Remember when nuns wore strange wingy habits that were more effective than the paddle in scaring school kids into good behavior?
Remember when we were forced to eat all our peas rather than sending them off to those starving kids in China?
Remember when Jim Thorpe, a Native American, was considered the greatest athlete of all time?
Remember when the topic of the year was about God being dead, until science came up with the Big Bang Theory and renewed theological possibilities?
Remember when Santa managed to leave presents under the Christmas tree even though you lived in an apartment without a fireplace?
Remember how you felt about “mommy kissing Santa Claus” before you learned there was no Santa and his role, hopefully, was played by dad?
Remember when you got married for the first time, you never thought there would be a second or a third or even more?
Remember when kids in public schools played cowboys and Indians, while kids in parish schools played Romans and Christians?
Remember when pistachios in the shell were colored a bright red?
Remember when (before the days of pods and French press) the rich aroma of percolating coffee was all you needed to spring from your bed?
Remember when the highlight of the week was waiting for the delivery of the newspaper’s BIG Sunday edition or driving closer to the source to get it before the delivery trucks reached your town or neighborhood?
Remember when Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia read the daily comics on radio during a New York newspaper strike?
Remember when ALL newspapers covered politics, business, life and sports as though Black lives didn’t matter and never would?
Remember Sunday mass -in before the gospel and out after the start of communion- then on to the candy store with some of the money your mom intended for the collection basket?
Remember when on Sunday’s all stores were closed except for the one druggist in the community whose turn it was to be open?
Remember when outgoing laundry in New York had to go to a Chinese-owned shop and dry cleaning to a Jewish tailor and shoe repair to an Italian cobbler?
Remember when the word “gay” was not associated with sexual orientation?
Remember when having to take a shower (as opposed to a bath) meant that you were either in boarding school, the military or a prison?
Remember how it felt when after chewing on pencils all your life it was revealed that the yellow finish was heavily leaded?
Remember when during that transitional period schools required the use of inked pens rather than ball point?
Remember when before the internet and social media the idiots of the world couldn’t find each other or unite as anti-vaxxers or Republicans or white suppremecists or woke whatevers?
Remember when you awakened for the first time with aches and pains but had no memory of exercising or physical activity?
Remember when “company” could mean unexpected visitors and there always had to be a fresh cake in the house…just in case?
Remember when sometime in the 1960’s, probably after Kennedy’s election, all the commercials on TV began going over your head and directly into the brains of kids who now had money or knew how to make their parents feel guilty?