On
my way to school this morning, an old battered car passed me on the Cross
County Parkway. Did I say old? This car
wasn’t old, it was ancient. I’ve just
done some Google research, and I’m going to say it was a Chevrolet from the mid-1950s.
It had the fins, the grille and lots of chrome, and it was painted a dull red
and white.
It’s not every morning you see a car
that old in the fast lane, especially not one with a car seat in the back. Wait a second -- that couldn't have been a car seat! They didn't even have seat belts back then in the front, let alone the back seat. Even though that old Chevy behemoth outweighed my
subcompact, it had no air bags or anti-lock brakes or any of the safety
features of today’s cars. All of which started me thinking about the things I don’t miss about the 1960s or whenever
it was that I was young:
1. Duck
and cover air raid drills
How old were you when you first realized that
hiding under your desk was not going to help
you survive a nuclear attack – even if your teacher told you to do it anyway?
2.
Aerograms
Forget about long distance phone calls,
we couldn’t even write big!
3.
Not trusting anyone over 30
What were we thinking? Is anyone all
that trustworthy under 30?
4.
1960s medicine
Remember exploratory surgery? MRIs make me claustrophobic, but I don’t think
I’d prefer being cut open, just to find out what was ailing me.
5. Rabbit
ears on TV
It was never during the commercials
that you had to wiggle and jiggle those ears, and even then, the picture wasn’t all that clear.
6.
Mimeographed sheets
Even if you didn’t mind the smell, you
still couldn’t read the writing.
7. No ethnic food except for Italian and Chinese.
8. And you call that stuff
Chinese?
9. Beehive hairdos
10. Movies only in
the movie theater
Yes, there was something special
about going to a theater. There still
is. But what if you want to watch
a movie on a rainy day or when you’re at home with the flu or when you’re just in the mood for a good
flick?
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