"Yesterday"

        "Yesterday"

Thinking back to yesterday,

Before youth, left to stay.

Playing outside...in the dark;

Sneaking kisses, after dark.

Remembering the games we played;

Board games, that went on for days.

Playing tag and kick the can;

Try and catch me...if you can.

Climbing trees and playing ball;

Hating days the rain did fall.

Always wanting more sunny days;

So we could laugh and play.

Never knowing that we were poor;

Not asking dad to buy us more.

Baking potatoes in an outside fire;

Roasting marshmallows on a piece of wire.

Tree tag games, in a mulberry tree;

So much fun and all games were free.

All nice days were spent outdoors;

Never once feeling, that we were bored.

Todays children want so much more;
Costly things... from the store.

Cell phones and electronic games;

Why did these things have to change?

    Valentine

Reviews

[alf]

Wow!!! Valentine, you have just shown us what is wrong with today!!!! Kids are bored because they get everything the minute they want it!!! Oh how you took me back to childhood with this, and made me once more appreciate the true meaning of fun!!! Great write!!! Love it, alf

[Valentine]

Having lived this life, it brings lots of old memories alive for me also. Kathie

[sereenaoutloud]

I agree with you. I try and make sure to find a healthy balance... so far i am lucky my kids are like me and love the outdoors ...lets hope it stays that way ! :)

[Coyote Poetry]

I agree.
"Todays children want so much more;
Costly things... from the store.
Cell phones and electronic games;
Why did these things have to change?"
I like the old ways. Family time and family meals. Talk on the old porches. Thank you dear Poet for sharing the excellent poetry.
Coyote

[Valentine]

To get these kids into a game of cards, they are on their cells when it isn't their turn. Lack of respect for others is what I would call it. Kathie

[Coyote Poetry]

I play checkers and cards with grandchildren. They like it. Us old folks must make time.

[SmittyJas]

Hide and seek jump rope Hop scotch just some to the games the kids of today say what's that got to do with us I don't know how to play that game. I loved watching me friends play on hot summer days.

[Valentine]

Me too Smitty. Kathie

[Robert]

This poem brought me back to my youth and made me remember for awhile what it was like back then, very similar to your youth. I really enjoyed reading this poem, thank you for the read request.

[Valentine]

Robert, if all todays youth is text on a cell phone, how will they learn to talk face to face or learn to judge good from bad in people. How many kids are listening to adults with their fingers and minds busy texting away. Have your kids lay them down a few hours a week and learn to live face to face. Kathie

[R Smith]

seems we have a generation that remember such games, i know i do, when we pass on will future poets write longingly about cell phones and computer games? Actually they probably will but there's always gonna be the magic of the games we played that required imagination to make them work, your poem takes me back to a really happy place Kathie, its always a shame we ever have to leave that place :)

[Valentine]

Children together, being active, challenging, and talking face to face is going to affect them later I am afraid. How will they learn to speak without texting? Kathie

[R Smith]

i'm not sure how they'll talk but it won't be English or any other language, probably some kind of text talk :)

[andrew mitchell]

Yesterdays were special I enjoyed being a kid without this technology kids have today unless I was in trouble which wasn't on purpose either. I like this write very much

[Valentine]

Kids today walk around texting on a cell phone. It is hard to get them into a conversation. Perhaps they do not know how to talk face to face. Kathie

[Donald Meikle]

This brought me back to stealing rides on trams, flattening farthings,climbing every tree possible, netting shiners,outrunning swans,and being out all day til dark. Thanks

[Valentine]

You bet, todays kids do not know what they are missing. Kathie

[Leslie Philibert]

I thought immediately of the Beatles here, and this poem has a lot of the poignancy of the song. Love the line about mulberry trees, I`ll think about them, ,what they look like, the connection to children`s rhymes...so a poem that has caused me to think, fine job.

[Valentine]

Leslie, the mulberries were delicious and we climb the tree to eat them. A treat back then for poor kids. It had wide spread out limbs so was easy to climb and play tag in. This poem is truth about my childhood being one of nine children. But we were well taken care of and loved summers out doors. Kathie

[Perkele.7885]

this is a well put together poem
however, I only heard about these things from the other kids at school! My childhood was no childhood to speak of. When I was not in school or catching what sleep I could, I was earning every dollar that I could so that when I found an available opportunity at age 14, I made myself my own responsibility.
Why things are the way that they are now, I cannot answer that, other than to say, that technology is moving so fast that it has found its way to the youth before the youth were ready for it.

[Valentine]

My brother had paper routes, one worked cleaning the drug store, but we all found time for that mulberry tree. Kathie

[Perkele.7885]

Trouble is at my house, I was a middle child in a single parent household. To her credit, my mother had to work a lot hours to support her family and augment what ever my fly-by-night father might
give her. She found time for my sister and my little brother(9 years my junior). I slipped through the cracks. I planned, grew up fast and found a steady place to stay, a steady(every day job at a garage) after school and floated through high school and graduated honor bound. No child-hood Kathy