Paddle Faster We Hear Banjos!: Confession: I miss Todd and Margo

Remember the movie Christmas vacation? Todd and Margo were the yuppie, childless couple who lived next door to the Griswolds. Everything in their home was new and white and clean. They looked at Clark Griswold with disdain and superiority because he chose to be the “ultimate” family man. David and I used to jokingly refer to ourselves at the Todd and Margo of Krum, Texas.

We moved to Texas in 2000. We had no kids. Our home was in a family oriented neighborhood. We decorated it with our modern, white furniture. Most everything in our house was breakable. We were your typical double income no kids couple.

Confession:

Sometimes, especially lately I long, even ACHE for the Todd and Margo days – “the good old days” before children.

During those years we were young, not exactly wild – but rowdy, free, unfettered and uncommitted to anything but each other. Those.were.the.days….

I recall being very well rested, generally. I stayed up late and slept in on the weekends. Here’s a novel one. If I was sick I was able to medicate myself adequately and take the appropriate measures to get well. For example, if I had a migraine I could take the heavy drugs and hole myself up in a dark room until the pain ended.

We drank nice wine and ate nice food. I still cooked a lot, but once a week at least we would just eat “whatever.” I had nice clothes and got to do (semi) important things in an office all day. We had money in the bank and frequent flyer miles. We like restaurants with table cloths, wine lists and tapas. We went concerts and events just because we wanted to go.

It wasn’t perfect. Husband’s days off were during the week and I didn’t work on weekends. This affected our social life dramatically. We couldn’t take off for the weekend on a whim. That’s OK most of the time, because we’re not a spontaneous lot. We each developed our separate and private routines we’d carry out on our days off. I’d clean the house and take a nap. Husband might not take and shower and he’d spend all day playing video games and watching odd movies on the Sundance Channel.

Personally I might have been a better person too. I gave much more to church and to other charities. I volunteered more often. I did fun craft projects and might give a wreath to someone for no particular reason. I would bake bread or cookies and would share them with the neighbors while they were still warm – yeah, I was that person…

Today, sippie cups replace wine glasses, Fisher Price toys and baby gates are in my living room rather than crystal and fine upholstry. I feel like I might drown in a car pool some days. But know this - I'll never rock the "mom jeans!"

Here are some photos from our Todd and Margo days.