Jim was hosting for Fandango but Fandango will be back. Thanks Jim for taking the time to fill in.

Things were different back in the day when …

Written for FSS

Things were different back in the day when the world seemed so safe. As kids, we would leave the house in the morning and return only if we forgot some treasure or new tool to use as we built an imaginary world around us. 

“Hey, wait for me”, I remember my best friend saying as she pedaled harder and harder to catch up. We were on our way to the underpass. 

The underpass was I95 which cut through the shoreline and went all the way from Maine to Florida, or so we were told. We would search the sand on either side of the road that traveled under the underpass to look for bird eggs that were maybe jostled out of their nests by the rumbling vibration of the cars and trucks. Once in a while, we would find a blue robins egg, cracked in half like mom’s Sunday morning breakfast eggs, but never a baby bird to rescue. 

“Let’s ride up to the store and buy gum!” my friend said. There was a small store about a mile away.

We would cross the busy street, Route 1, which also supposedly runs from Maine to Florida. Then we would pedal over the East River and cross the town line to finally get to the shop close enough to buy big packs of Grape Hubba Bubba. Chewing happily we would ride toward home, wondering what we should do next. We never told our moms we rode so far. It was dangerous crossing a main road, never a worry about anyone kidnapping us or luring us in some obscene way. As long as we were home for dinner we were free to explore the world around us, and that we did!