via Daily Prompt: Minimal

My knees were scratched because I fell off my BMX, trying to ride it. It was such a treat for me to have the bicycle with the dangling things on the handle. I even tried to skateboard, but it wasn’t for me, I was a bit too girly for that. I could sure spin a top though, yeah, better than some boys. Oh, the tricks I could to with a yo-yo..yep the one that picked my skirt up too 😉 As for kites…the ones I made, with bin packets and bamboo sticks, you should have seen me fly those kites, so high, until it got stuck in the power lines or some tree 😉

I had pony tails and a fringe. I always wanted my love-in-tokoyos to be the best and stand out. The teachers didn’t like my fancy styles, I was a bit too stylish for their liking but I sure enjoyed setting a trend, well, some of those teachers even sent me home to change, yep, on more than one occasion, cos such short skirts and figure hugging tights, were taboo then, especially in the culture then.

Lycra short tights, fit and flare short dresses, lambada outfits, neon green, pink and orange tops, cu-lots and palazzo pants…yeah…I flaunted them all. But never those glamour girl jeans, I hated that. In fact, you’d hardly ever find me in pants then. Oh and I loved PE, not for the sport, but to wear my fancy shorts and tops, which I always got into trouble for.

I loved my cassette player, music was my companion. Holding my hairbrush, singing to myself, the days used to pass, dreams I would dream, of the things I would be when I grew old….I even had a crush on a DJ, more inspired by Tiffany’s “Radio Romance” than the DJ himself, whoever he was. I used to sing that song with such passion, and then also dance to “Last Night the DJ Saved My Life. Maybe I dreamed then that some DJ would rescue me.

I loved the school concerts. I wanted to be in every play and every dance. I usually was the main act or the closing act, changing from one costume to the next. Yeah, I played “Cinderella” and I did the ribbon dance, in my leotards, short skirt and stockings, I remember everyone would stay at the concert, just to see the ribbon dance. I remember that play we used to have every year, about going to the Doctor, you gotta do it laughing, and then crying, then slow…then fast, etc.

I’d go home and play with my neighbours and cousins. We’d fight between playing Loodoo and Snakes and Ladders, about who gets to roll the dice first.

I used to love to listen to George Michael, “Faith” and I used to hold my hairbrush in my hand and stand against the wall with one leg on the wall…singing along, I just never knew then who he sang it for lol.

I loved so many songs, some of which I never understood then, but it didn’t really matter, cos the hidden or deeper meaning didn’t matter then. All I knew was that it made me feel good. Like Bryan Adams, “Best Years of our Lives”.

I was listening to some music of the 80’s which triggered these memories. Such innocence. Such substance. We had Minimal but we had so much more than we do now.

How life has changed, how technology has corrupted our minds. How materialistic people have become. People are more concerned about accumulating things than building relationships. What happened to values and morals? What happened to children and the things that children used to enjoy?

I remember the days I used to play my recorder, yeah, I used to irritate the neighbours, trying to learn how to play the Dallas tune on it, and I eventually could.

Remember popsicles  and sherbet? The sherbet you’d find a coin in? Remember marbles and all the games we’d play with it? Remember picking up sea shells on the sea shore and what a variety there was then?

The 80’s music brought back such happy childhood memories, things I had long forgotten. I am so glad I took this trip down memory lane and was reminded of these good times. In a way it is sad, that this generation will never experience those simple little things, which will now just be a treasure in my memory.

As a mother to my son, I will however do my best to create memories for him that are about a good quality of life and quality time…in the hope that one day, when he looks back, he’ll have the fondest childhood memories.