Its My Party and I'll Cry if I Want To

It's my birthday today. Again.

Remember when you were little and your birthday took about 17 years to roll around?

Yeah, not so much anymore.

Today I am being forced to turn the big 3-0. Ok, I guess its not as bad as the alternative, but still.

I'm old now. I'm halfway to 60. 

 I remember dial up internet. I remember life before internet. Rotary phones,pay phones, scrunchies, New Kids on the Block, riding in the front seat when I was younger than my kids who are still in carseats, Zelda, cassette tapes, jean purses, card catalogs, phone books. "Wow look at that phone you can CARRY AROUND WITH YOU! It even has its own antennae!"  Film that took like 3 weeks to get developed.

When I started driving ( which was 1/2 my life ago, thanks for asking) gas cost less in dollars than the number of gallons my tank held.

People called each other, and didn't know who it was before they answered the phone.I remember the first time we got an answering machine. It was like magic. 

And the only texts we read were our school books. 

I had a gameboy- the screen was green and the only game I had was tetris, but when we went shopping at Sears for school clothes, we could play Sonic the Hedgehog in the kids section, if we were lucky.

Our quarters only had a face on them, and we had manual credit card machines(without buttons!), with carbon copy reciepts that got your hands dirty.

You had to look at a real clock to check the time.

We had real, metal, jungle gyms. And they were only one color: metal. We had wooden playgrounds too. We got splinters and bruises and had so much fun. 

I remember one time in second grade we had these tickets we earned for something-cant remember what now, but we could pick prizes with them. I got a little wooden picture of Jesus.

And we said the Pledge of Allegiance every single morning. Do schools still do that?

I know today is an important day in our country's history. I can't believe its been 11 years. I will never forget where I was or what I did that day. My kids have never heard about it. They don't yet know things like that happen in real life, and Im so thankful for this peaceful, fun, innocent time of their lives. I can't imagine what they will look back on in a few years and remember as being the simpler times.