When my daughter grows up, her life won't include...
posted at 7:15 AM
This Just Plain Harris column appeared on the Op-Ed page of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch June 9, 2005:
It begins with this simple opening: "When my daughter grows up, her life won't include..."
Recently, my brother was in the car with my two nephews, and when they reached their destination, he told them to "crank the windows up." The two boys had never heard that expression, and my brother realized it's because they've never been in a car without electric windows. Sure, they exist, but not in the world of these six- and four-year-olds.
With my daughter's eleventh birthday last week, I started making a list of all the things from my own life that will never be part of hers. When I mentioned it to my wife, friends, and KMOX listeners -- all Baby Boomers -- they chimed in with suggestions, and the list grew to include:
Movies on videotape. Double features. Drive-in theaters. Theater marquees proclaiming: "Held over for 30th week!" Signs under the marquee advertising "It's Air Conditioned Inside" in letters that look like dripping ice.
Rabbit ears. Using pliers to change the channel because the knob's broken. Getting up to change channels. Wired remote controls. Waiting for the TV to warm up. Having to watch a show when it airs or missing it forever.
Cassette, 8-track, and reel-to-reel tapes. A Walkman that plays cassettes. Cassingles. CD singles. Records and turntables. Adapters for 45s. "You sound like a broken record."
Cameras with thumbwheels to advance the film. Cameras with film. Flash bulbs, flash cubes, flip flash.
Ultra-bright home movie lights. Home movie screens. Home movie projectors. Slide projectors. Editing small reels of Super-8 film onto bigger reels.
Film strips at school with a next-frame beep that every kid could imitate and drive the a/v guy crazy.
Phones with dials. Phones with cords. Changing your phone number when you move. Pay phones. Busy signals. Really expensive long distance calls. Party lines. Answering machines.
Smoking on airplanes. Smoking in movie theaters. Smoking at work. Ash trays on restaurant tables.
Bank tellers. Writing checks. Buying tickets for games, concerts, and movies at the box office.
Going to the library to use an encyclopedia. Copying something out of the World Book for a school assignment. "The Reader's Guide to Periodicals."
Gas stations with the rubber hose that dings when you drive over it. Gas for under a buck a gallon. Free drinking glasses with a fill-up.
Rear car windows that open all the way. A foot switch to activate bright headlights. Cars with wing window vents in front. Cars with bench front seats.
Scoring your own bowling game. Women wearing swim caps at the pool. Only boys playing sports at school. Lawn darts.
Soda in glass bottles. Soda made with cane sugar. Church keys for cans without pop tops. Cans without pop tops. Pop tops that come off when you pull them.
TV weather reports without Doppler radar. TV weather forecasters who use stick-on pictures of sun and clouds. TV news that's on on in the evening. TV stations that sign off in the middle of the night.
Floppy disks. Computers that fill a room. Dot matrix printers. Green-and-white computer paper with tractor feed perforations.
Typewriters. Carbon paper. Correctype. Wite-Out. Thermal fax paper. Mimeograph machines. The smell of mimeograph machines and paper in the school office.
Prices on food items at the supermarket. Jiffy Pop you shake on the stove. Coffee cans with keys. Coffee percolators on the stove.
Metal ice cube trays. Defrosting the freezer with a turkey baster and a yardstick. Yardsticks with furniture store names and logos. Yardsticks.
Susan B. Anthony dollars. Sacagawea dollars. $2 bills.
Writing letters. Postage stamps you lick. Envelopes you lick. S&H green stamps.
Cotton diapers. Rectal thermometers. Bar soap. Portable bubble hair dryers with the carrying strap. Wearing curlers to bed.
Metal keys for hotel rooms. Winding a wrist watch. Tonka trucks made of steel. Styrofoam boxes at McDonald's. Rubbers -- the ones that go over your shoes.
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Copyright 2005, Paul Harris
-----
Some more that were not included in the print version of this column:
K-Tel collections of "the original hits by the original artists!"
Car radios with an analog tuner dial.
Mailboxes in the neighborhood.
Finally, three that aren't generational, but are indicative of the post-9/11 world we all live in: Going to the airport gate to meet someone. Going to the top of the Statue Of Liberty. Going to the World Trade Center.
It begins with this simple opening: "When my daughter grows up, her life won't include..."
Recently, my brother was in the car with my two nephews, and when they reached their destination, he told them to "crank the windows up." The two boys had never heard that expression, and my brother realized it's because they've never been in a car without electric windows. Sure, they exist, but not in the world of these six- and four-year-olds.
With my daughter's eleventh birthday last week, I started making a list of all the things from my own life that will never be part of hers. When I mentioned it to my wife, friends, and KMOX listeners -- all Baby Boomers -- they chimed in with suggestions, and the list grew to include:
Movies on videotape. Double features. Drive-in theaters. Theater marquees proclaiming: "Held over for 30th week!" Signs under the marquee advertising "It's Air Conditioned Inside" in letters that look like dripping ice.
Rabbit ears. Using pliers to change the channel because the knob's broken. Getting up to change channels. Wired remote controls. Waiting for the TV to warm up. Having to watch a show when it airs or missing it forever.
Cassette, 8-track, and reel-to-reel tapes. A Walkman that plays cassettes. Cassingles. CD singles. Records and turntables. Adapters for 45s. "You sound like a broken record."
Cameras with thumbwheels to advance the film. Cameras with film. Flash bulbs, flash cubes, flip flash.
Ultra-bright home movie lights. Home movie screens. Home movie projectors. Slide projectors. Editing small reels of Super-8 film onto bigger reels.
Film strips at school with a next-frame beep that every kid could imitate and drive the a/v guy crazy.
Phones with dials. Phones with cords. Changing your phone number when you move. Pay phones. Busy signals. Really expensive long distance calls. Party lines. Answering machines.
Smoking on airplanes. Smoking in movie theaters. Smoking at work. Ash trays on restaurant tables.
Bank tellers. Writing checks. Buying tickets for games, concerts, and movies at the box office.
Going to the library to use an encyclopedia. Copying something out of the World Book for a school assignment. "The Reader's Guide to Periodicals."
Gas stations with the rubber hose that dings when you drive over it. Gas for under a buck a gallon. Free drinking glasses with a fill-up.
Rear car windows that open all the way. A foot switch to activate bright headlights. Cars with wing window vents in front. Cars with bench front seats.
Scoring your own bowling game. Women wearing swim caps at the pool. Only boys playing sports at school. Lawn darts.
Soda in glass bottles. Soda made with cane sugar. Church keys for cans without pop tops. Cans without pop tops. Pop tops that come off when you pull them.
TV weather reports without Doppler radar. TV weather forecasters who use stick-on pictures of sun and clouds. TV news that's on on in the evening. TV stations that sign off in the middle of the night.
Floppy disks. Computers that fill a room. Dot matrix printers. Green-and-white computer paper with tractor feed perforations.
Typewriters. Carbon paper. Correctype. Wite-Out. Thermal fax paper. Mimeograph machines. The smell of mimeograph machines and paper in the school office.
Prices on food items at the supermarket. Jiffy Pop you shake on the stove. Coffee cans with keys. Coffee percolators on the stove.
Metal ice cube trays. Defrosting the freezer with a turkey baster and a yardstick. Yardsticks with furniture store names and logos. Yardsticks.
Susan B. Anthony dollars. Sacagawea dollars. $2 bills.
Writing letters. Postage stamps you lick. Envelopes you lick. S&H green stamps.
Cotton diapers. Rectal thermometers. Bar soap. Portable bubble hair dryers with the carrying strap. Wearing curlers to bed.
Metal keys for hotel rooms. Winding a wrist watch. Tonka trucks made of steel. Styrofoam boxes at McDonald's. Rubbers -- the ones that go over your shoes.
-----
Copyright 2005, Paul Harris
-----
Some more that were not included in the print version of this column:
K-Tel collections of "the original hits by the original artists!"
Car radios with an analog tuner dial.
Mailboxes in the neighborhood.
Finally, three that aren't generational, but are indicative of the post-9/11 world we all live in: Going to the airport gate to meet someone. Going to the top of the Statue Of Liberty. Going to the World Trade Center.
19 Comments:
I'm 29 and I heard, touched, and have seen 100% of those items. I wonder if your daughter will know of these things.....museums?
There's a generation of difference between a 29 year old and an 11 year old, especially when it comes to technology. As for museums, sure she'll know them as the place to visit to see all sorts of things that aren't part of her daily life.
great piece - it took me down memory lane 78 times!
My own children are teenagers. They have never experienced the smell of burning leaves in autumn.
My son asked me if I was born in the 70's. I told him I was born in 1969, before they put a man on the moon.
He looked SHOCKED.
"They put a man on the moon?", he said. "Did they ever let him down?"
I couldn't believe that my 8 year old son know nothing about the moon missions or the space shuttle program.
What about morning and afternoon newspapers? No CNN or internet then.
I live in a 50s house and have 50s furniture and even some of my parents' and grandparents' household items. (I'm a '68 model, myself ;->)
It only goes away and people forget if you let it.
I wont miss those rectal thermomiters,I can tell you that! But, being that I was born in 1983, I regret never knowing one single drive-in movie theatre. Theres a whole chunk of romantic nostalgia I'll never get to experience.
My father passed at 96. At his 95th he reminissed how he had seen:
Electricity transmitted to rural America (his birth home heated and cooked with saw dust and was lt by coal oil)
Steam give way to electricity and diesel.
Automation in manufacturing (outsourcing as we know it,was a word he never heard).
Two World Wars, a Conflict, and the Domino Theory which looked a lot like more war.
And he'd seen
Antibiotics
Nuclulear Power
Missles for peaceful purposes
The earth from the Moon.
Cars with starters heaters and turn signals
Comfortable central heat
Computers, though they seemed possessed.
Automobiles and roads that made his 14+ hour trip home only 3.5.
He wasn't sure our kids (the age of your daughter) would see much change...
As for Drive-ins, There is an awesome one in Cadet, Missouri. I have taken my 12 year old to a number of times. They have double and sometimes triple features. They play new movies (we saw Harry Potter 3 there on opening night). The Concession stand is cheap. The only thing I wish they would not have changed is the speaker you put on your window for the sound. They tell you what radio station to tune your car to for the screen you are viewing (there are two screens). This wonderful place is called the Starlite Drive In and its website is www.starlitedrivein.com . It is a drive ( one hour south of St. Louis on Highway 21), but worth it!
I just read this article and plan on printing it out for some of my grandchildren. I am 71, almost, and can you imagine what my list is like. No TV, no ball point pens, no computers, coal furnace instead of gas, no AC only a fan if you were lucky to be able to afford one, we HAD to listen to our teachers in school, not go crying home to mom and dad about a bad day if we got swatted with a ruler, we got quaranteen ( mispelled ) in our homes if we had mumps, measles, etc., radio was the thing with Lux Therater, The Green Hornet, The Shadow, Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, etc. Movies cost 10 cents and my dad had a fit when they went up to 15. We didn't have drive ins at this time. We had closer neighborhoods where everyone got together for evening back yard talks, music, and sometimes home made ice cream. We didn't have calculators for math. Our language was different. Like grass for grass etc. There were many other differences and they are probably already in the museums.
"double albums"
HA! Well, those two little boys haven't been in many cars (obviously). One of the first cars I'd ever been in (I'm 31) had automatic windows, and the car I ride in today? Roll 'em ups. I didn't think automatic windows were a big deal then, and I can't imagine that there'd be some kids who wouldn't know how to roll them up.
I'm assuming that there are a good number of children today who know what a double album is--think about it, you've got 10 year olds whose parents may be 30-35 year olds....who listened to records in their youth, or in my case, still do (a lot of classical music hasn't been transferred to CD yet). However, I've never used a film projector or reel-to-reel tape deck, so I guess I can understand kids not knowing stuff.
As a 13-year-old growing up in small-town New England, I probably have experienced more of these things than your average city kid. For example, it's a family tradition to spend at least one evening each summer at the local drive-in theater, one of the last remaining in the area. My father, never one to miss free stuff on the side of the road, once came home with a circa 1975 television in the back of his pickup. To this day, it's the only TV in the house, complete with a screen that makes up only a portion of its bulk, a knob to turn it on and adjust the volume, two to change the channels, and an assortment of mysterious buttons that, in reality, seem to have very little use, and rather useless rabbit-ear antennas. We don't get cable, either, although since they've taken the Red Sox games off of public access, my dad has been threatening to cave and get basic cable. We've still got a lot of other nostalgic items from the time of my parents' childhoods around the house, as well.
But there's no doubt that some of that stuff is lost forever. I'll admit that I stopped using libraries for research several years ago, because it's so much easier to use a computer. I rarely write a school assignment out by hand, for the same reason. A typewriter is a novelty. I've never watched a film strip, in a classroom or elswhere.
It's unfortunate that I'll never see these things. My generation is growing up perhaps a little bit lazier, with a slightly higher tendency to take things for granted. But some changes are perhaps for the better. One no longer has to worry about second-hand smoke in public places like the movies or airplanes. It no longer has to cost a fortune to talk to a far-away friend or relative. As a girl, I can now play whatever sport suits my fancy at school. Doppler radar can predict dangerous weather with more accuracy.
By the time I'm having children, far fewer of these things will be around. Will we miss them? We'll have to see.
As a 13-year-old growing up in small-town New England, I probably have experienced more of these things than your average city kid. For example, it's a family tradition to spend at least one evening each summer at the local drive-in theater, one of the last remaining in the area. My father, never one to miss free stuff on the side of the road, once came home with a circa 1975 television in the back of his pickup. To this day, it's the only TV in the house, complete with a screen that makes up only a portion of its bulk, a knob to turn it on and adjust the volume, two to change the channels, and an assortment of mysterious buttons that, in reality, seem to have very little use, and rather useless rabbit-ear antennas. We don't get cable, either, although since they've taken the Red Sox games off of public access, my dad has been threatening to cave and get basic cable. We've still got a lot of other nostalgic items from the time of my parents' childhoods around the house, as well.
But there's no doubt that some of that stuff is lost forever. I'll admit that I stopped using libraries for research several years ago, because it's so much easier to use a computer. I rarely write a school assignment out by hand, for the same reason. A typewriter is a novelty. I've never watched a film strip, in a classroom or elswhere.
It's unfortunate that I'll never see these things. My generation is growing up perhaps a little bit lazier, with a slightly higher tendency to take things for granted. But some changes are perhaps for the better. One no longer has to worry about second-hand smoke in public places like the movies or airplanes. It no longer has to cost a fortune to talk to a far-away friend or relative. As a girl, I can now play whatever sport suits my fancy at school. Doppler radar can predict dangerous weather with more accuracy.
By the time I'm having children, far fewer of these things will be around. Will we miss them? We'll have to see.
I was looking through your list you have for items your daughter will never know in her lifetime, and nowhere is fashion of the past mentioned. I have to mention that kids today don’t remember short-shorts for guys; the kind that were popular back in the ‘70’s and ’80’s. Remember basketball shorts back then? They were almost hot-pants for men! I mention this, because I’m 29, and grew up wearing those kinds in the 80’s, and even though they seem to have gone out of style during the 90’s, I still kept on wearing them. I don’t see why it is such a fau pax to wear that kind today. I mean I remember them being on guys all over the place. Today, hardly any guy still wears shorts of this style, and I’m apparently one of the few left that still do!
This is an e-mail I received. It kind of fits in with the subject of what our kids know nothing about.
TO ALL THOSE
WHO SURVIVED the
1940s, '50s, '60s and '70s !!
First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they were pregnant.
They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can, and didn't get tested for diabetes.
Then after that trauma, we were put to sleep on our tummies in baby cribs covered with bright colored lead-based paints.
We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we
rode our bikes, we had no helmets, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking ...
As infants and children, we would ride in cars with no car seats, booster seats, seat belts or air bags.
Riding in the back of a pick up on a warm day was always a special treat.
We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle.
We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this.
We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter and drank Koolade made with sugar, but we weren't overweight because ..
WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING !
We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on.
No one was able to reach us all day.
And we were O.K.
We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.
We did not have Playstations, Nintendos, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 150 channels on cable, no video movies or DVDs, no surround-sound or CDs, no cell phones, no personal computers, no Internet or chat rooms.......
WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!
We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents.
We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.
We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays, made up games with sticks and tennis balls and, although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes.
We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just walked in and talked to them!
Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!!
The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!
These generations have produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever!
The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.
We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned
HOW TO DEAL WITH IT ALL!
I know of another drive-in theatre that's still in operation, or at least last I knew, it still was. Back in the summer of 2003, my then-girlfriend (now my wife) and I took one of our nephews and one of our nieces with us to a drive-in that's still in operation during the summer on Route 21 in southern Reynolds county near the Reynolds/Carter county line (my wife's family is from Carter County, which is in southeast Missouri).
I don't know if anyone mentioned this but I remember everyone used to have steel trash cans. Now they are all plastic. And how many of us 30+ slept on the floor of the backseat in the car (that got around 4 miles per gallon) on trips to florida?? I never even sat in a car seat!!! My mother held my brother and I until we were big enough to sit in the back without falling over.
I have not seen mention of the Drive-In in Belleville Illinois. I can actually remember sneaking 3 or 4 people into the Drive-In ( in the trunk) and not being arrested. It's just what kids did...Harmless fun and nobody got sued
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