1) Cartoons (I'm not talking about those on cable, as I never really had it). I mean, it used to be a non-stopped set of cartoons on Channel 61, 45, 15 and 5 between 6 AM and 12-1 PM. every Saturday, a good portion of Sunday and 6-8 AM for every weekday.
2) "Toy wars" with friends, where I built up an army of over 1,400 soldiers, about 50 tanks and tons of fighters, bombers and military bases to face off against their mass of soldiers and men.
3) Yard sales that actually sold good stuff for kids... like toy soldiers for cheap and massive
air-craft carrier (Purchased for $50, my parents resold it for about the same, it is currently worth about 1.5k dollars).
4) "Good" video games, that actually tried to introduce new concepts instead of being a set of clones, and 2D video game graphics instead of 3D ones.
5) Awesome friends that spent many a recess sharing "The Wall" and office with me after our various escapades. We were even planning on running away together to escape the school (if you don't like school, why not run away and then they can have a permanent recess!).
6) The feeling of awe that I used to have looking at everything from the stars in the sky to the clouds. An innocent lack of knowledge about the universe that has a strange nostalgia in my heart, as it was a world where anything seemed possible and everything was mysterious.
7) Clean air. With the growth of Phoenix, we lost our clean air and my allergies formed driving me up a wall every single year. When I was younger, the air was significantly cleaner and I never got sick. Now I need prescription meds to take care of my allergies.
8) Dark skies. You used to be able to look up from our house and enjoy all of the stars in the sky. Now, with modern light pollution, you can hardly see the brightest stars at all and half of the sky is lit up when you go out in the desert.
9) Less city, more country. Our neighborhood used to be across from an orchard, with farms and vacant lots all around. We had more bugs, insects, lizards and all manner of living things. But then the yuppies moved in, blasted their lawns weekly with pesticide in an attempt to kill off every living thing within a 100 klicks, the housing boom initiated causing them to tear down the orchards and destroy the farms for new housing developments and SUVs began to get pleasure from nearly running people over. I hate the new Phoenix, I wish it would have stayed the way it used to be.
10) The freedom to do what you wanted without serious consequences from authority figures. Sadly I didn't take greater advantage of this - today we have a curfew and attempt to keep kids in school year round 24 hours a day to compete with China. But that freedom is something I really miss. If you messed up, and did something stupid, it would just be assumed that you were young and learning, you could actually experiment more with life then you can when you're an adult. And if anyone so much as tries to lay a finger on you in public, there is always at least one adult who will return the favor for you 100 fold.
11) The belief that "we" were
always the good guys and that war only hurt evil people. A bit political, but ultimately anyone who believes this the way we do when we're little, is just naive. I didn't really consider that there were actually two sides to a war until I played Red Alert, and even then I felt that the other side must have known they were doing evil, because "we" were the good guys, and hence always right. This led to a rather confused view of protesters, because I couldn't understand why they would protest what "everyone" must have known as correct in their morals. It's a shame the world didn't live up to my expectations - but then there would be nothing for our generation to fix.
12) My mother coming down to school to pick me up for lunch and take me out to burger king, or Pete's fish and chips ect.
13) At least before high-school, I greatly enjoyed loads of free time which I was able to enjoy with friends.
14) The opportunity to draw
all-day-long on computers at GCC at 12-14.
15) The thrill of laser tag.
16) The ability to transform any environment, from my backyard to the park, to the campground to a fantasy world where my wildest dreams came true.
17) All of my child-hood pets that have passed on.
18) The thrill of Christmas morning (I would be the one to wake up at 3 AM and wake the rest of the household, because my parents would put the presents under the tree just AFTER I fell asleep)
19) That amazing uncontrollable feeling of inner destiny, as though I had some incredible purpose planned out for me since the dawn of the world. This got me into a lot of trouble later on, but as a child, it was an amazing source to draw perseverance from.
20) Getting my head scratched.
21) My great green comfy couch.
22) Real weather. Not like today. I used to be able to look up at the sky and tell during the middle of the day if a thunderstorm would arrive in the evening, and they were always incredible thunderstorms. It rained far more back then and they would always be preceded by a huge dust storm. I got an incredible charge out of these storms and my [s]parents[/s] mother could hardly keep me inside and away from the lightning.
23) My personal dreams (not those in sleep, but those I had while awake).
24) My infinite potential from a life yet un-lived.
25) An early zest for life, with very colorful and powerful emotional feelings that were nearly as real as the colors in front of my eyes.
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