MILK AND BREAD

We bought 2 gallons of milk and a loaf of inexpensive bread yesterday. $9.00. After staring at the receipt, a memory of years ago popped up. I was in Junior High. Mom would give us $1.00. She would say, get a 1/2 gallon of milk and a loaf of bread, and bring me the change. We would ride our bikes to the 7/11 about a mile away and did as we were ordered.


We also put gas in the car and truck. I won't even mention how scary that was. And the same time frame of being in Junior High came back. Mom drove a big station wagon. She would pull up to the pumps. The attendant, Yes we didn't have to pump our own gas, would come to the car, mom would hand him $5.00 and tell him to fill the tank and bring her the change. If you didn't ask for your change, they automatically kept it as a tip. Not only did he pump the gas, he washed the windows, checked the oil and would ask if there was anything else? What do you think? $10.00 a gallon of gas for that service today?


My parents first house, $13,000. It had all the upgrades and a 1/2 acre in So. Cal.. A house that same size now, $250,000 without the upgrades and 7-8 houses to an acre.


My first car. $3,000 with a couple of options. The same car today, $18,000.


The nickel Hershey bar which was bigger than today's oddly priced under a dollar Hershey bar.


And I'm only 1/2 a century old. Doesn't that sound terrible? I think of the changes and progress I have seen, and wonder about the changes the elderly have seen.


I listened to the radio and heard the latest details of the space capsule circling the earth, and would watch it land in the ocean, hopefully near the ships who were there to pick up the astronaut. All on a black and white TV. Now we can watch the astronauts repair the space station on a computer screen or a plasma TV.


Yes, I played vinyl records, listened to transistor radios, and had a reel to reel tape player we could record ourselves on. Now you can listen to the radio or recorded music in a hands free device in one ear, talk to someone on a hands free phone attached to the other ear, while recording what is being said with a recorder about the same size of a small box of toothpicks. Not to mention you could be doing all this while riding a segway.


I wonder what the future holds for us?