Lost tribe of Westwood

Watching the rain fall makes me happy that warm weather will be here soon. It has been a long winter. The snow came early and often and we never saw it completely melt away. As I'm writing this, the rain has turned to snow and then back to rain. Old man winter does not want to give up. This type of day gives to time to sit back and think on what this year might bring. I ask questions like, What war will we be in next, how can we get America back to work, can the poor, working class, and senior citizens balance the budget for those who have it and don't want to share it? Will riots and civil unrest descend upon America like it has descended on the middle east, and how can we avoid it.
I think of those that have gone on before us. I miss my parents and their generation. Those were the days where one parent worked and the other stayed at home with the kids. The neighbor hoods were full of kids running and playing with sticks and their imaginations. We knew everyone on our block and strive to make it the best neighborhood. When it got dark out, you could hear mothers for miles around shouting for their kids to come home . Children were better behaved because there was a family unit. We may have had fight with our sibling, but no one else was allowed to pick on them. On Saturdays you could hear the radios with Tiger Baseball, while washing your car or mowing your yard.
"Those were the days my friend, we thought they would never end. We'd sing and dance, for ever and a day. We'd live the life we choose, we'd fight and never lose, those were the days, o yes those were the days."
Gone are the corner grocery stores, meat markets, barber shops and produce stands. Gone are the neighborhood block parties, the neighbors talking over the fence. Gone are the sounds of bed sheets flapping in the wind or block parties to welcome new people to the neighbor hood. Gone are the sound of baseball cards slapping on the spokes of a passing bicycler. Life back them was simple and hard, but we enjoyed it. Now we bitch about what is owed us, why the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. Our great advancements don't come close to measuring up to the simple days of yesterday. We have lost far more then we have gained. My father always told me to use the KISS method. He was a wise man.
Here is a toast to 2011 and may we stop losing all that we had.