Reminiscent of Amerca I Knew

Reminiscent of the America I Knew Seventy years have come and gone as though it was a watch in the night, and if we would choose to turn back the clock we can’t even if we tried with all of our might. I was born right after WWII ended in a time of buildup in our now and forever changed land, but it was a short lived peace with hope and dreams that would soon be dashed as we entered another war because of aggression in Korea’s land. I remember I was a small girl as I read on daddy’s newspaper the big headlines stating the Korean War has ended it was posted on the front page, though I didn’t realize all of the implications behind that statement I must have known that my daddy in this war at least would not be engaged. There were soft summer nights of neighborhood fun as we kids would play night games till about 10 p.m., we would run home and get washed up and into our beds and then after being rested up and we would start it all over again. It was a time when radio and television were fun and all would be listening and watching Father’s Knows Best and Let it to Beaver because they were sweet and clean, and not having to worry about language that was not suitable and sex outside of marriage and trying to keep it all safe for your children in decency. The children did a lot of fun things then, climbing trees, hopscotch, Red Rover and marbles just to name a few, the boys playing cowboys and Indians, baseball, basketball and bb guns providing they didn’t aim them at you. In those gentler times, women and girls were safe within their own public or private restrooms, because the men and boys for the most part knew their limits and respected them as part of their early manhood grooming. Families in those days had a father and a mother who instilled decency into the hearts of their child, and only a few in my classes at school back then had ever chosen to run wild. So what am I trying to say in this poem that I feel needs to so badly to be said, America, America how far you have strayed and fallen and the light you once had has gone out and now simply put, it appears to be dead. Written by: Marilyn S. Jennings May 2, 2016