Scholarcs,
It's very much a 'remember when' for many, I'm afraid. We have always tried to teach our kids that while all the 'modern conveniences' (tv, pc, game consoles, whatever) are really neat, it's the simpler pleasures that in the end you remember. They're still talking about an *overnight* camping trip we did late last summer--and we didn't even get to stay 24 hrs! (Hubby got off work late Fri., got packed up Sat at lunchtime then back home relatively early--before dark--on Sun to get ready to start all over again)
Our daughter remains amazed that *mom* used to rollerskate--in a real rink with real music, none the less! (of course, they were only crude skates and not in-line)
I still recall with sadness buying a *big* piece of bubblegum for 2 cents and then being upset when it went to 5 cents and shrunk by half! When a quarter bought a nice candy bar with change left over. When a kid could go trick or treating, get homemade goodies from neighbors you didn't even know and it was perfectly safe to eat them!
And there is the night my cousin came to visit from out of state (we share the same first name--really cool since for years we were the ones we knew named Melody) and we captured a whole jarful of fireflies, put them on the back porch (with airholes, ofc) only to wake in the middle of the night to a blood-curdling scream as one got free and was blinking round my parent's bedroom! (still brings a smile to my face--I wonder what my mother *thought* it was?!)
Most of the simple pleasures listed are ones *we* still incorporate into our children's lives, right alongside the play station, the crpgs (it's even more fun to assume the identities in public and have people cast strange looks
), and all the rest of the modern mechanical hoopla. We're lucky in that manner. Others have become lost in the tangle we call 'real life'.