What Happened?
What Happened? Technology is wonderful, but at what cost.
Who can remember stick ball?
Get a broom handle and a ball, usually the cost was about 15 cents (yes I said 15 cents) and draw bases in the street with chalk with a few of the guys and off we went hour after hour. Sometimes if there weren’t enough guys we played something called automatics. Two sewer shot was a home run. Hit the apartment building roof a double ect. All day into the night until you couldn’t see.
And for the evening we played Ringo Levio a form of tag until mom called us in. If you were to just “hang out” it was under the lamppost on the stoop,where you could be seen and stay out of trouble.
Sometimes stickball was replaced with triangle (or slap ball depending on what neighborhood you came from). Another form of baseball with a rubber ball, pitched on a bounce and you (like in handball) hit it.
I remember another favorite of opening the fire hydrants during the summer. Winter time brought football and a great game of two hand touch in the street where sewer to sewer was the length of the “field”.
Nowadays I don’t see any of this. It seemed to be somewhat of a close knit community back then. During the summer evenings, parents would come out front and set up tables with coffee and cake with other neighbors and on the weekends they are out till late at night and once in a while we were allowed to say up past the bedtime.
Nowadays I don’t see any of this. Times have changed. It seems everyone including adults are glued to some sort electronic device. Music phone texting computer Facebooking twitter but NO TALKING TO OTHERS unless it’s really necessary.
Each individual seems to become the landlords of their own little kingdom.
I sat in a restaurant recently and noticed three couple at a table. They were all on their phones and not talking to each other. The waiter came over took their orders at which time they stopped using their hones gave their order and after a brief few words with each other while ordering eventually y went back to their phones. One older fellow never looked up at the waiter order while on his phone.
What happened?!
Families rarely sit for dinner together or converse rather talk at each other between texting.
Technology is wonderful, but at what cost.
Young folks have phone friendships rather than how it used to be. We didn’t have phones just made a call or went to the house rang the bell and made a visit. Or the way we did it back in Brooklyn was just yell from the street.
Perhaps I’m getting old but it seemed to be closer and friendlier. Kids knew their families and the neighbors. Kids knew what religion they were and attended their religious communities.
What Happened?!
I don’t have an answer for this, just thinking or in this case writing out loud.
What happened?
It seemed so many commercials are about phones and what they can do for you. How much more information do I need, while I have lost touch with others. We can reach anyone anywhere in a split second and yet we have moved so far apart from each other including our neighbors right next door.
What Happened?
Blessings,
Chop wood, carry water
