By Ernie Miles Guest columnist Folks born before 1945, we are survivors. Consider the changes we have witnessed.
We were born before television, before penicillin, before polio shots, frozen foods, Xerox, contact lenses, Frisbees, and the pill.
We were before radar, credit cards, split atoms, laser beams, and ball point pens, before panty hose, dish washers, clothes dryers, electric blankets, air conditioning, drip dry clothing– before man walked on the moon!!! We got married first and then lived together.
We thought fast food was what you ate during lent. Outer space was the back of the local theater.
We were before house-husbands, gay rights, computer dating, and computer marriages. We were before daycare centers, group therapy and nursing homes. We had never heard of FM radio, tape decks, electric type writers, artificial hearts, word processors, yogurt and the guys wearing earrings.
A chip meant a piece of wood. Hardware meant hard ware, and software was not even a word. Pizzas, McDonald’s and instant coffee were unheard of.
We hit the scene when there were five and ten stores where you brought things for five and ten cent. The corner drug store sold ice cream cones for a nickel.
For one nickel you could ride a street car, make a phone call, buy a Pepsi, or enough stamps to mail one letter and two postcards.
You could buy a Chevy Coupe for $600, but who could afford one? A pity, too, because gas was only 11 cents a gallon.
In our day grass was mowed, coke was a cold drink, and pot was something that you cooked in. And AIDS were helpers in the principal’s office.
We were before the sex change, we made do with what we had. We were the last generation that was so dumb as to think that you needed a husband to have a baby!
No wonder we’re so confused, and there is such a generation gap, but we survived!!!