Remember When Poem by James Casey

Remember When

We had a little house with three bedrooms,
One bathroom and one car out on the street.
Had a mower that you had to push
To make the grass look neat.

In the living room on a table
We only had one black phone,
No need for voice mail here,
There's always someone home.

We only had the living room
Where all would congregate,
Unless it was at mealtime
The kitchen's where we ate.

No need for a family room
Cause there was no T.V.
No family meetings in this house
There were only four you see

Then we got one TV set
And channels maybe two,
But always there was one of them
With something worth the view.

For snacks we had potato chips
That tasted like a chip.
And if you wanted flavor
There was always Lipton's onion dip.

Store-bought snacks were rare because
We had no time to sit and chat
And nothing can compare to snacks
God made grandma just for that.

Weekends were for family trips
Or staying home to play
We never did things together
Like going to church to pray.

When we did our weekend trips
Depending on the weather,
Took the car to grand ma's
We liked to be together.

Sometimes we would separate
To do things on our own,
And we knew where the others were
Without any cell phone.

Then there were the picnics
At the peak of summer season,
We all went to Grand ma's place
July 4th was usually the reason

Get a baseball game together
With all the friends you know,
Or playing Allie Allie In Free
And no games or video.

I remember when the doctor
Was always the family friend,
Didn't need health insurance
He came only to transcend

That meant he took care of you
Doing only what he had to do,
He took an oath and strived
To do the best for you.

Remember going to the store
And shopping casually,
And when you went to pay for it
You had to use your own money?

Nothing that you had to swipe
Or punch in some amount,
Remember when the cashier person
Had to really know how count?

The milkman used to go
From door to door,
It was never few cents more
Than going to the store.

There was a time when mailed letters
Came right to your door,
Without a lot of junk mail ads
Sent out by every store...

The mailman knew us all by name
And knew where it was sent;
There wasn't loads of mail
Addressed to occupant.

There was a time when just one
glance was all that it would take,
And you would know the kind of car,
The model and the make.

I wish that those days were back
So I could feel free again
To walk the streets at night
With no mugging to contend

Jim 1972