A Broad View by Jerry Hogan: The Good Old Days

ROCKWALL, TX (July 11, 2022) How many times have you said or heard the expression “It’s sure not like it was in the good old days”? Do you really remember those days? (If under 50, you may not even relate to some of the things described in this article.)

Back in those days, being a kid was really fun. In the summer we got up in the morning, got on our bicycle, grabbed our football or baseball glove, and headed for the local vacant lot where we all gathered to play some great games of football or baseball. When it came time for lunch or dinner our mothers would go out in the backyard and yell “Jerry, come home for dinner”! No unforms, no treats at the end of the game, no organized team in an organized league, no umpires or referees, no coaches, no lined fields, just a lot of kids from the neighborhood choosing up sides and having fun all summer long.

When it came time to go back to school, every day we started class with one of our classmates leading us in the Pledge of Allegiance with our hands over our heart. During recess we played in the school yard without a lot of teachers watching. If it was during World War Two, we might even bring all our scrap metal to school and throw it on the scrap piles in the school yard; one pile with a picture of Tojo and the other with a picture of Hitler.

After school it was walk or run home (no long line of school buses in those days for the town kids). And most of the stories about having to trudge three miles through two feet of snow, both coming and going, were unfounded.

At night it was listening to the “Lone Ranger” or “The Green Hornet” or “Amos and Andy”. We even learned how to order our secret decoder ring so we would really be in the “in” going forward.

Finally, we graduated from grade school, and it was on to high school as there were no middle schools in those days. This is where we first learned the “art” of dating and trying to get the prettiest girl to go to the movies with you. Big night out was going to a movie or the Drive in Theater, getting a cone at the local custard stand (where you flirted with the cutest girls) and then trying to get a kiss on the first date as you took your date home hoping her Dad was not standing at the door waiting for you! Going “steady” was the real thing!

This is where we first got into an organized sports program and got all suited up in hand me down football pads or baseball uniforms. We listened to real coaches and tried to make ourselves proud on Friday night when we took our 135 pounds out on the football field hopefully to successfully represent our school colors of orange and blue.

Four great years of high school and then we are faced with our first real decision; what do we do now? Is it pump gas at the local filing station, go to college, join the Army, go to a trade school, get married and look for a job opening doing anything available, help your folks farm, become a small time cook at the local restaurant, or just “wait and see what develops?”

Money was tight, especially in small town America, and this decision was one that quite likely determined your path through the rest of your life. Some of us made the right choice for us and are happy with “how we came out”. Others didn’t do so well and continued to bemoan this until they died.

So here we are 50 or 60 years later, and our world is much different than when we were kids growing up. But it is not as bad as it could be. We still have our family; we have a roof over our head and food on the table. Our kids are OK, our friends are still our friends, and we are finally coming out of those horrendous years of 2020 and 2021.

We still have some important decisions to make in the near future. How do we want to be governed? What do we do about where and how we want to live? How do we contribute to our community and our country? What do we do to set the example for those just starting their lives? Just a few of those decisions. And each of us probably have more that need to be addressed.

But most important. Never forget, we live in that shining light on the hill. America continues to be that country that sets the example for all. Stay strong and Keep the Faith!

Remember, our country is still the brightest star in the world and we just need to learn how to do a better job of making sure it stays that way. Keep the faith.

Submitted Letter to the Editor/Guest Column contributed by Jerry Hogan, a former Rockwall County Judge. He can be reached at jerryhogan@sbcglobal.net or 214-394-4033.

Views expressed in Letters to the Editor are the opinion of sourced authors.