Gunny456 said:

---

Being able to make a deal and a handshake was all that was needed and your word was your bond.

---

Yeah, people still find that weird. I am doing side work to save up for a food trailer, and people are always amazed when I keep my word and actually show up.

Fishing with Pepaw, Dad, and My Son at the coast. We had 1 epic trip when we were able to put all of us together. Pepaw was 92 at the time. I will never forget that day, or all the days they drug me along when I was younger. I miss Memaw's cream gravy on pork chops after a hard day of work outside. I miss my Dad's crooked smile before we would laugh and joke about whatever was going on.

I often frequent the areas I used to fish with them in POC, with my son now, on my boat, and it helps ease the pain.

I do miss less traffic, but I also enjoy being able to go damn near 100MPH worry free on the tollway headed to the coast on a Thursday afternoon. That is a new luxury for me.

Open fields ablaze with fireflies.

I miss my kids being young and full of wonder.

Caladan said:

---

Open fields ablaze with fireflies.

---

Damn, this is exactly what I wanted to post when read the OP.

We've got tons of fireflies here in E Tennesee.

Being the gate opener for grandpa as we rode around and checked cattle.

And no social media.

Good numbers of Bobwhite Quail and Morning Doves in Limestone County.

Having no real responsibility and more time than I knew what to do with.

Going to the baseball card shop with my allowance

And playing tennis ball baseball in the front yard with my brother.

I miss driving down the road when the slow truck in front of you would pull over on the shoulder and let you pass. Then giving him a thank you wave.

This tradition ended around here 2000ish I believe. It just became too crowded after that.

Hold on to what you got.

Our owner developed dementia and his kid took over. Things went downhill from there.

I miss the hours the owner & I would talk about everything while leaning on a fence post.

Same thing up here in the Ozarks. Lots of areas that don't get sprayed with insecticides

Going to play golf with my grandpa.
Being able to buy 4 candy bars for $1.
Any coin any drink night at Grahams

I wish I could still get a pickup with floor vents.
The faster I drove, the more wind would blow on my bare feet.

Singing from a hymnal with an organ, not contemporary Christian music with an electric guitar.

Horny toads

P.H. Dexippus said:

---

Singing from a hymnal with an organ, not contemporary Christian music with an electric guitar.

---

We still do that with an organ and an acoustic guitar. I appreciate our small church.

Going for walks "over the hill" with my Granny. My Great Grandmother was born in 1892 in far north Georgia (Ellijay) and moved to Hunt Co, Tx in 1902. She knew the name of every tree, bird, bug, and plant on the 47 acres she owned on the South Sulphur River. She had an extensive knowledge of edible and medicinal plants acquired from her grandmothers.

When I was a child,and she was in her 80s, she would take me for walks and tell me the names of plants we passed and what they could be used for " young briar you can eat it, tastes like asparagus" "Bois'd'arc, you can make a yellow dye with the root, Indians made bows from the wood . This place is fenced with it and my house is sitting on bois'd arc blocks 'cause they don't rot".

Her land had a big hill, that had an outcrop of fossils and we always headed home with her apron pockets full of fossils and "pretty 'lil rock's" I'm pretty sure she is why I knew I was going to be some kind of "ologist" by the time I started school.

Right there with you. I haven't lived there in over 24 years, but I'd move back tomorrow if I could. Unfortunately, I'd have to go alone (winters were too cold for my wife).

Well I think she would be proud of you 87FF. You certainly learned well from her my friend.

Gunny456 said:

---

Being able to make a deal and a handshake was all that was needed and your word was your bond.

---

This. The is something I grew up with and still use in almost all situations from personal to business life. As an adult, I've been burned more times than I want to say and it frustrates me every time. You just never know if someone is going to do the right thing. Maybe it was just a small town thing I grew up in but if you said you were going to do it, It was a promise. Not so anymore. Now it seems a lot of folks treat it was a party trick, a nostalgic throwback.

I also miss not having cell phones. I can't even remember what it eas like to not talk to anyone for 12 hours or have to actually know where you were going without a Google map.

Another thing I miss is the simplicity of life as a young adult. When I met the wife, then just a girlfriend and we lived together in College Station. We were going to school….life was "hard". But it wasn't. It was so easy. Pay the rent, do what you want. Not a care in the world.

What a great thread.

As Tracy Lawrence sang, "The only thing that stays the same is Everything changes, everything changes".

My paint cowhorse, and chasing stock out of the cedar brakes. Running a trapline, and running throw lines in the san saba river and mill creek.

Miss the times when the only exception was an honest day's pay for an honest day's work....

Going to Port Aransas during the 70's and early 80s when my wife's uncle owned a boathouse on the harbor. We spent 3 weekends a month down there during the summer and at least one weekend a month in winter. In the mid to late 70s her father moved to PA as well. Unk had a few boats and we could go offshore or bay fishing a lot. Unfortunately for me, I suck at fishing, but it was always fun.

Sometime around 80 they moved to some acreage north of Huntsville. Her two youngest brothers also bought houses on adjacent land. We went up there a lot to visit as well. We had great times sitting outside and going to the stock tanks to drink beer and enjoy the quiet. Every 4th of July and New Year's we had fireworks and our three kids practically grew up with them.

I also miss my family from when I was a kid. There were 9 of us in a two bed one bath house that my father worked to expand to fit us in. The first 10 years of my life were spent in that house and I was the youngest of 7 kids. Lots of good times and I was too young to realize how tight money was. We always had food and clothing, but not a lot of frills. I will say we're blessed that only one of the siblings has passed away so far, and I'll be 71 later this year.

My grandpa.

8 Tracks and vent or wing windows.
Real copper window screens that whistle at night when the cool night breeze blows.

Old school family reunions when my dad and his siblings were alive and listening to them tell stories and cutting up.

My uncle handing me his tobacco pouch to hold it for him, so his wife doesn't find out.

aggieband 83 said:

---

I wish I could still get a pickup with floor vents.
The faster I drove, the more wind would blow on my bare feet.

---

Ball chillers FTW!

They need to be brought back by manufacturers poste haste.

Other things -

Working on projects with my dad. I didn't appreciate it all that much growing up because i was essentially forced labor. I learned to appreciate it when he and I worked on my house in college, then really felt how it hit home when one day he called me to ask if I could come help him take the oil filter off of my mom's car. He had grown old and weak due to cancer and the guy that was strong as an ox suddenly wasn't anymore. I knew it was hard for him to call because he couldn't do it, and because it was an hour drive across Houston for me and he knew that wasn't something I looked forward to doing. But I did it because he was The Olde Man. Then spent most of the day there bs'ing with him after doing 5 minutes of work to finish changing the oil for him. That was one of the last times I remember things being almost normal before he died.

Listening to my grandpa's stories. I think it is Montgomery Gentry that has the song about making a beeline for the door as soon as an uncle starts telling stories but the kids always ended up sitting on the floor listening. It was that way with my grandpa - he was a master story teller. Honestly he missed his calling on that front - it was natural for him and he knew when and how to embellish and change his tone. Growing up as a kid the stories were awesome, but as I became a teenager and then young adult they grew tiresome and I found myself listening to them less and less and finding excuses to not go over at times or leave early. Now I'd kill to sit down and listen to him regale us with any one of the stories of when he was a kid growing up in McGregor or as a young police officer back in the 50's and 60's in Bay City or Lake Jackson. You don't realize what you have sometimes until it's gone. I was fortunate enough to stop by one weekend when I was home from AZ over Christmas and spent several hours just talking with him about a whole lot of nothing really. We had a great time and he "secretly" gave me several of his guns that he knew my brothers had no interest in. He passed away about 2 weeks after.

Baseball. Man I miss baseball. Being young, competitive, playing a game that I loved with and against friends and even those kids that I didn't like one single bit growing up. We were living in the best times of our lives, but we were too young and stupid to know it back then. That old saying that youth is wasted on the young is fitting.

I also miss not thinking about work or dealing with it until I walked through the gate in the morning and the second I walked out of the gate it wasn't even a blip on the radar anymore.

Spending summers with my grandparents on their ranch outside of Hunt. The property was incredible, but would trade so much to go back and ride around with my grandad in his old blue ford truck.

Miss going on hunting trips with my Dad. He passed away last year.

Sleeping in the same house as my wife and kids.

Respectful and Sane people

Jam sessions with family and friends at my folks house playing old time fiddle songs. There were always at least 3 fiddles, me, my dad and Mr. Manning, a couple of guitar pickers, 2 Jim's and a Bubba, a piano player, One Jim's wife Judy who was an excellent piano player, Her father was a well known old time Texas fiddler. My bro could play some chords on a mandolin. An old man from Kenedy would show up occasionally with his fiddle. He went by the Initials O.T. which stood for Oklahoma Territory as he was born there right before it became a state. There was always a feast involved........ BBQ brisket, tater salad and beans......adult beverages. Jim and Judy lived not far from us in the NW SA area and we'd get together at their house as well. Fun times. Good memories.