 19, 21. I am afraid I grew up in The Drug Revolution. We were hippies. Even though the sexual revolution was in the '60s, it still was frowned upon in my generation. Sex before marriage and getting pregnant. You could purchase gas for cheap and ride around for hours. We rode from Hawthorne Plaza to Leland Plaza. Hung out in the parking lots. Drinking and smoking." "Nice cars, wild clothes, and the best music."

"Well, Nana, this was great. I must go now. I have to go do my paper and pick Jeremiah up."

"I am happy you came by and thought of me."

I knew I would not see her again for a long time, if ever. It is hard getting old, but at least we have our memories.

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