I Remember When…

I gotta say that Christmas was worse on my expanding fur pelt than Thanksgiving was, but it was a good time for the family to get together and pay attention to me.

During the holiday I heard a lot of stories told – some of them quite nostalgic. I thought I would share a few of them with you (keep in mind these are not mine – I was born around June of 2008).

Remember when:

• There was no such thing as a debit card and credit cards were not all that common? If you wanted to pay for your groceries, you did it with cash or a check.
• You wrote checks all the time? When you rolled to a new year (like next week) it was always a challenge to get the right date on your check. It took some people up to three months to make the mental change.
• You could fill up your gas tank for under $20.00?
• You walked into Sears and the smell of buttered popcorn was everywhere?
• You got S&H Green Stamps for buying things at the store? Licking the stamps and making books from all the different combinations of stamp values was kind of a pain.
• Bob’s Hamburgers was around, and you could get a burger for 19? and wash it down with a root beer shake?
• Not everything was made in China, and “Made in Japan” was a negative thing when it came to quality?
• You were a kid and you started earning money at 7 or 8 years old by picking berries (or whatever was available to pick)?
• Farmers grew beans trellised up strings tied to poles and had to have them hand-picked? Now beans grow on bushes and are machine-picked.
• Getting trouble at school meant a trip to the Principal’s office for a spanking?
• You had to wait weeks or months to get the Santa picture?
• Songs came on records (33’s or 45’s)? Then it was 8 tracks, then tapes, then CD’s, now MP3’s and iTunes. Today’s kids wouldn’t know what a turntable (or a needle) is.
• These stories are a lot of fun to share, and help the younger generation understand the older generations and how far we’ve come. Take some time at your next family gathering and “remember when?”.