I Miss Mayberry, too

Rascal Flats had a song out a while back called "I Miss Mayberry". Here's the chorus:
Well I miss Mayberry
Sittin on the porch drinking ice cold Cherry Coke
Where everything is black & white
Pickin on a Six String
Where people pass by and you call them by their first name
Watching the clouds roll by
bye bye.

The song paints such a nostalgic picture and it got me thinking about how things were so different when I was a kid and how we have an entire generation of children growing up with some of the most amazing technology but sadly missing out on some of the most simple, pleasurable things life has to offer.

As a child, instead of sitting in front of a computer my biggest and happiest pastime was to: Go outside and play! It was also a child raising philosophy my parents exercised to the fullest - bless them. I have such vivid memories of playing hide and seek outside at night with the neighbor kids with only a caution from mom and dad to, "Not stay out too late, now."

Bunches of us would go down to Beaver Creek (yep, Beaver Creek) and take turns swinging out over the old swimming hole on a ratty rope. Some of the kids had horses and we'd clamor up on their backs without benefit of saddles, bridles or crash helmets. We'd run barefoot through the gravel, fly down the middle of the street on our bikes (again, no crash helmets) or in the winter, grab our sleds and race down the steepest street in town, or lace up our skates on a cold winter day and then play chicken on the ice rink that my dad (who was the town cop) had made for us by flooding the high school's baseball diamond.

I have vivid memories of having to use an outhouse (I was VERY young), of an old man who used to wheel his wheel barrel full of fresh sweet corn door to door selling it and the scent of my mom's lipstick and Evening in Paris cologne.

As a teen it was all about Dippity Do for my hair, drive in movie theaters, hemlines, making the rounds to the local teen dances, peanuts in a bottle of Pepsi - because it was well known that the combo could make you a little drunk - at least we liked to think so.
It really was all very innocent and black and white and I hate it for our kids and their kids that they can't indulge in such simple pleasures and freedoms because of the fear and safety factors and yes, because technology has replaced the "go play outside" methodology that so fosters a child's imagination and broadens their actual personal experiences.

Our son and our goddess of a dt-in-law work very hard to bring those simple things to the table for our grandkids but they lead such busy lives that it's difficult for them. That's where Gramma and Grampa come in. :o) We try very hard to introduce some of those simpler pleasures to our grandkids when we get the chance. That's why I loved Kathy's post about the garden and teaching her little ones about the origin of vegetables so they can see where they come from. It's also why I love getting our grandkids up to our cabin where we have campfires at night, take bath's in the lake (it's a tradition to take at least one bath in the lake per visit), look for gnomes in the forest and visit the BEAR - which is what we call our second bathroom, aka the outhouse. :o)

So, what about you all? What do you miss from the good old days? And if your good old days aren't that long ago, what do you wish you could have experienced from the Mayberry generation?