W
Joined: Apr 29, 2004
Posts: 56
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W
I grew up on the DelMarVa (DELaware/MARyland/VirginiA) penninsula in the MAR part. I whole-heartedly agree with you JohnTiki about the Old Bay and Crab smell. Let me also add:
Off Mosquito Spray..standing and turning round and round with eyes closed and breath held while Mom did the honors with the spray.
Running along with the big pick-up truck "fogger" that was bug bombing the neighborhood at dusk (maybe that explains a few things...)
No cable TV (I still don't have it, amazing how much time there is when you rarely watch TV) and barely any broadcast TV close enough to watch
Silver Queen corn and other produce for sale everywhere along the roads.
Not having air conditioning and not knowing that you missed it. Honestly, none of my schools had it and I knew no one whose home had it. So as far as I knew, it was a treat experienced only at some stores, restaurants and the movie theater. We would sometimes sleep on the screened porch at the worst part of the heat and humidity.
Home-made ice cream with the hand-cranked barrel-staved maker.
Reading, reading, reading oh how I love the public library.
Being a school boy with a rifle along with my well-armed friends and being thought of not as a threat or a psycho, but just as a normal kid who liked to target shoot at the sand pit.
Going to the beach at Assateague, Virginia, literally every day and having locals outnumber tourists by a long shot.
No chain restaurants whatsoever.
True funny story, I used to go with my Mom to Chincoteague Virginia to the "Russell Fish Company" to buy seafood literally right off the boat. My Mom always called the man "Mister Russell" and he answered to it. It turns out that his first name is Russell and his last name Fish but since he was a lot older than my Mom and because of the Southern tradition of it being ok and respectful for kids to call adults or for younger folks to call folks older than them by their first name as long as it was proceeded by Mr. or Miss he thought nothing of it. Maybe this is only funny in the South.
Going "bike riding" with no particular destination in mind or reported to parents. In fact, I realize that at 40 years of age, I was once a member of what is now an endangered species, the free-range child. We would leave in the morning, eat lunch at whosever house(s) we were in at the time and return home at dusk or dinner, whichever came first. No cell phones, no problems. People looked out for each other and each others kids. We really had the run of my small town and loved it. Just by hanging out in various shops I learned to work on small (and large)engines, fix a carbon arc movie projector, dirve all manner of odd vehicles, help build home-built aircraft etc etc
Now, the kids go from soccer, to ballet/tap/tumbling to fast-food restaurant to whatever crap "enrichment" program someone can charge parents for. Sheese, life is too short not to let kids enjoy being kids.
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