FOR ALL THOSE BORN IN OR BEFORE 1946 WE ARE SURVIVORS!!! CONSIDER THE CHANGES WE HAVE WITNESSED!!
We were born before television, before penicillin, before polio shots, frozen foods, Xerox, plastic, contact lenses, Frisbees and the PILL. We were before radar, credit cards, split atoms, laser beams, and ballpoint pens. Before pantyhose, dishwashers, clothes dryers, electric blankets, air conditioners, drip-dry clothes ... and before man walked on the moon.
We got married first and then lived together. How quaint can you be? In our time, closets were for clothes, not for "coming out of". Bunnies were small rabbits, and rabbits were not Volkswagens. Designer Jeans were scheming girls named Jean, and having a meaningful relationship meant getting along with our cousins.
We thought fast food was what you ate during Lent and Outer Space was the back of the Riviera Theater. We were before house husbands, gay rights, computer dating, dual careers and commuter marriages. We never heard of FM radio, tape decks, electronic t ypewriters, artificial hearts, word processors, yogurt and guys wearing ear-rings. For us, time-sharing meant togetherness ... not computers or condominiums. A Chip meant a piece of wood. Hardware meant hardware, and software wasn't even a word.
Back then, "Made in Japan" meant junk and the term "making out" referred to how you did on your exam. Pizzas, McDonalds and instant coffees were unheard of. We hit the scene where there were 5 and 10-cent stores, where you bought things for five and te n cents. Sander's and Wilsons (and Rhea Drug Company in Somerville, Tennessee) sold ice cream cones for a nickel or a dime (and my brother Lynn and I have dipped over $100 worth on a Saturday night at our first job). For one nickel you could ride a street car, make a phone call, buy a Pepsi or enough stamps to mail one letter and two postcards. You could buy a new Chevy coupe for $600 ... but who could afford one? A pity too, because gas was 11 cents a gallon.
In our day, grass was mowed, Coke was a cold drink and pot was something you cooked in. Rock music was a grandma's lullaby, gay meant happy, queer mean strange and AIDS were helpers in the principal's office. We were certainly not before the difference between the sexes was discovered, but we were surely before the sex change. We made do with what we had. And we were the last generation that was so dumb as to think you needed a husband to have a baby.
No wonder we are so confused and there is such a generation gap today.
But, WE SURVIVED!!! What better reason to celebrate?
Contributed by Clarence Myers of Beeville, Texas
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