This is a collection of a few a my most cherished photographs from my childhood years.....of days long ago. Most of you won't remember them, or know much at all about how we communicated in the 40s and 50s. It was very much a different world, a closer more tender time. We talked person to person, and occasionally (if it was a very important conversation) over the telephone, which was black and mounted on the wall. We dialed the numbers, no buttons to push back then. People also played, really played, in different ways according to the ages. We played street ball (not much traffic then), we play "King of the Hill, and HideNSeek, and we play Cowboys and Indians. This all involved talking and laughing and running and, yes, we even had bruised foreheads and skinned knees, but it was worth it! I remember my parents "playing" when their friends came to visit and they played Scrabble, card games, and they even sang around a piano. They talked for hours....oh yes, they were masters of communication. My late and very dearly beloved father sang me to sleep every night. I can still hear his wonderful tenor voice as he sang "I'll Be Seeing You"....what a way to fall asleep as a child. He was a singer and had his own radio program for years. I have a cell phone these days, but I hate it and only use it in my car if I have a real need. We have some tv's, a Blu-Ray, computers, radios, digital cameras, etc., etc. But more and more my heart and mind wander back to the days when we actually visited our friends, played outside all day long until it got dark, and returned to the house when my dad whistled for us. I miss those days so much......a much more intimate and happier time. I also notice the increasing numbers of obesity in even small children, and morbid obesity in pre-teens. Could that possible be from lack of REAL exercise? Oh, just one more thing, we ate our meals together at the kitchen table, where my mother provided a real home cooked meal, after returning from her volunteer "job" at the hospital, and my dad would offer a prayer of thanksgiving......afterwhich we communicated all our observations, funny stories, and any worries we had for that day. Have we really come a long way? I don't think so.