Do you remember phone booths???

Do you remember phone booths??? Waiting in line from a dorm room to call home on Sunday nights, standing on a street corner to call mom for a ride back from town, making a collect call or using a calling card when you had no quarters on hand???  If so you must remember a time when the kids in the neighborhood went down the street to play touch football or board games...without parents policing how hard you touched your playmates or how many houses you had on park place...or on the flip side cheered you on to score a touchdown as if you were already in training to be recruited by a D1 college...remember random, unscheduled, unstructured and unencumbered playdates...but alas they would never have been refereed to as a playdates because that would imply that some crazed alpha-mom would have wanted her kid to socialize with a handpicked playmate...said alpha mom wants her little star to get to know little Johny because he is a sporty kid and already considered popular in the 4's program at the local nursery school...plus little Johny mom is so desperate for attention and overly excited by her husbands income that she throws killer parties and you want to make certain that you, your spouse and your little star in are invited...so you make the call...you tell her how your kid adores her son and how it would make your offspring oh so happy if her little Johny could agree to a playdate....yikes...i have got a cavity from just thinking about this conversation...you, half-crazed alpha-mom have helped turn little Johny into a monster child by reeling off a long list of accolades to his totally self absorbed mama...you have started the snow ball...little Johny's mom has the it kid...sure your star will get his couple of playdates in but little Johny's mom has bigger goals...seek out the kids who she thinks have cool parents who will push their kids in the same direction...next thing you know your little star is watching by the sidelines and you are sad and miserable because you are not included in these reindeer games...life is not fair but you created these rules...teach your kid to put a quarter into a pay phone, remember the pleasant days of just hanging out with the gang down the street playing touch football or monopoly and realize you are okay and so to will be your child...