Change is inevitable, and with change goes the loss of way of life. Most of us are grounded in the time we grow up. It’s our frame of reference. It’s how we compare generations.
I miss a lot of aspects of the years when I grew up. In no particular order:
1) Changing the Channel in Under a Second – Back in the day before the remote control, we used to have to stand up and walk to the TV to change the channel. We had VHF and UHF bands and maybe 12 channels of programming total. These knobs were indestructible. If I wanted to change from channel 6 to channel 12, I just cranked my wrist and it was done in under a quarter second. No pushing buttons, no making sure the RF receiver could see the remote. No LOSING the remote.
2) Kids Disappearing All Day – We would head out into the nearby woods or disappear along the local river. We would be gone all day with no way to contact us, but we would be back at dinnertime, guaranteed. When kids disappeared, they always came back.
3) Colorful Sports Heroes – We had bigger-than-live boxers like Ali, Frasier, and Foreman. We had guys like Terry Bradshaw, Walter Payton, and Mean Joe Green. Baseball players had interesting nicknames like Spaceman and Catfish. We had Celtics vs Lakers, we had Wayne Gretzky. We had Kurt Thomas and Bart Conner. We had Miracle on Ice. Baseball was winner-take all, no wildcards, and the World Series teams had never faced each other.
4) Going Home from Work Meant You Were Done – Before pagers, before cell phones, you were expected to put in a full day at work, then you got to go home and the time was yours. You could not be reached on vacation.
5) Music had Originality – These were the days of concept albums, people explored ideas in music. Creativity hid messages inside deep and complex lyrics. Layers and layers were arranged into music so that you heard something new if you focused on listening to the drums one time and the keyboards the next. Profanity was rare and when used had tremendous impact. Artists tried to make themselves stand apart artistically. What good is a concept album when the music is sold as downloaded tracks?
6) Album Art – Gone are the days that the band had a large banner to express themselves visually as a wrapper around their vinyl. Interesting art accompanied interesting music. Fold out posters and a different label on every side.
7) Good Original Science Fiction Movies – Star Wars, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, 2001: A Space Odyssey.  The movies were more substance and acting than they were special effects.
8) Reading – If there was nothing on those 12 channels of TV, there was no internet, there were no video games. You picked up a book and read.
9) Browsing Book and Record Stores – You could get lost for hours just browsing through the different sections. Stores stocked actual books and records, not everything but.
10) Grandparents’ Cooking – From Grandma’s German potato salad that cannot be duplicated to Grandpa’s pancakes that were raw in the middle, those are gone forever.
