Here are the pictures:
Here are the words:
"Back in the days...
Why is it that I sit here looking at a couple of photos of some girls playing with dolls and suddenly begin to reminisce on how my own childhood was? Yeah, that’s correct! A picture of a couple of girls, having a blast, playing around with dolls is a reminiscence-trigger to me, go figure! I would assume that a couple of you also get the same tinkling feeling; we’re only human after all! How can we possibly relate to these pictures? Some of you Manly Men have probably already inflated your chests, laughing at the fact that the doll-playing girls trigging my imagination, but that’s the cold hard truth! I wouldn’t testify to the fact that I grew up wearing dresses and sitting in circles playing with dolls, spend a couple of minutes of your precious time with me, and I’ll break it down for you Mr. Blowfish! First things first; to get in the proper mood of which this trip down memory lane was conceived, you need to set your Spotify, or Ipod to Public Enemy “He got game”, Tommy Tee “Takin Ova” or another song from the golden 90s. The year is 1998 and we’re about 10 years old, in other words, young, without concerns and living life to the fullest! In other words the society’s biggest concern if we’re to believe FRP’s warning.
I remember when we gathered around, with a couple of action figures, the first one’s that comes to mind is the Ninja Turtles and Transformers figures, and who can forget about them Action Mans! How many I ended up having I don’t recollect, but there’s no doubt about the fact that my little army and I could have made a difference, and produced a miracle or two, perhaps even three! We were young and restless, not like the cheese soap, but more in the sense of youngster nourished on (a little too much) sugar and a predilection for guns, soldiers and wars! Boys will be boys, so do the most of every moment - with a philosophy like that, we’re without blame. Who can blame us? To introduce the last factor needed to understand the times of which pops to mind, we just have to imagine a little boy, with the sole intent of becoming somewhat like the Fresh Prince, not a white boy turning black though, we had enough of those types already, but a smooth talker, and a menace to society.
Them old days were tha bomb, hands down! Walking around without a sole concern, everything provided for you- that’s the goodlife- to borrow the words of Mr. West. Why I kept dreaming of becoming older, and still ‘till this day imagine how life will become as we grow older I have trouble understanding. I guess it’s similar to the paradox of wanting what you can’t get. Much like this history lecture about how much better everything was back in the days, the past will be the past, the future remain unclear and unconquered- regardless of how crossed our fingers are, or how many prayers we say, so it will remain, just a closed or unopened chapter out of reach. Who cares about what’s handed to you, the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence, who won’t agree that the greenest grass is what’s we’re after? Jokes aside, this is a question I’m eager to find a solution too! How come we’re so easily distracted that we’re willing to drop whatever we have between our hands in attempt to reach for something way out of reach? Even though it’s safer to write on the behalf of a group rather than speaking your own mind, I truly believe that I speak on the behalf of a larger group than me, myself and I. If I somehow manage to upset a soul or two, I suggest that you read the text until you reach the point of total exhaustion, and plainly abandon the idea of complaining, and become a believer of this fountain of knowledge (me)!
The memory I cherish the most, if we look away from all the toys, is my state of mind. I can’t come to think of anything that made me really upset. I have a kid brother, and friends that weren’t/aren’t what you would categorize as young adults. Naturally, why else would I spend time with them? The point is that they weren’t the reason, they still make me throw the same fits as I used to. When it comes to Mini Me, blood is, and has always been thicker than anything, anything else than oil that is, and since no one has offered any oil for him, I’m still kickin’ it with him. The picture made me think of all the times we had a ball, mostly because someone made a fool of themselves. I’m not trying to draw any attention away from my own ass, I surely did one or two things worth having a ROFLMAO fit over, but I can’t think of any episodes worth mentioning as I sit here writing this article. I guess it’s just one of the benefits you get by being the storyteller. “The winners are the ones that get to write (the) history”, I guess this article proves a couple of harsh haters wrong, my O my! If you’re the one holding the pen, first of all you’ve become the storyteller, a victory in its self, second of all you get to offer the reader a walk-through your sick n’ twisted mind.
Another thing that pops into mind is the constant feeling of being content. Probably closely related to the placebo effect of being a part of a goofy gang, with a Mickey and Mini mouse, a couple of weird squirrels and the rest of them complex characters that helped build the Disney-end, butterfly popping-out of cocoons, history writing winner! The point I’m trying to get across is that the ages with technological advances shouldn’t be embraced with open arms, not all the time to say the least! I remember when my parents, and other adults, warned us about the result of spending too much time in front of a screen. To burst the bubble, I’m not the one to contradict my ol’ folks, but just as the fact that the world is round, I’m gonna enjoy to witness today’s youngsters tell them otherwise! This is in some way the essence of my argumentation! The youth of today are way too lazy. Not at all a new or existing argument, but stick with me for a second! As the son of my father I have some difficulties accepting the fact that all the time being spent passive, on their flat ass, to be anything short of unhealthy, BUT then again, what about that WII? It seems like Lady Fortuna played us a nasty little trick! Can it be, wasn’t the Nintendo 64 not the best console after all?
We are 88’ers, meaning that we’re old enough. So let’s look the truth in the eyes and accept that the past, our childhood, was nothing less than perfect. With the right amount of creativity and technological understanding we were able to entertain us selves by playing with each other with, and without looking at a split-screen at all time. A liberating, almost magical feeling, that of slipping away into dreamland after an exhausting afternoon spent playing football, the slight headache caused by the hard ball, not the confined space with poor air, is all you have to show for, no score rate or statistics to prove your efforts. You see the difference, can’t anyone accuse the last Great Generation of being passive, we put the R in Rug Rats! You might get the impression of that I’m a old, sinister fart that’s stuck in the past, but let me ask you about something as we’re approaching Christmas in the speed of light. Do you remember how happy we were when we opened the only gift under the tree, found an orange, wrapped in old newspapers, with a worn-out shoelace neatly tied in a node, The orange which we even had to split and share with all the other kids, huh? Those were the days! Happiness, and genuine appreciation for the thought behind the present, chunks of Vitamin C, just enough though, in order to drift away and imagine ourselves on the riverbanks of California, the smell of saltwater in the nostrils, and sand a little bit everywhere.
I haven’t, not even for a split-second, dreamt that the day when I’d fall to my knees, put my hands together with the intention of pouring my soul out to a higher and divine power would catch up with the fast life I’m living. Always on the move, eating my meals between A and B, never enough time to catch my breath. Well, that day has come. I’m standing here with the same exact feeling you have as you step through the threshold of the doomsday room on the day of the exam, you’re not as prepared as you’d like to be, and you figure that you’ll just have to wing it in the worst case! Worst case being the situation I’ve grown accustom to be the only situation, the sole I have any experience with, I’m almost in a lost of words as I’m about to address the importance of the real world. Not the one you spend every waking hour in, but the one outside your window, and not the one inside your screen. I guess I’ve become grandfather. It’s time to shut off the computer and set sails for new adventures. I’ll bring along some duck tape, a couple of matches and my switz knife in case we need to save the world as we know it to be- from some crazy computer-A-tized zombies. I’ve done all in my power to beg you, children and our future to put away the DS, let the Playstation rest for a while, and take a detour outside as you’re making your way to the kitchen for new supplies of Coke and junk food. This is it, there is love, I can feel it! Now all you have to do is to experience it, feel the smell of something else than your bad breath, I double dare you!
Peace"
Thanks for reading.
Let us know what you think about this in the comment field! Thanks in advance.
