Nostalgia and a Fun Trip in the Time Machine!

by Skip Cohen

It's Sunday morning, and that means I'm staying clear of topics about business, but with each week it's becoming harder and harder to find something to write about that I haven't already shared.  But I can expand on past topics, now with more insight, thanks to the passing of time.

They say that with age comes wisdom. I'm not sure whether, as I get older, wisdom is as well-defined as experience. On Facebook, dozens of people have been sharing things from the past to see who's old enough to recognize them. So, I thought I'd add to my definition of being an old fart, just to see how many of you can relate.

Note: They're not in any order, just whatever popped into my head.

• I learned to drive on a stick shift, three on the column. My first and second cars were a '63 VW convertible and a '67 Camaro, both purchased used. Both had the stick on the floor.
• Our phone when I was little was a "party line." That meant the phone line was NOT exclusive to your house but was shared with others.
• I still remember our phone from when I was little, "ELmwood 2-3413".
• We never locked our front door when I was a kid, and yes, we went out in the morning and often didn't return home until dark. That was the rule - be home when it got dark.
• On my bike, I never wore a helmet, and to make the bike sound cooler, we put baseball cards held with clothespins to make the bike spokes "talk."
• When I was twelve, I won a 3-speed "English racer" bicycle from the Cleveland Plain Dealer. 
• In the summer, we slept outside in the backyard and never worried about safety.
• My Dad's first Polaroid only shot black and white, and you had to coat the prints to keep them from oxidizing and disappearing.
• In the winter, my Dad would tie a rope to the back bumper and tow us around on sleds—the last spot was the best, especially when he took a turn.
• We had a milk chute off the garage that opened from outside as well as inside. The milkman would deliver our order and leave it in the chute.
• You ate whatever Mom made for dinner... no special orders. As a kid, I never met anyone with a peanut allergy!
• Typing was a mandatory class in high school...and I had a manual Underwood Olivetti typewriter.
• We had three television stations, and they all went off between midnight and 1:00 am. And we only had one television.
• Casey Kasem was the DJ of choice, and on the weekends, he'd do the top 40 countdown, always signing off with "Keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars." I met him years later at a Polaroid sales meeting...in fact, he picked two of us up at the hotel to go to the sound stage where the sales party was being held.​
• In the mid-60s, we moved to a new house. We had one of the first hard-wired gas grills in the neighborhood. I remember that after the first snowfall, Dad was surprised to find a 12-foot-wide circle around the grill where the snow had melted. Oops - he'd left the heat on low for the last month.
• And BBQ season started with Memorial Day and ended with Labor Day. We never grilled in the wintertime.
• When winter came, the Dairy Queen shut down until Spring. 
• You got an entire meal at MacDonalds for under a dollar! And for $2.00 you had enough gas in the car to joyride all day Saturday.
• The ice cube trays had handles that always stuck when trying to open them. And Mom made jello popsicles in the trays with toothpick handles.
• I remember how excited my mother was with her first electric can opener that Dad mounted under a kitchen cabinet.
• We had one doctor and one dentist... no specialists. 

The list goes on and on, and while I miss those days of simplicity, I'm proud to have them in my "archives." So, yes, I'm officially an old fart and proud of it. All those experiences we old farts had, created an appreciation for today's technology and a level of wisdom that came from dealing with all the challenges that life threw at us. 

But what I miss most are my folks and grandparents. Up until I was six, I had seven grandparents and great-grandparents living. Their love was unconditional, and I'd sit and listen to stories about their lives, similar to the ones on my list above. But nothing today compares to the sense of family we shared back then. 

Wishing everyone a day ahead with an appreciation for everything and everyone in your life. Have some fun and pick a few things you remember from the "old days" and share them with younger members of the family. Go for those eleven-second hugs I always write about, especially with anybody who shares and remembers all those great things from the past.

Happy Sunday...or Monday on the other side of the world.