Remember When.....

This morning as I was waiting to take my daughter to school, I was finishing up the dishes from last night and listening to some tunes from my IPod when the song Ariel by Dean Friedman came on. Now if you are much younger than me (47) you probably won’t remember the tune, and if you are around my age you still probably won’t remember the tune, as it wasn’t a huge hit (although it was big enough to make it on one of the editions of Rhino Records “Have A Nice Day – Super Hits Of The Seventies” series.)

Ariel is one of those great “story” songs that they did so well in the seventies, like Bo Donaldson and the Heywood’s Billy, Don’t Be A Hero, Paper Lace’s The Night Chicago Died, or the ever classic The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia by Vicki Lawrence. In the song our hero and the young girl he just met – Ariel – return to his apartment after their first date, and one of the lines goes “We sat and we talked into the night, while Channel 2 was signing of the air, I found the softness of her mouth, we made love with bombs bursting in air…..” Aw, isn’t that sweet.

Well the thing that stuck with me about that line was “while Channel 2 was signing of the air”, which of course is a lost concept anymore. I remember in my pre-cable college days (which was most of them) coming home from the bars was the channels were signing off, with absolutely nothing to watch – remember we didn’t have VCR’s or DVD’s in those days. And it struck me that this is an experience that my children will never, ever have – totally foreign concept.

So I started to think “What other experiences do I have from childhood and young adulthood that my children will never have". They include:

… The “Fade-out – CLICK – Fade-in” of your favorite song that started on track three and ended on track four of your eight-track player.

… Researching a school report using the Encyclopedia Britannica (no Wikipedia) and then TYPING the report on the IBM Selectric at the library (10 cents for 10 minutes). At this time I can still remember the musty smell of those encyclopedias (my Mom called it “the smell of learning”), and praying that I never was assigned a report on India, because for some reason the “I” volume was missing.

… Drive-In Theatres: Oh, we still have them, but they are few and far between. Growing up in Iowa there were three Drive-in Theatres in my hometown and the town next door. Today there are three Drive-Ins in the entire state of Iowa.

I’m fortunate that we have a Drive-In about 25 miles from my town, and my children have had the occasion to attend a drive-in movie, but at the same time that is nothing like having that experience being a regular part of your childhood. Remember fireworks at the drive-in on July 4th? Remember “Theme” nights, like all of the Beatle’s movies, or all of the Planet of the Apes movies? Remember sneaking into the drive-in in the trunk of the car in high school? Heck, remember when car trunks were big enough to sneak people in?

… While we’re on the subject of Drive-ins, what about drive-in restaurants. Again, these still exist, but they are hard to find. A family meal at A&W, Dog & Suds, or Rolingers on Airport Road was always special. Today Americans spend plenty of time eating in their cars, but always on the go. Nothing beat sitting in the Oldsmobile as the car hop placed that tray on the window. Our cars in those days didn’t have cup holders, BUT the glove compartment door had indents for those heavy frosty mugs.

… Remember when you got your windshield cleaned, oil checked, and gas pumped, without asking, for free, every time. And, you didn't pay for air. And, you got trading stamps to boot! And what about “Gas Wars”? I remember, at a time when Gas was normally 35 cents a gallon, watching the Sinclair Station and the Standard station across the street FIGHTING for the right to sell us gas, with gas getting down to 19 cents. When was the last time your corner gas station fought for you? When was the last time you got glasses and tumblers from Shell with each fill up?

… And gas stations weren’t the only ones giving away drinking glasses. I remember getting drinking glasses in boxes of detergent. And towels too!

… The Milkman. Yes, we actually had our milk (and butter, and cottage cheese) DELIVERED to our house twice a week by Daisy Dairy. I remember putting the glass milk bottles in the box on the porch, with the list of what we needed stuck in it, in the metal box on our back porch. And as a bonus, during the summer we could see a kids matinee at the Regent Theatre on Friday afternoons, and the price of admission was three milk bottle caps from the Daisy Dairy.

And I remember so much more. I remember when:

… We knew it was time to go home when the street lights came on … Saturday morning cartoons were something worth waking up early on the weekend … When Sunday morning television was a wasteland for kids … Dr. Max & Mombo’s cartoon program after school (and Captain Kangaroo before school … Sipping a “Green River” on the big marble counter downtown at the drug store … Selecting a great stack from the butcher display at Bob’s Rainbow Groceryland … Wax Lips … Laughing at the jokes on The Dean Martin Roasts, even though I didn’t understand most of them … Waiting 5 minutes for the T.V. to warm up … A Sting-ray bike transformed into a motorcycle with only a baseball card and a clothespin … P.F. Flyers … When your friends Mom’s were Mrs. Talbot, Mrs. Curtis, and Mrs. Wilcox, not Debbie, Jenny and Tracy … “Race Issues” meant disputing who was fastest … Lawn Darts … We took drugs, and they were shaped like either Betty or Wilma

If you remember most of these, well, you’re probably getting old – and you’re a lucky person.

And what, dear friends, do YOU remember