The Good Old Days?
by Tommy Towery
Class of '64
Most people know that I have a lot of fond memories of my childhood days and many are sometimes amazed at the things I remember and still possess. I admit that might be true, but let me say for the record that there are many things that I may remember, but have no desire to go back to that “good old days” period of my life.
I went out today and bought myself a High Definition TV so that I could watch the March Madness basketball games. Do you think I would trade it for the black and white 19” set with the rabbit ears or Yagi-arrary antenna mounted on the roof? Nor would I give up the 24/7 programming to return to the days when the stations went off the air at midnight with the playing of the National Anthem. No way. Nor would I like to give up the conveniences of today’s entertainment electronics for the live TV shows back then which made you have to be sitting in front of the TV set when the program was broadcast or you might never get a chance to see it again. I thought VCR tape recorders were great when I paid $1,200 for my first one in 1978, but they don’t hold a candle to my Digital Recorder and cable TV setup where I can pause, rewind, and record to my heart’s delight. Did I mention fast-forwarding through commercials? The ability to watch one show while recording another could never be imagined back in the days when many of my friends did not even have a TV set. I was married and 22 years old before I had my first color set – a neat little 13-inch General Electric and it was the only one we had in the house. My current 32” set is looking a little small when I go to the store and see all the ones on the shelves today. I wonder which of you has the biggest set.
I have no desire to return to the hot days of summer and give up the comfort afforded by modern air conditioners. That is true with both houses and cars. Even though I used to love to turn the wing glasses out on the cars and have the fresh air blow through, I happily gave those days up for a little button that turns hot cars into cool ones. The same goes for straight stick manual transmissions. It was neat to squeal tires and shift from first to second to third, but in my old age I think the automatic transmission is much better in stop and go city traffic.
And I would not trade the convenience of my trusty old microwave for the old stove in the kitchen on Clinton Street, where the fastest thing you could cook for a meal was a TV dinner in an aluminum compartmented container. Having to preheat the oven and then cook them for 30 minutes may have been fast back then, but what a waste of energy and time today.
Do you think I would give up my no-iron pants for the blue jeans in wire stretcher driers we had back then. It was almost funny to see all the half-bodies standing around near the heater drying back then. And speaking of heat, I don’t want to return to the good old days of coal fireplaces in the Clinton house. I thought we had won the lottery when we were able to switch to gas fired space heaters in each room back in the Fifties. Nope, I’m really happy with the idea of walking over and turning up the thermostat when I get a little chilly these days.
I don’t think I would like to give up the cell phone I carry around with me for the party-line “Number Please?” black one we had back then. Nor would I give up the ability to make cheap or free long distance calls for the good old days of having to call an operator and give her a number and having her call you back about an hour later when she had your party on the line – at about a dollar a minute! I don’t know how I would do being connected to the wall with a phone cord and not be able to walk all around the house as I talk. We didn’t have caller ID back then either, did we? Nope, those weren’t the good old days.
I would not give up my computer and my word processing software for a manual typewriter and a typewriter ink eraser. The ability to cut and past and copy and merge and change fonts are too vital to my current life. Sure it was fun to change the typewriter balls on the IBM Selectrics to get different fonts, but I would never be able to afford all the balls I would need for a standard document I write today.
In the “good old days” I cut grass with a push mower, instead of a self-starting, riding mower we have today. And I did that for $1.00 a lawn, which worked out to about 50 cents an hour. I wouldn’t give up my hourly salary today to go back to those days – even for the cheap gas.
I like my gas water heater and I love my big Jacuzzi tub. I love my king size water bed a lot more than the twin bed I slept in every night I was a student at Lee. I also love my digital camera better than the old 127 film one that I could not afford the film or the developing and printing most of the time. I like my video projector and digital picture frame but have to admit that I sometimes get a little nostalgic about the fun of pulling the screen out of the closet and setting up the slide projector and going through all the carousels of color slides. But on a trip back then I would take maybe one or two rolls worth of photos in the same period I take a couple of hundred pictures today. I don’t feel bad about hitting the delete button to get rid of the bad ones, but really hated to pay for the paper prints that came out fuzzy or too dark.
All of this reminds me of one of the stories going around the internet – which is much better than the old days when we passed notes in class to spread the word. The story goes like this.
A very self-important college freshman attending a recent football game, took it upon himself to explain to a senior citizen sitting next to him why it was impossible for the older generation to understand his generation.
"You grew up in a different world, actually an almost primitive one," the student said, loud enough for many of those nearby to hear. "The young people of today grew up with television, jet planes, space travel, man walking on the moon, our space ships have visited Mars. We have nuclear energy, electric and hydrogen cars, computers with light-speed processing and...," pausing to take another drink of beer.
The older man took advantage of the break in the student's litany and said, "You're right, son. We didn't have those things when we were young... so we invented them. Now, what are YOU and your bunch doing for the next generation?"
The applause was resounding.
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