Them Good Old Days

I remember when I was little and my parents would constantly talk about how much better things were "in the old days."  Everything was cheaper for sure; movies were a nickel, as were subway rides and hot dogs.  Children respected their elderse better (I was told) and the world was a "different place." 
I think about that now, as my children are growing and I can also say that I have said to them how much better things were in the good old days.  We could playon the street and not worry about strangers kidnapping us- then again we actually played on the street-no video games, no computers!!  There was no texting back and forth incessantly-we had one phone and if my parents wanted to make a call, they would yell "get off the phone already!"  People in the neighborhood knew who you were and watched out for you.  And yes, everything was still cheaper.  We had the traveling watermelon truck deliver us ice cold watermelon in the summer,, the rides truck come by and you would climb on and get nauseated for a few thrilling minutes.  We played stickball and hopscotch and handball against the wall.  If one of the kids got hurt, ew went and got a band aid.  No one threatened to sue anyone.
The funny thing is that I hear my kids saying that things were better when they were younger (remember they are 14 and 17).  My kids have grown up in the age of technology.  If someone sneezes across town, they an say "bless you".  Everything is instantaneous.  And for many things, there is simply too much information (or TMI, as they call it).  Do we really need to know about Lindsay Lohan's 20th arrest, or what Kim Kardashian thinks about anything? (if she does).
The point is, we never know how good we had it, until its gone forever.
My kids have lived through 9/11.  Itr was my daugher's first day of school, but she was the afternoon session and it never opened.  She walked home through the streets with a wet towel over her face.  Both of them have friends who lost parents in the tragedy.  And from that terrible day has come a loss of their innocence.  People are more suspicious.  Life has taken on a wary note-"if you see something say something". Traveling has become a hardship and an ordeal; frightening at times.  I fear they will never again know a world without the threat of terrorism.  But it isn't only that.  Their loss of innocence come from this constant over-exposure to everything in the world.  We know that there was the same types of people in the world back in the 1900's than there are now-people killed children and eachother but we as children were protected from hearign about it by our paretns. I think we grew up a little niave. There is very little we can hope to sheild our children from anymore.  And frnakly, I thnk it has made our children better and stronger in ways that we don't even know yet.  My children can grow up in a world that is much more open than mine was.  They have opinions about things I didn't even know existed.  I am sad for how much negativity they see and hear, but at the same time, I am encouraged to see them think on their own.

How do you all feel about them good ole days?