And How!

It was a great day with GD#1 and husband lazing around the pool waxing and waning about politics, success, and life. Grandkids are the bomb.

We had a spirited and interesting conversation about voting. This generation apparently doesn't vote because they don't think their voice will make a difference. Each generation shares some characterics and I'd hate to think most of the 20-somethings feel the bleakness our grandkids expressed, but do they?
 
Used to be the youngsters in the family smiled patiently and rolled their eyes at all the back when we were kids stories.  Now we're tellin' them!! LOL  But life was great when we were kids. Before Silicon Valley was built over and changed, it was an idyllic place to grow up. And growing up in San Francisco in The Sunset with a gang of kids whose families all knew each other gave them strong roots.

Our generation was ruled by change and technology. We were under our desks during air raid drills and watched that weird guy at the end of the street dig up his yard to built a bomb shelter. It became popular to assassinate our public leaders, and we rode the wild 60s and 70s, race riots and war. In a relatively short amount of time, we ushered in the computer, the web, tv and dvds and cell phones. Women fought for equal rights during my lifetime. 

But the thing is, before all that, hardly anyone was divorced. Kids roamed the streets in search of fun things to do and used our imaginations. There weren't gangs to worry about, not like today. Nobody had much money but we made due. We had kool-aid stands with tons of sugar and drank from the hose. Nobody took anti-depressants. Kids ate pb&j sandwiches that sat in the afternoon sun in baggies that nobody worried about the plastic leaching into the food. We ate them hot and gooey unless ants had gotten to them.

We didn't wash our hands unless they had mud on them and the fruit we picked from the orchard nearby wasn't washed, either. Sometimes it wasn't even ripe. Our parents only had a general idea of where we were. We'd hear a bell or a voice hollering down the street and know it was dinner.  

Life really was different and even more now that three generations have passed and our way of life is all but disappeared. We have more stuff now, but have lost the hopeful innocence that helps us carry on.

I'm a 'ma'am' phase. For instance, if I carry a box into a business and catch someone's eye and smile, they rush to open the door.  Like magic!  Not very long ago I'd have had to put down the box and open the door, prop it with my knee and gyrate to pick it up and dash inside.

And when someone is clearly in a hurry and dashes by, almost always they think better of it and turn back to open the door and say hello. It makes them feel good and me feel good and it feels good passing it on. All this considerateness and goodwill swirling around the cosmos happying people up makes for a really good day.

I discovered a lifetime pass for the National Parks for like ten bucks. For Seniors over 62. It lasts forever. We'll have to go off season when the families with kids are in school and soccer practices! Do Disneyland and have the park to ourselves! No wait, that's not a National park...

Anyway, that's going to be life for the jellied and over 60 crowd.  Not the same, but not so bad. There's perks in the works.  I'd sure like to clock 10,000 miles on that free National Park pass: Grand Tetons, here we come!  Well, maybe not quite yet ... but soon.