When I was a kid in San Francisco, we got through life without being concerned with the stuff that’s around today. Now, every day I read about people’s current concerns that were unheard of when I was growing up.
I didn’t know a single person then who was a vegan, lactose-intolerant, concerned about GMO issues or who was allergic to gluten products. In fairness, perhaps people did have those issues however, I was unaware of them.
We weren’t concerned with bottled water (or the bottles.) At home, we had kitchen and bathroom tap water, and best of all, drinking from a hose. It all seemed fine to me. There were plenty of drinking fountains at school and in public places and not a single person I know died from bad water. Or, by the way, ever had their “eye put out” by a pencil.
No one had a car seat; seat belts were for airplanes of the future. Cars had metal bumpers that did a superb job. They actually protected passengers and prevented major damage to the car. I recall one car (I think it was a Buick) that had huge, torpedo-shaped pointed bumpers. Now that was classy.
My mom shopped nearly every day, as did my grandmother. Like it or not, we ate everything served; if you didn’t like it, too bad. We’d sit there until the offending item was gone. While my mom’s cooking wasn’t restaurant quality, it included fresh vegetables long before boutique Fresh Market stores.
Our corner grocery was the Kroger of the day. It was about one-half a block from our house and my mom dispatched me regularly for whatever we needed. My favorite thing to watch there was a gas flame thing that looked like a large Bunsen Burner. It was used to singe pin feathers off the skin of fresh chickens. We never heard of packaged chicken.
We had a super social media platform then. It was a 4-party telephone line. It was fantastic; four families sharing one phone line. Each family had their own assigned telephone ring. It’s safe to say everyone listened in on everyone else. That was instant social media without the 5G speed people want today.
We also had high speed, personalized graphics to use as learning tools. On the radio (no TV at all) on Sunday there was a program called “Puck The Comic Weekly.” An individual in the radio studio would read the comic strips out loud to the listening audience.
My mom would have the Sunday comics spread out on our dining room floor and as the person read on air, she would follow the strip with her finger, reading them to me. As she read, I had to also read out loud, and Presto, soon enough I could read on my own. That was actually a tremendous gift to me since to this day I love to read.
My thoughts on stuff like this are endless. I know there’s an army of folks who had similar experiences growing up and it makes me very happy we are all thankful for small things that generated big results.
To all that helped me along the way, thanks!
Are we there yet? 