A Trip Down Memory Lane

Today I am 50 years old.  It doesn't seem as old as it once did, but so much has changed since I was born.

I remember watching Neil Armstrong walk on the moon and all of the Apollo Missions.  I remember watching the news and seeing soldiers in the jungle and hearing the names of places like Saigon, Phenom Pehn and Hanoi and watched the student protests at Kent State. I will never forget the day the Vietnam POWs came home.  Many of them got down and kissed the ground after they came down the stairs of the plane.  At the time, I couldn't figure out why anyone would want to put their lips on nasty pavement, because mom always said that you shouldn't eat things that fall on the ground because of the germs, but now I understand the power of such a gesture.

There were no cell phones, and all the phones were black with the rotary dial that had this really cool sound when you dialed a number.  I remember when they started making phones in different colors and how great we thought that was.

There were no ipads, laptops or home computers of any kind.  Once in 2nd grade, our girl scout troop toured the IBM plant and our tour guide took us to a room where a computer covered the entire wall.  He told us, "Some day, computers will be small enough to fit on a table", and my troop leaders looked at each other and laughed.  Of course there was no internet, so if you had to do a research paper, you had to schlep down to the library and look up articles using the card catalog, and all the good articles were usually missing.

Cars were big and made of metal and every family only had one car.  At first, there were no seat belts or air conditioning, so on long trips our parents would fold down the seats of the station wagon, spread out some blankets and pillows and roll down the windows.  We would spend the trip rolling around and playing in the back or try to get truckers to honk at us.  Later, our new car had air conditioning and seat belts but it wasn't as much fun.  There were no DVD players or computer games, so we fought with our siblings, played the license plate game, or read until we got car sick.

There was no cable, just the 3 major networks and PBS and there was just one tv in the house.  Some of the tv shows were still in black and white, but most were in color if you had a color tv, which we did not.  You could only watch cartoons on Saturday morning, so we would get up at 6:30 to watch Bugs Bunny, Johnny Quest, and Scooby Doo.  We watched Gilligan's Island  and Get Smart and really hip, groovy shows like The Mod Squad, The Partridge Family, and Mission Impossible, while my parents watched Gunsmoke, Hee Haw and Adam 12.  There were no DVD's  or DVR and movies only came on tv one time.  Holiday specials only came on once a year, so if you had to miss "Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer" because your dad wanted to go out to eat to celebrate his birthday, well you just had to wait a WHOLE year to see it again.  Yes, I'm still a little bitter about that.  Can you tell?

Most dads went to work wearing ties or uniforms and every mom I knew stayed home to take care of the kids.  We lived close enough to the school to come home for lunch every day and we did because the cafeteria served spinach.  A lot.  All the kids either walked to school or rode the bus.  The only time your parents would give you a ride to school is if you overslept.  Mrs. Duffy taught me to read with Dick, Jane, Sally and Spot.  Teachers were respected and parents supported the schools.  One time, Tom Asbury smarted off to Mr. McElroy and he turned Tom over his knee and paddled him right there on the playground.   Tom's parents came up after school to make Tom apologize to Mr. McElroy, and then paddled him again when they got home. The coolest technology in our classroom was the Lite Bight and the mimeographed purple papers had that cool smell.

The milk man delivered milk to our front door in the milk box and t.v. dinners were the newest rage.  I always liked the nights when we had a babysitter because mom would let us each pick out our very own t.v. dinners.  My brother liked Salisbury steak and I liked fried chicken.  There were no microwaves or food processors and women would attend Tupperware parties just to hear the patented "burp" that the lids made.  Families ate supper together and we all cleaned our plates to get dessert.

During the summer, we played outside all day.  There was nothing but soap operas on tv and there were no video games.  My mom would lock us out of the house when she was cleaning, but that was ok because we rode our bikes all over the neighborhood with our friends and drank out of the garden hose when we were thirsty.  We built forts and played Batman and Batgirl or cowboys and indians in the field behind the house and used to see who could hang onto the electric fence the longest.  My brother always won. For those of you who know my brother, you are probably thinking, "Ok, that explains a lot!".

I'm glad to be 50, and love, love, love my microwave and ipad, but sometimes I really miss the old days.....