My Way Back Machine

“I want to go back .Yes, to the “good ole days” when pressing my face against the glass display cabinet, ogling those luscious tidbits I had a myriad of choices of penny candy. I never even imagined an anemic Hershey bar for 2 dollars, or a 25 cent ticket to a comfortable seat in a neighborhood vaudeville show where the comic got his laughs from one liners with nary an expletive and without having to toque up for a concert in a bruising amphitheater listening to earsplitting music jargon from a rusty throated jumping jack who would have gotten the hook from Major Bowes.

You might say I am just an old codger whose finger doesn’t fit an iPhone or who can’t fathom Microsoft e-mail but truly I did enjoy getting what today you’d call snail mail delivered 3 times a day 6 days a week

Yes, and then there was a season for all sports, not the overlap that has you surfing the channels to catch glimpses of the world series counterpoised against Saturday night football and the NBA .

Talking about seasons, our neighborhood greengrocer had fresh wholesome seasonal food not doctored by preservatives that have driven people to the organic section of the local supermarket

Hey, doctors made house calls and you didn’t have to sit in the waiting room reading outdated magazines until 2 o’clock for the physician to see you for an appointment you had made for noon. We had no Medicare then ,but families took care of their own.

But then again “ DOC” the family general practitioner whose advice gave you his full attention not the 30 seconds allotted to you by an insurance company mandate.

While we’re at personal service How about talking to a real person to answer your queries instead of a machine or instead of some person in India whose attempt at English confounds even a linguist.

I paid $10 a point at NYU. I didn’t have a $50,000 or $100,000 debt when I got out

Yesterday I paid $100 at the gas station to fill my tank …..when in yesteryear I told the attendant to fill me up for$5 and I didn’t have to pump the gas myself .I will have to pay about $4,000 to fill the 1,000 gal tank for my heating yet it’s the same gas and oil that ran my car and heated my home only a couple of decades ago

Where did the 5 cent cup of coffee go Starbucks surely keeps to its name with its 3 bucks Capuchino …… And where did the White Castle 25 cent hamburger go , a new more fanciful hamburger was recently heralded by some snobbery at $100 a pop. And how about that 5 cent cigar

Oh, there are so many scientific breakthroughs that have given us longevity and certain conveniences. But at what cost. We have lost the personal touch in our lives, the feel, that someone cares We have given over our life style to the machine and their robotic answers

Maybe I’m getting old but I do want to remind YOU those good ole days were not so bad”

You owe me !!!

I fought wars to give you the freedoms you now enjoy

I fought oppression to ensure your human rights

I carried you on my back to the moon after engineering through generations of tedious experiments (without the advantages of systems you now take for granted ) to provide technology that is the foundation of the internet and the information age by which you now live.

I suffered famine and crippling epidemics whose solutions give you a prolonged life

I walked the picket lines and suffered bangs and bruises to give you one of the finest workplaces in the world

I worked to eliminate harmful enterprises despoiling our environment to give you water you can drink and air for you to breathe (not all of us did that)

I paid my dues for your today.

It’s payup time

Don’t let misguided politicos manipulate you to defer what are today called entitlements by projecting doleful images of the future.

We have an IOU that is outstanding

 We are those who came before you and provided the foundation for what you enjoy today .

 We ARE entitled

THE “EX” GENERATION “

  Seniors all