The Way It Was

3/1/2019

Disclaimer: the subject title has nothing whatsoever with the movie "The Way We Were" Nope, it's just down memory lane for some/most of my followers. If you're not that old, then you can try and imagine what life was like in the olden days.

Truth: there was a time when you didn't have to put your groceries on a belt, and then put those items in bags (plastic) yourself. Cashiers unloaded your cart, and put your items in brown bags. And, those brown bags, were a constant source of book covers for children. Those covers, after time, were all "doodled" out, and then you pulled out another brown bag, and start all over again.

Truth: Now, you have to empty your own cart, and put all your purchases on the belt. These days, you put the purchases in plastic bags. These bags aren't particularly useful, and more times than not, they end up in the trash. I can't imagine that all this plastic is environmentally good for us, but it's what we do now.

Truth: Children walked to and from school, unless they lived in the country and they rode in a bus.  We school children wore pants to school, and then had to take them off once we were inside.

Truth: When I was growing up, and it was a small town, they still had party lines. Basically, this meant that everybody in town knew your business, all of your business.

Truth: In time, a party line was thought of as a bad idea (ya think?), so everyone soon had their own phone line.

Truth: Back in the day, the phone numbers were dialed, looking something like this:   
 
 Princess Phones came into the market in 1959, and every girl just had to have one. I, was among those girls. Trouble with these phones, they were lightweight, so they tended to move around a great deal. 

Truth: Each year, you received a new phone book (remember those). Inserted into the book, were several pages devoted to new phones, like this one. Phones like this came out in 1963.
 


Poking around, I found the oldest continually assigned phone number: (212)736-5000. That number was assigned in 1930.

Truth: There was a time when you needed to have a phone replaced, or a new one installed, a phone company employee actually came to your house. Very cool. Obviously, now if you want a phone (smart phones, etc.) you have to go to an actual store to buy one. I fear the days of service, is getting rarer and rarer.

P