Oh, to be wide-eyed and innocent again. Terrorism, globalisation and the need for greed dictate our lives, rather than us determining how things should be done.
As a child in suburban Australia three dozen decades back, my family went to sleep with the front and back doors open to let in the cool, night breeze. The doors and windows got closed only when we went on holiday - when there was a scramble to find where the keys had been hidden.
These days, my mother's house resembles a high-security prison. There are so many locks, sensors, lights and bars that she dare not go out for fear of having forgotten how to get back in.
This is the way the developed world has moved - the innocence has ended and with it has come crime, fear and a need for protection. You do not want just anyone trawling through your computer hard drive, giggling over your DVD collection or trying to make off with your iPod, after all.
So until Sony develops the time machine, forget those golden-glazed, hazy childhood days and keep in mind that you are stuck with what you have got.
Of course, that is not to say that a little tweaking is out of the question. That is where people like United States President George W. Bush, Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair, and his Australian counterpart John Howard, can help out. They, after all, are a big chunk of the reason we are renting videos instead of going to the cinema, or having holidays at home rather than on a pristine beach.