Something to remember

As I have often said, I am 78 years old and where am I going with this? Well, well for one thing I have a lot to remember.

I can remember my grandmother washing clothes in a cast iron pot over an open fire in her back yard, stirring it with a stick. Wringing it out by hand before hanging it on a clothesline.

I can remember when all television was free. We had to twist the rabbit ears to get a good signal, using tinfoil wrapped around the ears. I can remember when cable TV first came to town. No commercials, they said, if you go with the cable. Now there are so many commercials in a row I forget what the program was about. At last count, it was 12 in a row. If you buy cable you get all the sports with no interruptions.

Ah, the good old days. Where have they gone? Now they want you to buy a sports program along with your cable bill. That is double jeopardy if you ask me.

On the bright side, you have digital TV, it is so clear it looks as though it is right there. And the cars could be repaired under a shade tree. Don’t try that now, because you will need a computer with wi-fi, and a grandkid who is around 12 years old. It seems like everything has been preprogrammed to stop working just as you get it paid for or it runs out of warranty.

I quit buying new cars a few years ago just so I would not have to deal with the depreciation and the benefit is no monthly payments. And yes I find myself going to the dark side by using my phone to ask how to correctly spell difficult words, not to mention the punctuation. My wife hates her new phone because she has to learn it all again.

Progress is good, but I would just as soon live without nuclear bombs. We have done away with leprosy, polio, smallpox, and other things that have made life miserable.

Now up jumps the COVID-19 pandemic. Go get vaccinated so you can live long enough to have something to remember.

— Joseph H. Balocca/Vallejo