Running under a beautiful sunrise recently, I recalled a fond memory of my oldest daughter. When she was pint-sized, we figured out that she had never seen a sunrise. I know that sounds impossible, but our property lies in a valley where trees filter the sun until it is mid-morning and by then, the spectacular colors of dawn have faded away.
To remedy this, I woke her very early and the two of us went to the top of our street with lawn chairs to watch the sun peek over the horizon. It took three attempts to get a masterpiece. I remember seeing her tired, little face come alive in awe of the burst of reds and purples in the sky.
Don’t you love watching someone enjoy beauty, nature, or art for the first time?
This got me wondering, “What else have my kids missed?”
I know there are plenty of great movies my kids have never seen because I am not allowed to suggest films since The Great Jumanji Debacle of 2005. I built that one up to my family when they were far too young and I totally forgot some extremely spooky scenes. My third child didn’t sleep for weeks and still has nightmares about monkey boys attacking her.
Being a child of the 70’s, I have tried to share some good music with them. While I love AC/DC, Led Zeppelin, The Doobie Brothers, Van Halen and KISS, my kids weren’t fond of ringing hell’s bells and didn’t seem to want to rock and roll all night.
There were other good things from the seventies, though? I could share something else.
Mood rings
Awkwardly short gym shorts
Rotary phones without speed dial
Disco
Hair parted in the middle with wings
Bell bottoms
Car windows with cranks
Vinyl records
Ice cream trucks
Black & White TV’s with 3 channels
I made a mental list of these things. Although each brings back some fond memories for me, most of them have been improved upon. My kids are experiencing better versions, which made my list no less nostalgic for me, but not full of things they are poorer for missing. Frustrated with my inability to come up with much, I settled on one thing that every child needs to experience and mine had missed – until now.
Mooning! They had never been mooned. Well, they hadn’t until I thought of it. I spent the better part of the rest of that Saturday surprising them all over the house. Full moons, partial moons, waning crescents. I got them over and over. I doubt my celestial display was as majestic as the sunrise my eldest enjoyed. They giggled at first, but soon tired of it, locked their doors, and left me alone to come up with something else to share. All I could think of was streaking, but felt like my wife would be vehemently opposed to that one.
So I think we are going to put the 70’s to rest around here and let my children’s vision recover. After all the mooning, number three is having Jumanji-like nightmares again.
A Generous Helping 
Mark – please supply tissues with your posts! I have tears of laughter running down my cheeks!! Thank you!! 🙂
Awesome. Glad you enjoyed
Wonderful post 🙂 !!!!
Thanks! Not so much for my kids😀
Gahahaha! Markk, this is too funny! Mood rings, yes. Mooning, probably not. How about cow tipping? Oh wait… that’s inhumane. Snipe hunting? Jarts? Hang on… all my suggestions thus far are either inhumane or involve the definite possiblility of losing someone in the dark or to cranial trauma.
Probably best not to ask for my suggestions then…
Wait – wait- wait… ROLLERSKATING. Not inline, but on 8 shiny red wheels like we all used to use. No knee pads or helmet, no liability waiver to sign at the check-out desk… just a disco ball, the BeeGees, an oval cement rink. Pull that polyester shirt out of mothballs, buddy… slap on some Brut, and let the good times… uh…. roll.
You’re welcome.
Mother Hen
P.S. Great post, by the way… no way I can one-up this – you had me in stitches! Oh, the mental imagery. I may never recover. 🙂
Loved the skating rink. YES! And who can forget Jarts? Wow. I should have added that – death by lawn game.
You didn’t have a pet rock?
Good memories.
Of course I did!!! Good one.
so funny. i once suggested, after seeing ‘blades of glory’, that it should be fine for my friend to take her 3 sons to. i had seen it about a month before and wasn’t really watching it from the perspective of a parent/child things, so i said, ‘oh, it’s just typical will ferrell silliness and fun costumes, etc. it should be fine.’ she took them and said, ‘thanks a lot beth, there was so much drinking, swearing, puking, etc. and i had to explain the ‘two hot dogs in one bun’ reference. ) oops, i somehow forgot all of that –
Amazing what we forget. Particularly true for movies before the PG-13 rating came out. The language is terrible in those older PG movies. But you forget about that… Until
Hey! Bell bottoms (or flared jeans as I think they are now called) are in not to mention the waistlines are going from down there to high waist again!
They aren’t IN my closet again 😉
We share the same taste in music. Fortunately for me, both of my sons do as well. They are soon to be 10 and soon to be 15. I am SO glad they don’t listen to “today’s” music!
My girls seem to like pretty good music, too. So far.