When the worst thing you could do at school was smoke in the bathrooms, fail a test or chew gum. And the banquets were in the tuck-shop, and we danced to a gramophone later, and all the girls wore fluffy pastel gowns and the boys wore `longs` for the first time, and we were allowed to stay out and watch a 9.30 pm show at the Liberty and the Majestic and the Savoy, meet your friends at green cabin....! and the biggest thrill was holding hands...!

The greatest weekend to go to the Galle Face green, eat Isso Wade , hangout at Galle Face Hotel`s `Coconut Grove` with the JETLINERS, or to Ceylinco with the SPITFIRES or to the Little Hut with the AMAZING GRACE or to the Akasa Kade with Sam the Man!

And no one ever asked where the car keys were `cause they were always in the car, in the ignition, and the doors were never locked, and you got into big trouble if you accidentally locked the doors at home, since no one ever had a key.

Remember, lying on your back on the grass with our friends and saying things like `That cloud looks like a...` and playing cricket with no adults to help kids with the rules of the game. Back then, cricket was not a psychological group learning experience - it was a game!

Remember when stuff from the store came without safety caps and hermetic seals `cause no one had yet tried to poison a perfect stranger? And... with all our progress... don`t you just wish... just once...you could slip back in time and savour the slower pace.

So, send this on to someone who can still remember Bill Haley and the
Comets, The Hardy Boys, Laurel & Hardy, Roy Rogers and `Trigger`, Famous Five, The Galle Face Green, The Lone Ranger, Kinross.... The Otters, The Art Centre Club, The Piccadilly at Wellawatte, `house-dances`, Jam Sessions, Zellers at Bamba, Sunday Choice on Radio Ceylon, that even the Indians in Bombay, etc., still talk about!

Jimmy Barucha and Chris Greet, Donavan Andree and Vijaya Corea, `The Blue Leopard` and of course Sirisanda... Bill Forbes and the JayCee Shows at Mount Lavinia Hotel and evenings filled with bike rides, playing in cowboy land, and visits to the pool... and the `Bambalapitiya Flats`.... eating Fish & Chips & Sundaes with that special chocolate sauce at the `Fountain Cafe.` ( I still remember the mouth-watering `knicker bocker glory`, and the jaggery sundae) Then there was Buriyani at Pilawoos...!

When being sent to the principal`s office was nothing compared to the fate
that awaited a misbehaving student at home. Basically, we were in fear for
our lives, but it wasn`t because of drive by shootings, drugs, gangs, alcohol and road rage...etc.

Our parents and grandparents were a much bigger threat! But we all
survived....because their love was greater than their threat.

Didn`t that make you feel good? . just to go back and say, `Yeah, I remember that!` ... And was it really that long ago?