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<\/a>I was watching “Fosse\/Verdon”<\/strong> the other night on TV (well worth viewing) when I spotted something I hadn’t seen in a long time – a cigarette machine.\u00a0 Until that moment I hadn’t thought about those instruments of death, once so ubiquitous but now almost extinct.\u00a0 I can’t remember the last time I saw one.\u00a0 Clearly the ban on smoking<\/strong> in restaurants and bars was the death knell for them, but seeing one evoked fond memories.\u00a0 I used to think it was great fun when my dad would give me a quarter to slip into the slot and pull the lever to magically produce his Salem cigarettes.\u00a0 Of course, back in the ’50’s we had no way of knowing it would eventually lead to his emphysema, but then again, he lived to age 87, most of those years smoking cigarettes and drinking martinis so he had a pretty good – and fun – run.<\/p>\nSeeing something once so prevalent got me to thinking about other items that simply don’t exist any more.\u00a0 For instance, console TV’s<\/strong>.\u00a0 I recall getting our first console – maple! – and it taking a prominent position in the family room.\u00a0 It was considered a piece of furniture, needing to be polished and waxed just like the dining room table.\u00a0 The picture was always just a bit blurry and we often had to adjust the antenna on the roof<\/strong>, but it beat the green screen we’d had before.\u00a0 In the late ’60’s my parents splurged and bought a combo console – TV, record player and radio all in one!\u00a0 In was a behemoth, and I’m sure the sound quality on all three components sucked, but it was a proud possession of my mom until she moved to a retirement home in 2010.\u00a0 Talk about getting your money’s worth!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Although land lines are not yet extinct<\/strong>, they have changed considerably from my teenage years.\u00a0 Typically they were mounted on a wall or sat on a “telephone table” with a very short cord.\u00a0 Personal conversations – so critical to any teenager – were impossible.\u00a0 Where today’s kids beg for a cell phone, my only desire was for my parents to buy a long phone cord.\u00a0 By exchanging the short cord for the long one I could pick up the phone and take it into my room, close the door, and have all my angst-filled conversations<\/strong> in private.\u00a0 That said, when we still had the short cord Brother Bob overheard me one day fumbling for a way to turn down a date.\u00a0 After I hung up, he told me, “Sis, what you say is, ‘I have other plans that night’.\u00a0 That could mean anything from a date with another guy to washing your hair.”\u00a0 I have used that line all of my life to gracefully turn down an unwanted event.\u00a0 So I guess there were advantages to the “family” telephone.\u00a0 The other advantage is that we didn’t carry it around, ignoring the world around us, or talk on it when we were driving.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n We’ve certainly made strides over the decades – technology is better, the air is cleaner and we are healthier.\u00a0 But somehow, given the choice, I’d go back to simpler times, even if I had to have a short cord on the telephone.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Suzanne Sparrow Watson I was watching “Fosse\/Verdon” the other night on TV (well worth viewing) when I spotted something I hadn’t seen in a long time – a cigarette machine.\u00a0 Until that moment I hadn’t thought about those instruments … read more![\"\"](\"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/console-300x168.jpg\")
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<\/a>And while I’m on the subject of phones,\u00a0 here’s something else you don’t see much anymore – phone booths.<\/strong>\u00a0 I remember when they were literally on every corner and were an oasis if you needed directions, were running late or simply needed privacy (for those who had short cords).\u00a0 Kids today don’t realize how easy they have it when they get stuck in traffic on their way to an appointment.\u00a0 They simply power up the cell phone and call the person to update their status.\u00a0 We used to frantically search out a phone booth<\/strong>, often times pulling off a freeway in a strange neighborhood or, as I did once, walk a mile to find the nearest phone.\u00a0 To compound the problem, once you found a phone booth you had to pray that you had the right amount of change in your pocket.\u00a0 Nothing was worse that placing a call and having the operator (a real live person) tell you to insert 35 cents<\/strong> when all you had was a quarter.\u00a0 I remember when the phone companies came out with calling cards where you could charge a call to your home phone.\u00a0 We thought that was the height of technology.\u00a0 Little did we know that decades later we would be living in a Jetson’s world with a hand-held device that would place calls, display maps, alert us to traffic jams and publicize our outing on social media.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/barrelfire-225x300.jpg\")
<\/a>Finally, something not everyone had but we did – a burn barrel<\/strong>.\u00a0 It was a rusted-out 55 gallon oil drum that was re-purposed into burning leaves in the back yard.\u00a0 Each fall my dad and his best friend Dick would spend several hours in our yard raking all the leaves into piles.<\/strong>\u00a0 They would break for lunch and then spend the afternoon shoving all the debris into the burn barrel.\u00a0 Of course, such strenuous work required a beer so I have wonderful memories of them laughing and burning leaves, almost like two kids playing a fun game.\u00a0 The smell was wonderful,<\/strong> although God knows what fumes were spewing into the atmosphere.<\/p>\n