“We don’t need no stinking computers”
It might come as a surprise to some of you that are younger than me. But life as you know it existed before computers. We danced, got married, had children, ran businesses all without the benefit of any bytes or bits.
I know you will find this hard to believe, but we actually drove completely across the entire United States using only a map printed on paper and a compass. We often stayed in ‘tourist courts’ that had no Wi-Fi, internet or color television. They were advertised as ‘air cooled’.
Our cars didn’t have air conditioners and you had to manually roll down the windows. You wanted music? You had AM stations only, if you were lucky. If you were rich you might have a television, but only black and white. People would sit outside of stores that sold televisions and watch whatever happened to be on that evening. The stores would place a speaker outside so you could hear the dialogue. There were only 3 television stations and they stopped broadcasting at midnight at which time the national anthem was played, and the picture was replaced with a ‘test’ pattern for a short while, then just static. You had to change the channel by hand, there were no remotes.
Our homes were cooled with attic fans or swamp coolers. Either way, you woke up in the morning after sleeping with these on all night soaked to the bone from the humidity. Our rotary dial telephones were physically attached to the wall with a wire. Some of us were on a ‘party’ line where all of your neighbors could listen in on your conversations if they wanted. You couldn’t use the phone to call anyone if someone else was using it at the time. Before the existence of caller ID, you could call random numbers and ask insane questions like… ‘Is your refrigerator running? When they said ‘yes’ then you would laugh and shout.. ‘you better go catch it.’ and hang up. I’m sure every druggist in America got tired of answering the question of “Do you have Prince Albert in a can?” Prince Albert was a pipe tobacco. For the answer to this question, ask someone older than you. If you needed someone’s phone number you could call information (I wonder if that even exists any longer) or you looked the information up in a big book called The Yellow Pages, that was published once a year.
You found employment by checking the ‘help wanted’ section of the newspapers. Then you walked into the business and did a face-to-face interview with the person doing the hiring. You filled out an application and answered all of the questions, hoping you found some place to work.
There weren’t any ‘fast’ food places where you could drive up and order something to eat. You had to go to a sit-down café or maybe a diner (look it up). TV dinners had just come out (tasted like cardboard) for your dining pleasure. If you were lucky you might get to go to a place that served ‘pizza pies’ or a ‘blue plate ‘special. Meatloaf was a standard in most places. Green vegetables were unknown. You could choose your sides of mashed potatoes, hash brown potatoes, French fries, onion rings, baked potato etc. There was always Jello.
Doctors and milkmen still came to your house and you could get cloth diapers picked up and cleaned and returned for a fee. You mowed your own yard with a push reel mower and your dad drank Schlitz beer. You might have had a paper route and you hated to collect the payments at the end of the month.
There were very few credit cards that could be used across the country. Most department stores issued a credit card of sorts that was similar to a metal plate or a luggage tag. You needed one for each store.
But we managed to survive and now we are challenged daily by life in the modern computer age...
Is it better or worse? Your call....
See you next time…Peary Perry
