Cruising The Learning Curve

I was passing through town the other day and could not help but to notice how much and little things have changed. While it is true that many more people live in the area than did thirty or forty or fifty years ago, it seems that there isn’t as much for the kids to do. Of course, back then we were into dancing and we could be found anywhere the music played. Now there are many more restaurants than there were back in the day, but none of them seem to be the kid hang outs that we had back then. My husband and his friends would hang out at the local laundry mat and take the occasional ride in the dryer for amusement. It was a kinder time to be a teenager and we reveled in the freedom that comes from living in a small county. Bagging groceries at the White Store or loading goods at the hardware were a rite of passage for young men. Girls didn’t work as often back then but we certainly loved coming into town and checking out the fashions or grabbing a soda. Gas was cheap and we could actually pile a load of kids in the back of the car and cruise for hours. Today, kids travel in pairs, rather than groups, mostly due to license restrictions. Gas is expensive and there really isn’t any place to go if you did have a car full of kids. When I think of my teen years I realize just how good we had it back then. Sometimes I wonder what our adult selves would think if we walked into a laundry mat and saw a bunch of teenage guys taking a ride in a dryer. Or, if we walked into a restaurant and found a bevy of teens gathered around a juke box just waiting for a great tune to start dancing. I would like to think that we would smile and remember the days when we were barely into our double digit years and all the fun that we had cruising the learning curve and making memories.