Let there be LIGHT!

This time of year always evokes memories of my childhood. Slowly, but surely the days are getting longer. The sun is hanging around well into the evening. By June 21st (the longest day of the year) it's not unusual to have remnants of daylight past 10 P.M. When I was a kid, we were allowed to stay out until dark. "Until dark" can be a relative time period. A child could argue he/she was home in time because it wasn't completely dark yet. But where I grew up there was an absolute that determined my curfew. The dreaded street light. There was a street light on the phone pole directly in front of my house. The rule was simple... be home by the time the street light came on. We kids were smart and could time (almost to the minute) when that light would come on. And believe me... we pushed it every night. But heaven help you if that light came on and you weren't home. Dad didn't mess with "Time Out" or no TV. No sir! He opted for the more direct approach in his discipline. Needless to say, we didn't miss curfew very often. I valued my rear end too much! Sitting down was not a luxury I was willing to give up. However, there was an exception to the street light rule. If we were playing in our own yard, we would often be outside well past dark. We'd play games like Ghost in the Graveyard, Kick the Can and Freeze Tag. We would also get an old jar and see how many lightning bugs we could catch. We always thought if we caught enough we could have a homemade lantern. Mom and dad would often be outside with us. We had a bench swing on the front porch and they would hang out on the porch while us kids played in the yard. Our next door neighbors, the Boeskens had a swing too. It was like having a block party every night. My grandparents lived in the apartment upstairs. They used to sit on their second floor porch right above ours. I remember they would drink beer out of plastic mugs and eat redskin peanuts while listening to the Reds game on the radio. I especially remember Grandpa's mug with a picture of Farrah Fawcett on it. The neighborhood was a vibrant place back then. The TV was off, there were no video games, computers, iPods or cell phones. Those were better times. Times we can never get back. Times when adults visited with each other on the porch and the kids played in the yard. Times when kids knew to be home by the time the street light came on.