Hard to believe all of the excitement of the holiday season, just like the moon, is slowly waning. Gone are the cards and letters from distant relatives, the now empty boxes strewn across the floor, the agonizing parade of holiday season ads and Christmas carols, the pine-scented aroma of the Christmas tree and the eggy aroma of eggnog imbued upon my mustache.
New to the senses is the agonizing barrage of credit card bills from Macy’s and Target. Back in the day, when I was a pimple-faced teen growing up in the OC, we didn’t have credit cards – you paid cash on the barrelhead.
Before the advent of computers and mass shooting incidents, life was less frantic and a lot simpler. It was a time of innocence a time accented by Butch Wax, Blackjack chewing gum, S&H Green Stamps, coffeeshop diners with tabletop juke boxes, dial telephones, newsreels before the movie, 45 RPM records and ice-cold popsicles delivered curbside by the Good Humor man.
Old days, good times I remember. Fun days filled with pleasure, drive-in movies, comic books and blue jeans, Howdy Doody, baseball cards and birthdays. Take me back to the world gone by, memories seem like yesterday. (“Old Days” – Chicago – 1965)
A reader once asked me what my favorite fast food was when I was growing up, and I informed her that we didn’t have fast food back then. All the food was slow because Mom cooked every meal and, when Dad got home from work, we sat down at the dinner table and, if I didn’t like what was on my plate, I was allowed to sit there until I did like it. Oh, and then I had to get permission to leave the table.
Back in the day, some parents didn’t own their own house, never wore Levis, never set foot on a golf course, never traveled out of the country and never had a credit card or a cell phone. In their later years, they had something called a revolving charge card that was only good at Sears & Roebuck. Now there’s no Roebuck, let alone Sears.
I was lucky enough to have a bicycle that weighed 50 pounds and only had one speed (slow). We only had one black-and-white TV, and it went off at midnight, after playing the national anthem, after which there was a test pattern featuring the face of an Indian…excuse me, I meant to say, “Native American.”
Things have really changed. Pizzas were never delivered to our homes, but milk was, and movie stars kissed with their mouths closed. When Dad was cleaning the house, he discovered an old Royal Crown Cola bottle that had a bunch of holes punched into the bottlecap, which sat at the end of the ironing board. It was so Mom could sprinkle the clothes with water, because there were no steam irons….I must be getting old.
Old days, good times I remember, gold days I’ll always treasure. Funny faces full of love and laughter, funny places, summer nights and streetcars. Take me back to the world gone away, our memories seem like yesterday, old days.
Keep it flyin’,
Uncle Mott
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