I sit back every now and then to reflect on how much the world has changed during my lifetime. I remember my grandmother (1902-1996) telling me how she didn't need a driver's license when she started driving, and heavier-than-air flight was invented when she was just a year old. Before she died, she saw men on the moon and man-made satellites travelling to distant planets. That's something to think about.
The changes in my life have been more subtle in many ways. Consider the following.
When I was a kid, there were ashtrays in the grocery stores. If there wasn't an ashtray in this aisle, you could be sure there would be one in the next aisle.
We would pile into the station wagon to go downtown without putting any shoes on. No one kept us out of the stores because we had bare feet.
My junior-high principal gave me an option once: take two whacks with the paddle or spend 60 minutes in detention. Being the tough kind of kid I was, I opted for the two whacks. (Of course, detention would mean my parents would find out, so I had other reasons to take the whacks.) He made me pull my pants down and he hit me -- very hard, I might add -- with his wooden paddle with the holes in it, squarely across my bare ass. I dare any principal to try that today. But I never acted up in Mrs. DeLuca's English class after that day.
Speaking of junior high, part of the phys-ed class involved swimming, and we swam in the nude. Let me put that another way: we were not allowed to wear swim trunks or anything else. Nudity was required.
We had a party line at home. That meant that when you wanted to make a phone call, you would pick it up and first check to see if anyone else on your line was using the phone. If they were, you hung up and waited a while. I think we had 6 or 7 other people on our line, and some talked more than others. But you had to wait.
Our telephone number back then was 2-6764. That's the whole number.
There was no such thing as a free breakfast when you went to school in the morning.
We didn't cancel school because it was cold and some kid might freeze to death. You dressed against the cold, and if you didn't, either you were stupid or your parents were stupid. School would be cancelled if there was a lot of snow, but "a lot" of snow meant a lot of snow.
The first day of hunting season was an excused absence from school.
We drank milk that came directly from cows. It wasn't store-bought, and yes, it had a lot of fat in it, but it tasted like milk.
Margarine was something that city folk put on their toast. We ate butter, from the same cows that gave us our milk.
TV consisted of 3 channels (weather conditions permitting). But that was OK, because we didn't watch much TV.
Fast food was something you ate without heating up. Like cheese, or an apple.
My aforementioned grandmother made her own ice cream, using the cream from the very same cows that gave us milk and butter. She also made her own soap. You simply didn't waste anything.
I'm one of 9 kids, but we didn't all have soccer, cheerleading, basketball, lacrosse, track, football, baseball, golf and bowling practice to go to. I was the most involved in sports of all of us, and my sporting forays were limited to track, football (junior high only), and CYO basketball (high school). I think I turned out reasonably well, and I certainly didn't harbor any illusions about my future as a professional athlete.
Seems these days that every kid is the brightest, most athletic, most promising young person in the world. Any kid that finishes school with more than a 4-point average has already been victimized, because that average has been inflated artificially, and the kid has reason to believe that he or she is better than an "A" student, which is not possible when "A" is the standard. I have nothing against parents and educators instilling confidence in children, but a dash of reality will go a long way toward preventing future problems in these kids. They should all get a job and quit playing video games.
There...now I feel like an authentic curmudgeon.
