The Before Times

big white families. two of them. italians. endless backyards. cookouts. fireworks. those big inflatable pools. every holiday we got together. every summer we were outside. 

no one on either side of the family was better off than middle class. early 2000s, rhode island, it didn’t matter. you could have a back yard back then. you could have a nice life. 


best of all: no phones. they just let us “go play.” i have no idea what we did but i’m sure it was better than what kids do now.


i got a look at my cousin’s playstation in 2007 and begged my mom to get me one. i wish she hadn’t. i wish she made me learn guitar instead. i wish she sent me to some kind of sports-oriented summer camp. i wish that this kind of technology was never unleashed on my child brain. 

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