Just got this in email from a friend:
>You have to be of a certain age to appreciate this
>(not that I'm trying to insult anyone). But the only
>thing I can't recall is peaberry gum? Maybe it just
>wasn't in our neck of the woods.
>
>http://thestatenislandboys.com/U_thrill_me/
I sent this reply:
Don't remember peaberry gum either; though most of the rest came AFTER
I was young.
Frex: 35 cent gasoline would have been pretty expensive! I remember
listening to Superman on a crystal radio ... no warmup, and TVs were
something just coming out ... for the very rich.
However, I also remember bad things about those days:
Things spoiling because they didn't keep long enough, even in an
ice-box.
That milk *had* to be delivered every day, because it spoiled by two
days later.
Houses stinking of kerosene or fuel-oil ... and burning down with
amazing frequency.
Roasting in the summertime, and freezing to death in the winter.
Not even the rich had air-conditioning. The number of poor older
folks who died in such extremes was just taken for granted.
Going barefoot in the summer ... because only rich kids could afford
two pairs of shoes a year.
Cranking a car by hand and almost breaking your arm before the sucker
would start.
Cars that wouldn't start at *all* in wet weather.
"Take two aspirin and call me in the morning," because there wouldn't
be a darned thing the doctor could do for your fever. Either you'd
get over it, or you'd die ... In either case, it wouldn't be his
problem by morning.
Cars that broke down every two or three hundred miles, not two or
three hundred thousand. Tires that (if you were VERY lucky) lasted
five thousand miles.
Cars that you praised the milage of, if you got 15 miles per gallon.
Cars that overheated or froze out the plugs.
Glass pop and beer bottles left smashed on the road to tear up those
cheap balloon tires. Garbage in heaps dumped along every major
highway. People to lazy to carry their garbage to the next stop; just
tossing it out the window to smash on the highway ... Nobody LIVED out
there, so who cared?
A dollar bought a lot back then ... But you had to work harder then to
buy the same thing you bought for a dollar that costs you twenty
dollars now.
Taking hours to fix meals ... and then more hours to wash clothes.
Hanging clothing out on the line ... and then having it rained on.
Having it rain day after day, so you set up lines in the house, and
nothing ever got really dry.
Freezing pipes bursting.
No, "The Good Old Days" are mainly kid's memories of the good times
THEY had ... Because parents protected them from the bad parts.
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