Where have they all gone?

I called my uncle over the weekend and his daughter picked up the phone. Our conversation went thus:

Me: “Hello”

Cousin: “Hello, who am I speaking with?”

Me: “My name is Seye”

Cousin: “Hello Uncle, how are you?”

Me: “Am great, how are you and your sisters?”

Cousin: “They are fine, do you want to speak with anybody?”

Me: “Yes, I ‘ll like to speak with Dad” – my uncle

By this time, she was close to her dad and gave him the phone. While the phone was in transit, I could hear him say: “No, he does not want to speak with anybody”.

As I spoke with my uncle who was laughing about what his daughter had just done, asking if I wanted to speak with anybody…(so why was I calling?), I told him about a similar experience I had about 25 years ago…

My older cousin was in the room when the land phone rang and it was his call. I went to tell him the call was for him and he said I should tell the caller he was sleeping. Can you guess what I did? I went back to the phone and said: “He said he is sleeping!”

The two stories show the innocence and transparency of kids. They are very uncomplicated about life. They take it easy and keep it simple. As we grow older, we seem to loose all these traits (innocence, simplicity etc). Why? Where have they all gone?

What do you think?