We certainly don't remember the same things. Talking only to myself I suspect; remember fireside chats (with FDR), remember when the VP of the United States became famous for saying* "What this country needs is a really good five cent cigar" -- hope I remembered that one right, remember Amos and Andy on the radio or the Three Black Crows on the crank up gramophone. The mail plane (an open cockpit biplane) going from Columbus, Ohio to Washington D. C. passed over our house every other evening just after school and we watched for it in the same way a later generation watched to see a satellite. Remember when cars had cranks -- and you had to use them. I remember when Kettering became famous at GM for inventing the self starter. Windshield wipers were powered by the vacuum line, so the wipers didn't work when the car was accelerating or loading down going uphill. The wiper motor was a kind of steam engine -- similar mechanical principle -- so us boys used to scavenge them to play with. The horns in A-models (the Ahh-Oogah sound) had an honest to God electric motor in them with a serrated disk on the armature that engaged a similar disk on the metal diaphragm to make the sound. Those were great fun, but no one had electricity. I still call post cards -- "penny post cards" -- even though they now cost 19 cents. Ingersoll pocket watches cost an even dollar -- but that was pay for a days work. Oh well, I remember.
* I just checked and this was said by VP T. R. Marshall just before I came along, but people were still quoting him and laughing at his wit -- or lack thereof -- when I was a kid, so it is a part of my "memories". Historians now say that this quote is the only thing Marshall is remembered for. Let us hope that "I did not have sex with that woman" achieves a similar place in history.
Facebook
Twitter