I turned 60 this year and find myself looking back at the world I grew up in…….. 

Gas was 33 cents, and a fill-up for me was $1.00 

At the package store in my neighborhood there were 7 different beers, now a local beer and wine store advertises 2500 different beers available. 

At the grocery store you could pick from many different varieties of bananas, now we have just one  

Baseball tickets were $1.00 for bleacher tickets and you could easily buy them on game day. 

Movie tickets were 25 cents for Saturday matinees and when you added popcorn and a drink you were still below a $1.00. 

I was 8 years old when I saw my first color TV, back then there was only one TV, placed in the living room and I was never allowed to pick the channel having 5 older brothers 

My father’s station wagon held as many as could fit in, and there were no seat belts, the best place to sit was in the way back were you could at least stretch your legs. 

No one had bike helmets or other safety gear, it wasn’t even considered. The only time I can remember wearing a helmet was at official youth baseball game, and then you never wore one on the bases. 

Organized sports were rare, generally it was ok meet at the field at 9….depending on how many kids came, we decided on what we played. 

School milk was 3 cents, and if you were picked to collect the money…you were way cool 

There were only 3 news channels and everyone had their favorite channel, you always defended your parent’s choice… 

TV antennas were all the rage, huge rabbit ears, or if you were lucky you had an outdoor antenna, anything you could do to get better reception was great. Although my dad always complained about us messing up the antenna but moving the dial too often. 

Saturday in the fall everyone burned their leaves, and when I smell a camp fire today I am transferred back 50 years in a millisecond. 

Vacations back then were long drives, you couldn’t afford to fly with 7 kids….driving to Florida would be done over 3 days…and we memorize every stop….and we always picked up some fireworks along the way. 

One thing for sure we were not connected to the world like we are today, not saying that is bad or good, just different.