“Gee, Ma, it was a Wurlitzer!”
Younger people have so little context with an older and seemingly simpler time. Dial phones, AM car radios, juke boxes, 45 RPM records (”the little records with the big holes”), soda fountains in drug stores, the rumble of a flathead Ford V-8 being wound out, marching bands and horse parades, even Hula-Hoops.
The past is a great place to visit, but few could live there.
I would leave today to live in 1957. Or 67. Or even 77.
I remember the AM radio in the 1975 Plymouth Van we had. I can still hear and feel in my mind the ka-chunk when you pressed a memory button and it mechanically moved the tuner to the pre-set frequency.
I also remember the silver floor button to the left of the brake pedal to switch on the high beams.
“The past is a great place to visit, but few could live there.”
Try staying alive in Chicago today.
Well, we will have Joe Biden and all of his 1960s references to look forward to. Didn’t he say we should be spending our evenings listening to the record players with our kids?
I don’t miss some of the old tech, but I do miss a world where not everything beeps.