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16.
How Things Were

Here we are in 1988 and often complaining about how tough things are now with no recollection at all at the things we did without back in 1938--they just happen to be all the things we take for granted today.

As of '38 we were before TV, penicillin, polio shots, antibiotics and frisbees. We knew nothing about frozen foods, nylon, dacron, xerox or the Kinsey Reports. Come to think of it, we were before radar, fluorescent lights, credit cards and ball point pens. For us, timesharing meant togetherness, not computers. A chip was a piece of wood; hardware meant hardware and software wasn't even a word. In those days the only bunnies we knew of were little rabbits and no way were rabbits identified as Volkswagens.

Do you realize we were before Batman, Rudolph the Rednose Reindeer and Snoopy? We did not know about DDT, multivitamin supplements, the Salk vaccine, the white wine craze and disposable diapers much less about Vodka, at least in the United States. Friends, we were before jeeps, the Jefferson nickel, scotch tape, the Grand Coulee Dam, M and Ms, automatic gearshifts and Lincoln Continentals. When we were in high school pizzas, Cheerios, frozen orange juice, instant decaf. coffee were unheard of and Big Macs were thought of as tough trucks. In fact, we thought fast food was what we ate during Lent. Of course, we were before FM radio, tape players, electric typewiters, word processors, disco dancing, electronic music, digital clocks, VCRs and compact disc players.

In '38 almost no one flew across the country and we associated Transatlantic flights with Lindbergh and Amelia Earhart.

We were before Alaska and Hawaii became states; before there was a United Nations and Israel; and before India, Pakistan, Indonesia, Iceland and the Phillipines became independent Nations. Hey gals we were before panty hose and drip-dry clothes, before icemakers and automatic dishwashers, clothes dryers, freezers, microwaves and electric blankets; before women wore tuxedos and men wore long hair and earrings. We wore Peter Pan collars and thought deep cleavage was something butchers did.

We grew up before Leonard Bernstein, Yogurt, Ann Landers, polyethelene plastics, hair dryers, 40 hour work weeks and the minimum wage. In those days we even got married first and then lived together.

Back then cigarette smoking was daring, coke was something you drank, pot was something you cooked in and grass was something you had to keep mowing.

We were before vending machines, jet planes, helicopters, rocket propulsion, nuclear electric power plants and interstate highways. Back in 1938, the term "made in Japan" was synonymous with junk and the term "making out" referred to how you did on a mid-term exam.

In our time, we had 5 and 10 cent stores where you could buy things for 5 and 10 cents. For a nickel you could ride the trolley, the sub way, make a phone call, buy a bottle of pop or enough stamps to mail a letter and two postcards. You could buy a Chevy Coupe for $659, but who could afford one? A precious few could, which was a pity because gas was eleven cents a gallon.

If anyone asked us to explain CIA, NFL, UFO, JFK, SEC, PUC or IRA we would have said "that's alphabet soup."

In those days we had humorists who were funny: Will Rogers, Bob Hope, Burns and Allen, Ogden Nash and the Marx Brothers to mention a few. Who could forget Groucho as Dr. Quackenbush taking a pulse and saying "Either this man is dead or my watch has stopped."

In our time, closets were for clothes, not for coming out of; and a book about two young women living in Europe would be called "Our hearts were young and gay."

That about covers a few of the changes. There is one thing that has not changed, does not change, will not change and that is the bonding we feel today and the interest we feel in one another. And we can go back to 1918 when Ed Peterson was born--that was the year thatä Daylight savings time was put into effect

World War One cost the U.S. $41,755,000,000

Knute Rockne began coaching with Notre Dame

The average familly income was $1,200

Woodrow Wilson was president and Thomas Marshall was V.P.

Eddie Arnold, Pearl Bailey, Betty Ford, and Kirk Douglas were born

Radio crystal oscillator, Spectrascope and automatic toasters were invented

Milk cost 55 cents a gallon, new automobile cost $500, new house cost $4900 and a gallon of gas cost 9 cents a gallon.