The Good New Days

We've all received emails remembering "The Good Old Days," when you could ride your bike to the corner store, drop it on the sidewalk, and go in and buy a brown bag of goodies -- for a quarter. Alone. Without fear of peril.

I have complained, myself, about the Thumb Generation. They don't go outside and play. Everything they want to do is electronic: texting, MySpace, Wii.

What happened to the Good Ol' Days?

Well I was thinking this morning about the Good NEW Days. Here are a few things I came up with.

PHOTOS. Having photographs processed used to take 2 trips to the drugstore: one to drop the film off, one to pick up the prints.
Now I go to Walgreens.com, upload my photo, and pick it up in an hour. One trip. One photo costs me 19 cents.

RX. Ditto that on prescriptions.
Now my physician sends it in to the drugstore via his laptop, and I drive through and pick it up on the way home. Pretty nice if you (or a cranky toddler) are running a fever.

MAIL. When I was little, the postman came twice a day: once at 9 and again at 2. We often received letters in the morning mail and replied with the evening mail. That doesn't happen anymore.
Now we send letters all day, every day. 2 am. 9 pm. Billions, who know how many, of notes, letters, words of encouragement, fly through space every day. Gives a whole new meaning to the term, "air mail."

NEIGHBORS. True, we don't chat over the back yard fence anymore while we hang out our clothes.
Now we gather at Starbucks or our local coffee house for weekly chats. Or gather on porches after the kids' bedtime for a glass of wine and the latest gossip.

FOOD. There are all sorts of conveniences today we just didn't have before. I remember it was a big deal when you could buy a chicken already cut up. When Jiffy Pop came out, we thought it was magic. Then came a device just for popping corn, basically a hot plate with a lid. Then the air poppers came out. Now, of course, we throw a bag in the microwave and eat it within 5 minutes.
I remember when the "tea" section at the grocery was about 1 foot square. Our choices were Tetley, Lipton, and the new Constant Comment. Now our grocery has a half an aisle dedicated to tea, from Africa or India; teas, tisanes, and herbals; teas that turn colors and teas that bloom.
Ditto that on bread. In my town, it was a choice of Wholesum or Colonial. Now we can buy organic, whole wheat, 5-grain, 7-grain, white, white whole wheat, berry, oat, the list goes on and on.

So the next time one of us middle-agers grumbles and remembers the Good Ol' Days, help him remember the Good New Days. Life is sweet.