Humor

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Just yesterday, I received an e-mail from my older-than-me sister who joined Oprah and John Travolta in the 50-year-old club two years ago. It contained a little quiz to see how many "old things" you could remember.

Sad to say, I scored 20 out of 25. The only saving grace was that my sister scored a 21.

I'd like to toss a few of the items mentioned at you.

Do you remember metal ice-cube trays with the lever on top for breaking them loose?

How about telephone exchanges that began with a word (mine was State 8-9085)?

PF Flyers?

Rubbish collection and garbage collection being two different things?

Cobblestone streets?

45-rpm records (let's not even mention 78s!)?

"The Ed Sullivan Show?"

Rock 'em Sock 'em Robots?

If you do ... boy, are you old!

My kids have an automatic ice-cube maker in the freezer. They have personal CD players to easily play their music on the road. They have e-mail and instant messaging. They have 8,261 choices on cable TV.

These are all good things ... although I still have my doubts about the ice-cube makers.

But despite all the cool gadgets they enjoy today, I would never even consider trading places and being a kid in the 21st century. Growing up in the 1960s was a privilege that needs to be treasured.

Yes, there have been all kinds of technological breakthroughs in the past decade, but how does that even begin to compare with the one that gave us enough history to fill a complete set of encyclopedias?

We began with the election of John Kennedy, the Bay of Pigs, and JFK's assassination two years later. Then came the Beatles and the British Invasion, the Vietnam War at full steam, Robert Kennedy's death and that of Martin Luther King, hippies, the Jesus People Movement, and, to close out the decade, we had "one small step for man; one giant leap for mankind."

Trade all that for Britney Spears, Bill Gates, Saddam Hussein and gay marriages?

Thanks ... but no thanks.

(Bill Dolack can be reached at [email protected])

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