Thoughts on a summer night...

I was sitting outside watching the kids play today. The sun was out... The boys had no shirts on, digging in a pile of rocks "looking for gold...". Made me think of life when I was young growing up on the Big Island.

It's funny how kids now days are SO different than us at that age. Even when I was 11, 12, and 13, the most important thing was "playing outside". I don't really remember the age when I bridged over from kid to teenager. Everything seems blended together. I think that it's because back then, our parents really didn't have anything to worry about. I remember being in the "younger group" of kids, but we still went with the "big kids". We spent all day away from home on foot. Walking to the mom-n-pop store in Laupahoehoe to buy soda's and junk food to take on our adventure of the day. It's amazing what $2 could buy back then... Then off we went, again on foot, to the pool... or the pond... or the river... Or through some pasture to find any body of water to play in.

Back then, the rule was to be back on the street before the sun went down, then to keep a keen eye out for my mom or dad standing on the stone wall outside our house with the evening flag-down to come home. All with just enough time to take a shower, eat dinner, and maybe watch one of the 5 channels that we had before passing out from the days' excursion.

The next day... same thing.. Summer's were simple, fun and innocent. No Wild Waves, no "bad people" to watch out for, no big vacations... I guess Hawai'i was a vacation in itself. For a "big trip", we spent a whole hour driving so that we could go to Hapuna where there weren't any rocks. Or to Kona to go shopping on Ali'i Drive and eat at Sizzler...

I wonder if life at home is the same that it was when I was younger... Whatever the case, I wouldn't trade where or when I grew up for ANYTHING!!!