No Mama, ya'll had it better.

This is what my 13 year old said to me today as I was reminiscing about when I was her age and thinking of going to the garden and picking peas and shucking corn.  I told her about how my summers were in 61,62, and 63 but they were not good times for people of color.    I was telling her we had no internet, no video games, no cable but we had fun.   I told her many things.  I remember there were times as a kid I thought my Mama and Daddy had it hard as children as they were kids of the depression and not once did I think they had it better than me.   I thought they had some hard living.

As we talked about playing softball, swimming in the river, or the local city pool, I told her about preserving food from the garden and riding our bikes for hours on end and going to the local movies on Saturday and jumping in leaves during the fall.   I told her about catching lightning bugs and looking at the stars and going to the well and putting the bucket in and pulling out fresh water with a tin dipper.  The water would be so cold you could get a brain freeze.  I told her about doing the twist and all kinds of party dances with my friends and not worrying about going to school until after Labor Day.  We had dreams of being grown.  This is all before the Vietnam War kicked in high gear.  This was the early sixties.  

When I finished my talk of days gone by with her, and she was hanging on to every word of my stories of long ago past of when I was her age, she said and you had dreams.   You had John F. Kennedy.  You had a president who dreamed of a Moon Shot.   You had discrimination and hatred but you had Dr. King.   You had people who dared to make a better world.  You had freedom to ride your bike and play in the yard after dark.  You had really good food to eat.  You had clean water to drink and fresh air to breathe.   You had fun with friends and bullies were not the norm. You had oceans to swim in without dead fish everywhere.  You didn’t have a mean president who you were ashamed of.  You didn’t have families turning on each other.   Did your leaders cage little kids and keep them away from their parents for wanting a future?   No, you didn’t have facebook, or the internet, or the 200 channels of cable or satellite.  You didn’t have cell phones.   You had a President who encouraged you to dream.  You had Black leaders who stood up and marched everyday and better music in my opinion without all the hate and inuendo.   You didn’t worry about bathing in dirty water or drinking poisoned water.   You didn’t have kids killing themselves every single day with drugs.  You may have had the worry of Nuclear war but you did not have to hide in a closet hoping I don’t get shot today.

We have people of color being locked up, shot and bullied because they are black, she went on to remind me.

“How is lynching worse than shooting, Mama?”   It’s the same thing only now people take it as normal.  Did they then?  You had Rosa Parks.  You had lots of people who cared.  Did your Mama ever tell you that we can’t go swimming because the ocean is green from toxic waste and alage?  Were the fish dying on the shores?

Did you have to go to the doctor so they could maybe find something wrong with you and a new pill would cover whatever they said or advertising at the time?  Did you trust your doctors?  Did you just go when you were sick and they take care of it?  I mean, Mama, a major cause of death today is medical malpractice.

You didn’t worry about some nut coming into a theatre and shooting the place up or a church where people pray and think about the person next to them killing you.   You didn’t worry about your future ...YOU had dreams for the future.   

She then said something that made me so ashamed of this day and time.  She said, I would give up all the internet, and cell phones, and cable and rocket launches for just one summer like you had in 1962.   The coming of age is real for us like it was for ya’ll but we are really sad and afraid.  We want a summer of dreams and hopes and pride  in this country with a REAL president and REAL people in authority that I could admire besides my parents.  She then said, “Remember that ad I made in 2014 about how I want a future”, well I meant it.  No, Mama, ya’ll had it better. 

Don’t think your 13 and 14 year olds are not real aware of what it happening.  They are.  I can only shield her from so much...She knows because this generation coming up is smart.  I mean smart.  They are very aware and as I recall, I was aware of things more than my family knew at that age.   

I felt ashamed and heartbroken.  I have no doubt that if given a chance, her generation will be THE GREATEST generation.  They are smart and not happy with Climate change and all the ugly we are experiencing.  She said, “ We will make it better but it will take a very long time”.

Her ad back 4 years ago.   She wanted to do it.  She was and still is an environment

lover.   

I then put on this song..and we danced.   From 1961 and with meaning .