WoW! Stushy that was great!!!!  As I sat and read it all that you said flashed back in my mind.  I can remember on a hot summer day going to the grocery store by the park we just about lived in, at the side they served "snow balls" (what I called them)  As I watched the grocer put the crushed ice into the paper cone shaped  cup and drizzle the cherry syrup over the ice, I could hardly wait.  He had all colors of bottles, grape, orange, lemon, just one big rainbow to choose from.

After playing in the park all day (we KNEW to be home by supper time)  I can remember the smells coming from my house before I hit the door.  We had certain things on certain days.  I knew that Monday was hot dogs and sauerkraut with mashed potatoes, we never had cokes, we had milk, and for a treat it was Kool-Aid.  We did not know what fast food was, and hardly ever ate out, unless we went uptown to Woolworths or a cafeteria.

Remember the barber poles, men knew they were at the barber shop, not unisex.  It was a place the guys could go and shoot the bull.  The whole neighborhood went to the same barber.  The women in our neighborhood went to the beauty shop on my street,  Ruth's she had it in her home.  For a real treat when my mom took me uptown, we would go to the big Stewarts for a smart do. 

I miss my neighborhood, how we could sit on our big porch and talk to the neighbors on both sides, how you knew what your friends moms were cooking because you could smell it a block away. 

I am like you Stushy, I sure long for those times again, but know I can never go back that is why memories are so percious to me.

Stushy Wrote:

I have reached the point in my life that I am so disgusted with the world and the way it is going.  There isn't a day I don't close my eyes or go to sleep and pray to wake up back in 1960.  I cringe at the selfcentered age of entitlement, political correctness, climate change being used for political ends, the "new" rules of engagement for our troops, men not taking off their hats when they come inside( I remove my hat whether I am entering a 7-11 or a factory floor.),  dealing with people who have no manners or respect for their elders, hearing the word "F---" on the TV even if it is 0240hrs, informercials, smoking taxes and laws, big box stores, TV without all of the tickers and advertisements going on and on and ruining the show I am watching, and on and on.

I miss Diana's drugstore where you would go to the white marble counter and watch them get the metal base and put the paper cup shaped like an ice cream cone, squirt in the Coke syryp, carbonated water, and serve it up.    I miss the news where a guy sat there and gave you the "news" and only the news.  I hate all of these commentators yakking and yakking their idiotic topics they consider newsworthy.  I miss the old wooden boxes that soda bottles came in.  I miss barrels of pickles.  I miss the furniture we had that was actually made of wood and not particleboard.  I miss patrol boys and girls.(At a corner they stood with a pole with a "STOP" flag  on it and they used it to stop traffic as their classmates crossed the street.)  I miss paperboys and girls with their shoulderbags.  I miss the insurance man who stopped by once a month with his big black binder  to collect his payments.  I miss metal ice cube trays with handles.  I miss the old cars, they had character unlike the ones today that all look alike.  I miss Paul Harvey.  I miss when being called a "Conservative" was a compliment.  I miss the Halloween and Christmas celebrations in grade school.  I miss the innocence of youth.  I am listening to the news as I write this and they are talking about grade schools where they are promoting transvestism and homosexuality.  You know, when I was in grade school, I thought girls were yucky but that did NOT mean I was gay!  I miss when the new cars and new TV shows started in September.  Today, you have  no idea when anything is starting or ending.  I miss the Sears amd MW holiday catalogues.   I miss when you were a customer and a friend and not just a faceless consumer.  I have to stop...I am getting way too depressed. 

Thank you, Stushy. I knew I could count on you for an incisive remark, but this really overwhelms me.

Let me add a few abstractions to round out Stu's lamentations: Awe. Reverence. Innocence. Honesty. Devotion. Loyalty. Humility. Respect. Gratitude. Dedication. Modesty. Appreciation. Tact. Generosity. Virtue. Kindness. Gentility. Meekness. Pride (in good things). Selflessness. Roots. Home. Heroes and Heroines. Hope. Reflection. Forgiveness. Morals.

And the relative absence of people who sneer at all of the above as being quaint, outmoded, narrow-minded, uncool, unimportant, inconvenient, repressive, irrelevant- the social artifacts of generations gone who didn't have the verve, imagination, style or panache to reach for what they wanted, whenever they wanted, to hell with the consequences.

You see, folks, our generation, which posts a smiley face on everything and thinks losing a cellphone is a real crisis- this enlightened, vibrant generation stands on the shoulders of benighted Yahoos, who had everything wrong before they arrived.

SIC TRANSIT GLORIA MUNDI.

K.

I loved the "Golden Age" of Hollywood, when movies were movies (to me)  There were no Pg pg13 R or any kind of ratings.  The violence was the shoot em' up kind, and scary was Dracula and Frankenstein, not someone cutting up body parts!

I loved going to Saturday matinees, loved the good ole' westerns, and the cartoons in-between were the best. (we would never think of adult cartoons)  I remember going and watching the 13 Ghosts with the 3-D glasses, the ghosts looked like they were flying right out into the theater! 

Saturday was a treat that I waited for all week long, the movie posters on the front on the theater, and inside the lobby always fascinated me.  The smell of popcorn, and standin' in front of that candy counter tryin' to figure out what I would get for my nickel! 

The Usher's name was Happy, and he carried a flash light, to show you to your seat, or to shine it on you in the back row, if you were SMOOCHIN.'  I occasionally got caught under the light, hey those were the days!