The Good Old Days

A confession.  I’ve reached that age at which I have to guard myself against talking too much about the ‘Good ‘Ol Days’.  I remember when I was much younger, how we used to feel about the old geezers who would talk too much about just how great things ‘used to be’.  We’d roll our eyes and promise ourselves we would never bore the world with talking on and on about how much better things were back then.

But be patient with me for just a moment.  Remember when we could pay just a couple of dollars and pile a big family or a whole group of kids into one car and go to the Drive-In movie?  Ahhhh, those really were some good old days.  There was a playground up front to play on before the movie.  We’d see at least two full features with some cartoons in between.  You could bring your popcorn or buy a bucket of it buttered in the concession stand.  All this fun with nothing but the stars for our ceiling…fabulous memory.

The Good New Days

BUT wait a minute.  Were the good old days really as great as we remember?  Let me think back just a little.  I remember some things not so fondly.  I remember…

• Having to hang all the clothes, sheets, towels and cloth diapers on a clothesline outside, even in the winter time.  Today I press a button to dry.
• Spending all day Saturday defrosting the refrigerator while water dripped on the kitchen floor before you could put the groceries away.
• Paying a long distance phone charge to call someone who lived ten miles down the road.  Now I can call them from my purse to their pocket all the way across the United States and beyond.
• Why DID we pay all those long distance charges for all those years?  No wonder AT&T was always considered a great stock to buy back in the good old days.
• Sleeping all night long with orange juice cans all over my head in order to make my hair look good for a couple of hours.
• Buying an airmail stamp to send a letter across a couple of states to arrive several days later,  instead of emailing or texting, for an immediate response.
• If you were dating a soldier, he was truly out of contact for weeks or months.  No daily skype messages then.
• Your boyfriend couldn’t afford to call you.  We had to write letters.
• Using carbon paper and a tedious process to correct a mistake made on a typewriter, rather than just tapping the ‘delete’ button.
• Watching three television stations instead of having a choice of hundreds.
• Three or four static filled radio stations that had to be changed routinely as you traveled.  Oh, how I love my satellite radio where I control what I want to hear. Oh how I love my CD player in my car.
• Publishers who used to decide all the reading material that would be available for everyone.   How I would miss my blog, my email friends, and the ability to publish independently.

Occasionally it IS still fun to talk about the good old days, when everyone knew everybody else who lived in our town.  But I have to admit I’m glad that I’ve reached this particular age I’ve reached, at a time when I can easily stay connected with my friends through my computer or cell phone.  I’m chatting online routinely with people I haven’t seen in years.  And I’ve just written an e-book with a friend who lives 2,000 miles away.  I love it.

I’m glad my elderly mother has handicapped access to most stores and businesses where they provide her a close parking spot and an electric cart for shopping.  She’s not cooped up in the house like my great-grandmother was back in the good old days.  Yeah, Mom still talks about The Good Old Days, but you and I just roll our eyes and know the truth.  These are some pretty great New Days too.