Remembering the 'good old days'

I don't remember where I first heard or read the saying, "The good old days are right now, not yesterday."

Man, do I ever disagree.

The good old days were when gasoline was 25 cents a gallon, milk was 50 cents a gallon, going to the show was 25 cents for a matinee, a new car was under $2,000 and the list goes on and on.

You could actually afford to take the entire family out to eat without having to request a bailout from our Uncle Sam.

Not so today.

Yes, I understand all the arguments and mathematics associated with wage association with current prices. Yes, the minimum wage was $1.65 an hour back then. But you only had to work nine minutes to buy a gallon of gas and today you have to work over seventeen minutes to buy one gallon of gas at $2.30 per gallon based on the new minimum wage of $8 per hour.

Life was great back then. You could eat or drink anything you wanted to without being bombarded by constant news that everything is bad for you and then wake up a few years later to learn that the things you thought were bad is actually necessary for a healthy diet.

I really miss those days when you went to work for a company from which you actually had a chance to retire, collect your retirement pension and your child could take your place.

No way would that happen today.

I remember my dad working hard, but he didn't appear to stress about the cost or availability of gas, water, electricity, insurance or the future for his seven children future.

When he got a little stressed, he would take us fishing or hunting and everything would be fine.

I think it's funny that just a few years ago we were scoffing, ridiculing, and critizing anything and everything made in Japan as cheap, undependable, potentially dangerous and stealing jobs from Americans.

The whole flattening of the world thing now means we are seeing everything made in China, South Korea, India and a multitude of other nations that we suspect for causing everything from lead poisoning to extremely poor quality. Meanwhile, items made in Japan are viewed as equal to or better than those things made in the U.S.A.

The truth does hurt sometimes.

In those good old days, almost everything was made in the United States, from cars to televisions with local servicing and repairs. Today, you get notices in your new purchase box "Do not return this product to the retailer. Contact *&#@% for servicing."

Then, good luck getting approval to return it or have it repaired. Lately, the kicker is they want you to pay the shipping to them and they supposedly will ship it back.

Yeah, right!

Being an optimist I'm hoping the pendulum swings back the other way real soon. Then we will see things once again made in the good old U.S. of A. That is when we can all dance in the streets singing "Welcome Back, Good Old Days."

Of course, someone will have to write the song as it does not yet exist, according to my admittedly limited research.

Well, let's hoist a toast to American ingenuity for no other reason than nostalgia's sake while we can still afford to buy a round or two of brew made in the good old U. S. of A.

Sip slowly and savor the moment.