A lot has changed since I was a kid. As a child, I played outside every day rain or shine. I enjoyed building forts with my friends, exploring, and riding my bike. When the street lights came on I knew it was time to go back home.
I remember the name of my best friend from when I was in kindergarten. He was my neighbor. We didn't go to school together. We played outside of our apartments together regularly. His name was Carlos. I went to church with his family.
As I got older the distance between home and where I spent my time only grew greater. I rode my bike to get to many of those places. When I was a teenager I remember riding my bike on major roadways to visit friends the next city or county over.
I learned to take the backroads, and which streets not to take at night, as well as which places never to go at all. It was a different world then. People were different then. Technology hadn't completely depleted people of their desire to spend time outside.
As a teenager, I began making friends that would influence the way I saw the world for my entire life. Some of those people were classmates, friends of friends, or connected to my small family in some manner.
I was ten years old the first time I smoked a cigarette or drank a sip of alcohol. Those things were not mysteries to me at that age. My mother and brother and sister all smoked and drank to some degree.
I recall a time when my mother would send me to the gas station with a note and two dollars in cash to buy her cigarettes. I recall the cashier taking my notes and handing me a full pack of cigarettes then handing me back change. Then, I would simply walk back home and deliver my mother's habit to her.
Those are some of the things I remember about when I was a kid. What are some of the things you remember?