This past April 29th was my 41st birthday. Somehow it seems so much older written down! Over those years life sure has changed. I have seen, done, and experienced many "things" that my children will never be able to. Sure, they will have their own share of "things" to look back on. Time seems to be in "fast-forward" lately. The days quickly bring in a new month, and before you know it, the year (that I could hardly grasp in the first place) is gone. So, as I still have the ability to remember the past, here it goes.
Looking back over my last 40 years, I can remember (some more fondly and vividly than others) “things” from my past that are only just that,
things from the past. Let’s think about these things.
I remember…
-When pictures (the ones that used to be developed on film) had those pretty white borders around it. And, if you got really lucky, the date stamp was on it as well! The picture taker really had to plan their shot, since they couldn’t just “delete” an unwanted photo. Also, the age of Polaroid instant pictures was in its hay day. Who can forget that high-pitched clicking sound and ultra bright flash as the picture was being taken. Also, the waving and fanning of the picture as one anxiously waited for it to “magically appear”!
-LP’s, 45’s and that lovely record player. Remember when the store at the mall was actually called a “record store”? The shelves were lined with oodles and oodles of records. You would have to stand there for infinite amounts of time, flipping through each and every one. Once you brought the ‘lucky one’ home, you would line it all up on the turn-table and follow along with the lyrics as you scanned and memorized every inch of the album jacket/cover. My very 1st record was back in the 1970's. It was Grease. Who didn't love that movie! I can't even begin to tell you how many hours I spent listening to that record and gazing at the record jacket. Miss those days! Now, all you get (if you are lucky) is a hard CD plastic shell with a easily scratchable disc inside. Or, since the birth of iTunes, one click and you have your music, but no fancy album cover to galk at. Sad.
-The corded telephone. The other day, as my ten year old daughter was on the phone, I had a vivid flashback to MY days of ‘phone hogging’. We didn’t have the luxury of call waiting, caller ID, or voice mail back then. Remember that annoying busy tone when you would call someone over and over and over again? The cord in our house would only reach so far. Glory was the day when I actually got my own phone in my room. I honestly think I lived on that phone! Today, with texting, Skype, and email, do people even have a home phone anymore (beside me?)
-Pen pals and other hand-written letters. When I was in middle school I had a pen pal in Germany. We met through one of those teeny-bop type magazines. Both her and I LOVED Duran Duran and we wrote (hand written letters on actual paper, with actual stamps, and an actual mail person delivering it) each other. It is a shame that nowadays “the letter” is almost considered a thing of the past. Sad really. Penmanship is going down the tube as is the art of letter writing.
-AM/FM radio. My first experience of a radio was when I was a little kid. The family went to a Christmas party at the Moose Lodge that my dad belonged to. Each child received a gift and mine was a tiny transistor radio. I felt like I struck gold! I took that bad-boy to my “secret place” (up in the branches of the big weeping willow tree in my backyard). There, I would turn that radio on and there my love of music was born. That transistor made way for a Walkman and after that the portable CD player/radio. Now, the teeny tiny iPod is all that is “cool”, but not in my book.
- Actual paper books. I can fondly remember those "library days" when I was a kid. Those were the days that I would have to race through the house trying to find my borrowed library books that needed to be taken back to the library. Those were also the days that I can spend browsing aisle after colorful aisle of endless rows of books. I was, and still am, drawn to a catchy-fun looking book cover. A good illustrated book is priceless in my eyes. Sadly though, with all this new technology, "the book" is being shelved and forgotten about. I, for one, am not taking lightly the new 'readers' out there. I still need to feel the pages of a book in my hands. I need to flip actual paper pages. The library is truly a forgotten gem.
