Reminiscing About the “Good Old Days”
Do you remember when: a) people actually had to lift manually the large garage door, walked to the TV to change one of the three black and white channels, dialed (not pressed) the numbers on a rotary phone and had party lines, pushed the lawnmower, learned the multiplication tables by Grade 4, practiced good penmanship for cursive writing; b) cashiers at stores had to press numbers to record prices and themselves had to calculate the difference to be returned to customers after payment; c) doctors frequently made house calls and the milkman delivered at your doorstep; d) gym classes at school involved vigorous exercises and were sexually segregated; e) music was played on record players; f) athletic opportunities were extremely limited or non-existent for females, as were many job choices; g) movies were shown from projectors with reels of film; h) public school students took turns daily reading aloud from the Bible and leading the class in reciting the “Our Father”; i) elementary school students could choose to go home for lunch; j) the bishop would severely slap the boys in the Catholic confirmation ceremony; k) many families enjoyed the atmosphere of outdoor movie theaters; l) there was a morning AND evening daily newspaper in Springfield; m) there were no microwave ovens, home computers, cell phones, calculators, but there were pay telephone booths; n) air conditioning was an abnormal circumstance in homes, and people sweltered inside during the summer months; o) secondary school desks actually had an inkwell in the upper middle in order to accommodate the loading of a fountain pen; p) no male had long hair; q) no one wore a helmet when riding a bicycle; r) all gas stations had attendants for pumping gas; s) there actually was “penny” candy; t) smoking and tanning were projected as “cool” and no one knew of their dangers; u) ancient and medieval history was offered in high school; v) the only meaning of “gay” was “being happy”; w) professional hockey goalies played without any masks or helmets whatsoever and the Coliseum was the only indoor ice skating facility in the area; x) there were “nowhere near” as many politically correct terms as now exist; y) downtown Springfield had approximately eight movie theaters; z) a first class postage stamp was two cents? How many reminiscences could you add here?