Compare and Contrast

One of my favorite things to do is to reminiscence with my father. It is so relaxing just to sit back and talk about old times. Something that it really funny when my father and I discuss things from the past is the major differences between our pasts even though we both grew up in the same town. Now when people say that "times are a changing'" I really know what they mean.

In my town there is a beautiful lake. The scenery around the lake is absolutely breath taking. When my father was younger, him and his friends would always swim in the lake. He would tell me amusing stories of the bike rides and walks down to the lake. My favorite part of the stories of the lake have to be what him and his friends did before they actually jumped in the lake. They had to throw rocks in the water to scare away the snakes! I couldn't even imagine swimming in a lake knowing that there were snakes in the water.

When I was younger, I was never aloud to go to the lake. The bike ride was extremely to far away for me and my friends to take on. The lake was posted private property by new owners of homes in the area. Plus, as rumor has it, the lake is contaminated from a new large company in the area. Hence, I never spent my summer days swimming around in the lake in my town like my father did.

One of my beloveded memories deals with going to the local park. My mom or dad used to bring me there with my friends to play. They would drop me off in the morning and pick me up in the evening. All of my friends would meet there. We would waste the day away running around playing games and talking about various things. This memory still to this day is very dear to me.

When my father was younger he actually played at the same park as I did during my childhood. He went there with his friends to play games such as baseball, football, and tag. They didn't get rides there though. My father and his friends were able to ride their bikes there when they wanted to, as in the same manor as how they rode their bikes to the lake. They didn't have to get an adult to bring them because back then there wasn't as many businesses in the area. Without so much commercial traffic in the area, my father was safe to ride his bike to the park and back home again. Once again, I wasn't considered safe in attempting such a task.

It was definitely a different time that my