My first home - beginning in 1944
As I race toward my sixty-fifth birthday, I find myself wondering how much I take for granted each day. Many new things have appeared during my life-time. And a lot of things have quietly disappeared into the past.
I began listing them alphabetically.
A = The Apple Computer is obviously new; all personal computers are. As for the big old mainframes, they have also come into existence after I did. Alaska was a United States territory until I was a teenager. Air conditioning was around, but not very common. More common were the air vents located just in front of the windshield on many cars. A lever below the center of the dash board was used to open and close the vent.
B = Box top premiums were big when I was a lad. We’d send away for plastic submarines that could be loaded with baking soda and played with in the bath tub. Bon Ami was a cleanser used to remove the ring around that same tub after the dirt on my body was transferred to the water. Bonomo’s Turkish taffy came in three flavors – vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry – and could be eaten in one of two ways. You could try to bite off a chunk which left a long stretchy portion in both your hand and your mouth. Or you could slam the bar down on a hard surface causing it to shatter. Then you could eat the small peices and make much less of a mess.
C = Carburetors were found under the air filter on most cars until electronic fuel injection took over. Any one who has had to try to adjust the fuel and air mixture on a carburetor appreciates the advancements in that area. The CRT (also known as the CAT scan) took the X-ray to a new level and has become a powerful diagnostic tool. The other CRT (Cathode Ray Tube), has basically come and gone during my time on earth; It was new technology when we sat around watching that thirteen inch television, but has since been replaced by the flat screen Plasma, LCD, and others. Coal furnaces were everywhere in the North when I was growing up. Natural gas has replaced them all.
D = Disk memory is something that is still around, but utilizes totally different technology. In fact, I have ‘flash’ drives that hold more data than all the disks I ever installed while working at IBM. Dick Tracy, as far as I know, bit the dust many years ago, and took Prune Face, Flat Top, B.J. Plenty and all the other characters with him. Decoder rings offered by the Little Orphan Annie radio show, Captain Midnight, and others were among the Box Top premiums that are not longer available. The DeSoto automobile left the scene before I was old enough to drive.
E = The Edsel somehow became equated with all automotive lemons. As far as I know, that is a terrible mistake. I knew one person who owned an Edsel and he was very fond of it. Unless my memory is totally off base on this one, I’d say the Edsel was a fairly decent car… but the Ford Motor Company did a lousy job marketing it. Electric eye head light dimmers were a standard feature on Cadillacs for many years. When the device picked up the light from on-coming cars, it automatically switched the car’s headlights to low beam. It was a nice device – when it worked properly. Maybe they were never able to get it to work properly, because I haven’t seen it in years.
F = Full Service gas stations not only checked your oil and the air in your tires, they cleaned your windows and gave you saving stamps. Today, we’re hard pressed to find a station that will pump your gas… period. Unless, of course, you’re driving through New Jersey. In that state, self-service is against the law. Talk about strong labor unions. Floor mounted dimmer switches have long ago been replaced by an added feature on the turn signal lever. Would you believe that turn signals were not standard equipment in my youth? We had to put our arms out the window to signal our intentions. Frozen custard is the thing I miss the most. It was similar to soft serve ice cream but tasted far better. My guess is it contained raw eggs.
G = Gas grill. That’s right. We didn’t have the argument among the Bar-B-Que kings. The only option was charcoal. Wait, I’m probably wrong on this. Some folks might have used wood.
Look for Part 2 sometime in the future.
