Things I Miss

The world has gone mad. We all know this. We have experienced a lifetime of everything being made faster and cheaper. The result has been so many parts of everyday experience that have been sanded off and thrown away in the name of efficiency. Or maybe it is just the passage of time, with new generations taking over and making changes to the landscape that was once so familiar to many of us. Or maybe it is just me. Though I don’t think so.

I have neither the time nor the inclination to begin a treatise on ways the world has been wobbling on its axis of late. But I do know that I miss certain things that were in the world that was. Here are a few random thoughts about some of these.

No. 1: People who answered business telephones. Don’t we all remember the receptionist? Back when I was lawyering, I used to call other lawyers a lot. I always looked forward to calling the members of a local firm, if only to hear their receptionist answer the phone. This was because of the way she pronounced the last name of the firm – Douglas. While you or I (or even old Mr. Douglas) might grace that name with only two syllables, that receptionist gave it three – Doug-A-Las, with a machine gun-like staccato that gave the firm name some real punch.

But now, we have the disembodied “auto attendant”. Whose options have probably not recently changed, no matter what the pleasant voice tries to tell us. And who offers me the choices that some young programmer or consultant figured (several years ago) would be the most likely reasons I might be calling. Say what you will about those young programmers, but they have (had?) an uncanny ability to choose options that do not fit any of the reasons for my call.

Adding AI to the mix has not helped. I recently tried to call a parcel delivery company after its email invited me to let them know how I rated their service. I wanted to rate their service because they delivered my package to my neighbor. But there was no place on the website to rate the service, causing me to call. The AI agent invited me to state the reason for my call, and then proceeded to offer me information about shipping rates. With great effort I made it to the regular menus, which asked me if I received my package or did not receive my package. If I had to walk next door and get my package myself, is that receiving or not receiving? Oh for a live human being to answer the phone. Even if that person would only use two syllables for Douglas.

No. 2: Milkshakes served in big metal cups. Yes, I know that modern milkshakes (which are probably called “shakes” because they cannot legally be called a “milkshake”) come from a machine that blops them right into the paper or Styrofoam cup. But there was a time when a milkshake was made by scooping ice cream into a tall metal cup, adding milk, then putting the cup to a machine with a long spindle that would mix the shake right there in the cup. Then the waitress (nobody ever ordered a milkshake in a place with male waiters) would put two things in front of you – an empty plastic cup and the tall metal cup full of creamy cold milkshake.

I think the last one of those I got was from a little lunch counter that was in a storefront close to my office in the late 1980’s. Nothing went better than a thin, flavorful hamburger right off the grille than a milkshake from a metal cup, which gave you about a glass and a half for drinking out of the thick, red plastic drinking cup. I do not drink as many milkshakes as I used to. I like to imagine that it is because I am trying to take better care of myself. But just between us, I think it is because nobody tempts me with real milkshakes mixed in a stainless steel cup.

No. 3: Original Taco Bell green sauce. While we are on the topic of food, I can add another item from my past. And one, incidentally, that I never, ever paired with a milkshake. Back in the 1970’s when I was introduced to the wonder that was Taco Bell, I quickly learned about that delightful thing called a burrito. People who grew up in other places likely learned about burritos where better ones were available, but we take what we get. Except for sauce, because Taco Bell offered both the familiar red sauce and what they called their “spicy green sauce”.

The “spicy green sauce” was not all that spicy, but boy did it improve a basic cheap bean burrito. Until Taco Bell discontinued it. They have introduced other sauces through the years, and once even claimed to re-offer the old classic green sauce. But none of them do the trick for me. Even the old retro sauce failed to hit the right note. Which is probably a good thing, because it keeps me from hitting the Bell more than a couple of times a year.

No. 4: Good cheap used cars. Quite some time ago I wrote about a condition that plagues me – car fever. It strikes me every spring and every fall, and sends me diving into used car listings in search of something new (to me) and exciting. And cheap. Cheap is relative, of course. When I first started buying cheap used cars that number was under $1,000. By the mid 90’s it was around $2,500. Now it is probably about $5k for something that drives right and looks decent.

Cheap used cars in my youth tended to be 10-15 year old Chrysler sedans owned by elderly people who put State Farm or AAA stickers on the back bumpers. These people kept the oil changed, brushed touch-up paint into every stone chip and were absolutely certain that after 10 years and 75,000 miles that a car was used up. I knew that a pampered old car like that was just getting started and I drove cars like that for years. But now? Everyone keeps cars forever, and either trades them in or has them snapped up by a flipper who triples the price. And low miles is anything under 200,000. Or right before the need for expensive repairs like head gaskets or transmissions.

I read somewhere that these days you have to be rich to afford a cheap used car, and there may be some truth to that. So, as much as I drool over online ads (imagining how these cars are supposed to be instead of how they actually are) I keep finding reasons to drive what I have. This result certainly keeps Marianne happy and makes gobs of financial sense. But this does not alleviate my condition, which will continue to cause me great distress until about Thanksgiving.

No. 5: Old people. By this, I mean people older than me. I liked living in a world where people older than me were in charge of things. Because I trusted them. “They have been around so they probably know what they are doing” was my opinion. Now? Everyone running everything is my age or younger. And do you know what? I know these generations well enough to know that they probably have no idea what they are doing. Because I certainly don’t.

Then, once the old people got too old to be running things, they served as a source of wisdom and experience. They were a bridge to a time before I was around and remembered things that I never experienced. A grandfather once told me about when the first telephone came to his small town. My mother had many stories about growing up during the Depression and the Second World War. But now, most of the stories told by the old folks are about things that occurred during my lifetime. Which seem neither as old nor as interesting as the ones I formerly listened to.

This could probably be its own blog post, but we Boomers make terrible old people. I miss old ladies who wore baggy housedresses and old men who wore hats and smoked pipes and kept the thick cases for their sunglasses in the pockets of their button-up shirts. Today’s old people still dress like the people I went to college with. And the famous ones do ads touting not-cheap treatments to keep us looking like we did at 40. Or to make us think we will look like we did at 40 as they rake in our money. Old people used to know how to be old people. We boomers seem to have no idea.

I could keep going with a list like this for quite awhile because there are a lot of things I miss, both consequential or otherwise. It is time, however, to wrap this up. But feel free to add some others in the comments. Because I know you have some.

55 thoughts on “Things I Miss”

  1. Two thoughts on this. I am in complete agreement about the banality of modern phone menu systems. Last month, I had to cancel a doctor’s appointment in another town due to the flooding. The voice asked me for my ten-digit phone number, which I provided slowly and clearly. “It sounds like you listed nine digits,” the system answered. “Please try again.” Eleven digits the second time. Nine again the third. I was running out of time and frustrated and dropped a bad word that autocorrects to “ducking.” Incredibly, the automated voice began to apologize, at least before I practically shouted “OPERATOR” into the phone. I was transferred immediately with no hold and rescheduled my appointment in a fraction of the time that it took to wade through the stupid menu. At least it didn’t have the fake typing we employed at a call center I used to work at.

    Second thought: Marsh was famous for its ice cream in the early days, and my grandpa being a Marsh lifer, he always had one of those big drums on hand. Milkshakes made in an old mixer like you describe were a staple of overnight visits there!

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    • I think we could fill a lot of space with frustrating tales of automated phone menus!

      And what a great memory about your grandfather! But if I had one of those milkshake mixers in my kitchen, I might eventually be featured on one of those reality TV shows about unimaginably overweight people.

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  2. Chalk me up as one with enough life experience to have seen the erosion of all the things you’ve mentioned. While I won’t say the world is going to Hell in a hand basket, I do think the path society is following demonstrates, in some areas, a distinct absence of intellect.

    That said, there is a place where I live in which milkshakes are still made in stainless steel cups – then dumped into styrofoam when served.

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  3. Another great column, I look forward to Dave Berry and your column every Friday! Travel Used To Be Glamorous. I had reason to look up an old video on YouTube, the Up Up and Away commercial for the world’s greatest defunct airline: TWA. Circa 1968 the commercial showed flying as a glamorous activity that was fun, exciting, and classy — people didn’t fly wearing flip flops, gym shorts and T-shirts with dubious phrasing. (I saw a t-shirt at a rest stop that said WEST, F******, VIRGINIA, in three lines.) I had one great transcontinental journey on TWA from Columbus to Las Vegas, in 1981, the flight west was on a Lockheed L-1011 and on both flights I was served a full dinner. Pay Bills in Person. One thing I do, that old people used to do routinely, is pay my monthly property tax installment in person, which was and is my favorite way to engage with customer service. Several bright young folks that I knew used to work for a telephone “call waiting” management system called Virtual Hold, their primary customer was Time Warner Cable. As Dave Berry would say, I am not making this up…

    Best regards, Peter Miller typopete@gmail.com 330-376-9992

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  4. Excellent observations, although with a little effort you should still be able to find a diner or ice cream shop that makes milkshakes (make mine a malted) the traditional way. Otherwise, I have nothing else to add (yet) but wanted to be sure you feel validated. ;^)

    I think when I answer the phone here at work today I’ll try to mimic an automated system.

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  5. No. 1. Not only people that answered the business phone, but all ancillary business staff that just “got things done”. Used to be called secretaries, then admin assistants, now…gone. I knew the business world was shot when I went to visit a pal at an ad agency in Washington DC, and there was no ad min assistant / greeter at the front desk, just a phone list and a phone. Her agency fired everyone that wasn’t directly billable to a client. Small thinking, as at the beginning of my career, everyone knew the secretary was the one that actually made sure things got done! I practically never talked with my VP’s, but cultivated relationships with their ad min assistants.

    No. 2. Classic Malts and Shakes in the metal cup? 5 minutes from me, drop by: https://urbanmilwaukee.com/2018/08/29/dining-teds-is-a-1950s-time-warp/

    No. 4. Yep. Time was, if you had a new car you didn’t want wrecked with winter driving and salt, you could get a well running “junker” for under a thousand bucks (heck, usually around $500), garaged your primary driver, and kept enough in it to keep it going. You could keep it running and around for a few years until you didn’t care that much about your newer car anymore. Also a great pool of vehicles to get your kids through their first few accidents after getting their licenses.

    No 5. Yep. I miss the well dressed old ladies that used to work the mens department at Marshall Fields (hell, I miss Marshal Fields). Then knew it all, knew what you should be wearing, knew what underwear was right for you (no embarrassment with them at that age). You knew they didn’t need the money, they were working to ‘keep busy’, and get the clothing discounting in the women’s department. A better world.

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    • All great additions! And you are right that staffers kept these places running for the higher-ups. This was why I kept on the best terms possible with court staffs. The judge would hear the case but the clerks and bailiffs handled everything else.

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  6. A great list.

    I think that I would be better able to put up with the automated call answering if nearly every single robot system did not announce that “due to unexpectedly high call volume…”. I mean good grief. If you’ve been answering the phone like this for 5 years and every single time the call volume is “unexpected” then maybe that is something you’d want to address? Or at least come up with a more creative excuse for why I’m going to be put on hold?

    And then one that’s not on your list; I miss food (or at least recipes for food) that does not look like it’s already pre-digested and deposited in a bowl. As the person who does most of the meal preparation in my household, I spend a lot of time searching for things to make (so that we don’t eat the same thing 4 to 7 times a week). Spend a little time on something like the NYT Cooking site, or even a higher-end site like America’s Test Kitchen and you’d be convinced that most if not all of the food has been prepared for toddlers by toddlers. It’s all unidentifiable bowls of chopped up mush. And frankly, it’s becoming the case that this sort of stuff is what’s increasingly available in restaurants. At what point did people stop eating food that could actually be separately identified and named and instead switched to bowls of stuff identified mostly by categories such as carbs and proteins?

    I could go on. 🙂

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    • Yes, when the auto-attendant lies to you at the beginning of a call, it is not a good sign.

      On the cooking sites, I wonder if your problem isn’t with the “high end” part. I am best with lowbrow food. 😛

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      • It is probably a function of where I’m looking for recipes, and when I go looking for instructions on how to cook a particular dish, I can generally find many options (including way too many videos, when all I actually want are written instructions…but that’s a whole other complaint about the modern media landscape). But when I go looking for ideas, that’s where the bowls and sheetpans of mush come into play; and the thing is, all of this is portrayed as fast, casual, and not fussy food…which ought to be lowbrow, right? I actually think that nowadays “meat and potatoes” (unless they’re all mashed into a paste that ought to only be eaten by babies or Gemini Program Astronauts) is considered fussy and high brow.

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      • Our system is that Marianne finds the recipes and I make them. So she must strain out the mush/paste/puree dishes before I get involved. Thankfully. And you are right, nothing is more irritating than one of those videos that makes you watch it multiple times because the recipe is not actually written out anywhere.

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  7. oh those milkshakes! haven’t thought about them in years and now want one in the worst way.

    i totally agree with you about the phones …. just ugh now. I hate it when i have to call a company/make an appointment etc.

    i miss just regular old general-purpose bikes. it seems everything today is either electric or designed specifically for speed or to be used off road. can’t there just be a bike?

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    • Those are still out there. You need to look for either a “cruiser” bike or a hybrid road bike. The sad part of the story is that nearly any new bike will set you back close to a $1000 as a starting point and then the sky’s the limit from there.

      Unless you have a dump/transfer station near you. There you can generally find bikes for free all day long, most of which can be reassembled into perfectly good, not fancy, transportation/fun.

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      • I live in Trek country…manufacturing since 1976. Not unusual to buy a 30 years old Trek at a yard say that maybe needs little tuning and possibly new tires: $50.00! Ditto 30-40 year old Raleigh 3 speeds: pocket change at yard sales!

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  8. Re: old people- I remember when I used to think I would turn into a grown up in my 20’s – cut my hair, stop wearing jeans etc. But of course that didn’t happen and a few years ago a friend and I were in a local dress shop and we were surprised that we liked the clothes because as my friend remarked the store used to carry clothes for old people. “It still does”, said the saleslady with a smirk.

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  9. It’s amazing–I was recently thinking about the ideas in No. 5 but couldn’t put them into words. (Most people running things are now younger than me–whoa!)

    When I was in elementary school, old people had a certain dignity–the way they dressed (rather formally), the way they spoke, their life experiences formed by growing up in the latter part of the Victorian/Edwardian era. With old Boomers–ah, no. That’s all gone. You’re right–Boomers don’t do “old” well. A 70-year old dude wearing a ball cap, a graphic T-shirt, jeans and sneakers, and listening to Van Halen–it messes with your mind.

    When I was Kindergarten age, I loved watching Charlie Chaplin movies on Channel 13 (PBS). Those 1920s silent movies looked old and quaint–there was a kind of beauty and charm–a lost world. Today the equivalent would be a Kindergartener watching 1970s movies and TV shows and liking them. How’s that for a mind-blower!

    Life is always expanding, evolving, and exploring in new ways. It always has and it always will. I think it’s important to embrace this. We live in the “now”; that’s all we have. I love old things too. But since thousands of years of human history have now passed, and thousands more are yet to come, our little concerns seem (to me) less important in the grand scheme of things. When I look at this photo of our galaxy, so ancient yet timeless, I think of that.

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    • You fleshed out some of the thoughts I had been thinking. I remember reading something by a woman in her early 50s – she recalled being younger and thinking that when she got older, she would have the freedom to become one of those shapeless old ladies she remembered from her childhood, who were completely without care for how others thought of their appearance. The reality was that her (our) generation has kept up the pressure to be thin and fit and wrinkle-free in the quest to be young forever. I am fortunate to have aged reasonably well, but have still largely forsworn T-shirts and shorts in the last several years. I have the green Dodge sedan, so all I need now is the pipe and the hat. 🙂

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      • thanks that is helpful to know. Though i guess i’m also missing a time when you could get something at a “reasonable” price. $1000 is bit more than i can afford to spend so i guess it is off to the transfer station for me. thanks again.

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  10. I nodded along throughout this entire post JP! At 70 years old, I similarly have disdain on how the world is now.

    I hate calling any company these days, as you’re subjected to AI and sometimes the list of options presented on the so-called “calling tree” can be long and often none apply, so you have to return to the beginning to hear them again. It used to be so easy, when you listened to the options, then pressed “0” for a human, you got a warm body on the other end of the line, a POLITE person to assist you.

    There’s a lot of wisdom in keeping old cars as long as you can. My car turned 17 years old a couple of weeks ago and it has a whopping 15,200 miles on it. On Monday, after running errands, I was ready to put it into the garage, went to open the driver’s side door and the car door handle sagged down. Seeing no way to fix it myself, I made an appointment at the mechanic where I’ve gone for 25 years for yesterday. It was not a simple fix, merely opening up the inside door panel – nope, it required a new handle (and 2.5 hours of labor). I said I don’t open the car door THAT many times! When I picked up the car, he showed me the plastic pieces inside the handle had cracked. My comment was “well I thought they made everything better and built to last back then.” Also, the last person to put a battery in my spare key fob apparently didn’t know what they were doing and smashed the key fob’s “brain” so a new key fob was in order. My car is like knew; I’m $450.00 poorer. (Oh, by the way, BTW we have a credit card transaction fee now.)

    As the expression goes … “these are not your father’s ______” so fill in the word “Boomers”. Yes, older people trying to look young, (they’d say “hip” before). I miss the way things were too. As a person who does not have smart TV, any smart appliances and still has a landline, uses her flip phone rather than her smartphone, I sometimes feel like a dinosaur.

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    • Yes to all this! Stupid, basic things like door handles and window mechanisms fail left and right (literally) these days as cars age – things that still work fine on cars of the 70s or before.

      And I find that saying “operator” or “agent” doesn’t work as reliably as it once did to get you to a human.

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      • Yes, I once had a window go down but it didn’t come back up when I had the Regal. With the Pacer, I had to manually roll down the window using the crank (for lack of a better word) which broke off as it was so cold.

        Customer service fails in every aspect these days.

        As to telephone etiquette at law firms, I once worked at a law firm, where everyone was Mr. or Miss/Mrs. (no Ms. allowed there) – even the runner was addressed as Mr. – no first names for anyone. The receptionist was laughing when she answered the phone once and it was the senior partner calling in and he dressed her down for not being professional.

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  11. I find the world is spinning out of control faster and faster, and wonder where it will end up…..maybe with another big bang? I especially find the AI stuff scary – when even the AI CEO’s start sounding a warning, we should listen. I read a Dan Brown book about ten years ago, can’t remember the name of it, but at the end the computer took over the world. It seemed science fiction at the time, not so much now.

    I tried to use an AI assistant online recently, but there were no options that suited my request, nor could I make the stupid thing understand what my question was! I finally gave up and spent 30 minutes on hold.

    I’ve never had a milkshake, other than Dairy Queen – I’ll have to pay attention to how they make it next time I go. I haven’t been this as I’m trying to be good and watch my cholesterol.

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  12. I love(d) handmade treats like the milkshakes you describe but I always wanted a malt, instead. Places nowadays don’t even know what a chocolate malt is and certainly don’t know how to serve either a shake or a malt. I did have a fair replication when I went to Gunther Toody’s although the tin and the glass were smaller than I remember.

    Nobody is taught phone manners anymore but, being older now, it’s nice when someone calls to check up on you. There’s one young gent from India who always calls me. He’s very worried about my health and safety and is always asking about my car’s warranty.

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    • Herb, if I’m not mistaken, I think you Iive in Wisconsin as do I. I’m surprised you can’t get a malt, as they are no problem here in Milwaukee (see my entry above, 5 minutes from me), and I don’t think I’ve ever had a problem getting a “metal mixing cup” malt (with extra malt please), in any town between here and Madison! Even my “standard” today, the Mini-Chocolate-Malt-With-Extra-Malt (because my doctor won’t let me have a whole one any more); available at LeDucs in Wales at the intersection of Highway 18 and 83, and Leons, on Milwaukees south side. Tough to find the “minis” but much appreciated for the dietary needs of the “oldsters”.

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      • Andy, if you ever find yourself in tiny Sharon down by the state line you need to stop at the Ice Cream Shoppe. You can get a malt made any way you want right down to whether you want the ice cream to be hard pack or soft serve. But I don’t think they use the metal cups because it’s a carryout operation.

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      • Brad, I’m familiar with Sharon, but haven’t been there in a while. I’m familiar with the area because Walworth was the home nationally known, semi-famous journalist and journalism commentator Jim Romenesko, an acquaintance I’ve crossed paths with over the years. More Wisconsin royalty! Speaking of Ice Cream, shakes and malts; I have it on good authority that Romenesko worked at the locally famous independent Walworth Drive-In, the Dari Ripple, while he was in high-school!

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      • Hi Andy, I was born in Milwaukee and when I was about 11 years old we moved up to Shawano and I lived there until I was 27 when I joined the Army and wound up in Colorado.

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    • Yes! I get regular calls from nice people who want to make sure I’m getting full use of my food allotment under Medicare!!

      I never developed a taste for malts, which is a good thing given how hard they are to find these days.

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      • Oh, yeah, I get the Medicare calls, too. And half the time, you don’t even get a live person to mock. When I do get a live person the conversations don’t last long. “Do you have Medicare parts A and B?” “What? no, the last guy that called about 5 minutes ago sold me part Q.” *click*

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  13. Once again, a great column today.

    Here’s something I miss, not a ‘thing’ but a community concept. For reference, I just turned 67 years old; born in 1959.

    When we were kids, as has been noted elsewhere, during summers we were free to leave the house in the morning, have lunch or not have lunch at a friend’s house, and as long as we were home before the street lights came on, all was well. But… Any adult had the authority to discipline us if we were to get ‘out of hand’. Destroying property, trespassing or generally just being a nuisance. By discipline I do not mean any physical actions. We accepted it and if lucky, the offended party did not inform our parents. If they did, there definitely was hell to pay once we returned home, sometimes being marched to the other party’s house and issuing a formal apology. As a result, the great majority of kids I grew up with turned out to be upstanding members of their respective communities.

    Today, if one so much as scowls at someone else’s kid, it can result in legal actions. As a result, it seems todays’ kids lack social graces and restraint. or just generally how to behave in public.

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    • I am right there with you in both age and background. Also, everyone in the neighborhood knew who you were (or at least where you lived), so kind of a prehistoric localized version of the Flock cameras everyone is so upset about.

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      • I can say, when I was growing up in Chicago in the 50’s and 60’s, your parish priests walked around in the evening as a deterrent to kids running off the rails, and it worked!

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  14. When I was a kid in the 70’s, my great-great aunt (grandmother’s aunt) owned Shield’s Date Gardens in Indio, CA. We went there every year for the week between Christmas and New Year’s. It’s some of the best memories of my childhood. They served date milkshakes and date ice cream cones, and we could walk up to the counter and order one like we owned the place, no charge. Of course they used those big metal cups but served the actual milkshake in a glass cup (like a very tall sundae cup) rather than plastic. The instant I saw the photo at the top, it was the first memory that came flooding back.

    My dear old aunt died around 1980 in her mid 90’s, and I’d give almost anything to step back in time and have her walk us down for one of those shakes again. The date gardens and store are still there and have changed hands at least 3 times in the interim years. I took my wife there about 5 years ago, and luckily enough, a few things haven’t changed. I had one of those date milkshakes, and it tasted very similar to what I remember as a kid. My only real regret was that her house on the hill above the gardens (built in the early 50’s and close to a mansion in its time) had been torn down to create a wedding venue. It almost made an old guy cry, and I couldn’t believe how hard that hit me.

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    • I had a similar experience when I tried to find a house my grandparents had owned in the 60s and 70s. It was gone, replaced by something far larger.

      That date milkshake sounds fascinating!

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  15. Lil’ Jon’s, a couple miles from my house, still served milkshakes in a huge metal cup when I last ordered one a couple years ago. They also give you a glass in case you want to use one or share it. I used to order a small salad and their blackberry shake and call it a big meal but then everyone always wanted to share my shake!

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  16. Wonderful reflections, which I totally relate to since we are in the same stage of life. A month or so ago I needed help from a business, and after the standard recorded greeting I was routed directly to a human (!)… without even having to choose an option (!). That experience stands out because I usually “zero out” for a live person after a minute or two of frustrating automated misdirection. The milkshakes you describe can still be had at our local ice cream shop, thank goodness (although they don’t give you the metal canister along with the cup). Always thought the metal canister kept the shake colder longer. Forgot all about Taco Bell (or any Mexican fast food) spicy salsa packets. I lean towards spicy so like you they are missed. Finally, you’re spot-on about old people in today’s world. We went out with another couple last night, and all four of us had parents who served in WWII or later, and suffered through challenging times like the Great Depression. Today’s hurdles of life just seem lower by comparison. Old people wear gym/tennis/sneaker shoes now, which is understandable for comfort if not for senior style. I was treated by a doctor last week who I’d swear was half my age. The trust factor just wasn’t there, until a neighbor happened to mention going to the same doctor by saying, “Oh, he’s wonderful!”. Thank goodness for validation from a generational peer!

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    • Thanks for these worthwhile additions to the conversation! I just lost a great younger doctor to a concierge/retainer practice. My new one is about my age, which has me in fear about his eventual retirement, that will probably be sooner than I might like.

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  17. This brings back memories. I miss the milk shakes made by the ice cream stand/hamburger joint named the Treat in my hometown (Shippensburg). It was popular with the high school crowd, and even employed many of my classmates on a part-time basis. Those milk shakes were made with ice cream and milk, and then mixed in an actual, old-fashioned mixer. Sadly, the place was sold in the 1990s, and the new owners changed the menu.

    When I was really young, my mother would do a lot of her shopping in nearby Chambersburg, which featured an old-fashioned department store named J.J. Newberrys on the square. A prominent part of the store was a food counter where one could order sandwiches (including hamburgers and hot dogs) and milk shakes made the old-fashioned way.

    My mother would regularly buy us a milk shake at Newberrys. Sadly, the store was gone by the mid-1980s – a victim of a brand-new local mall and chain discount stores. And now that mall is virtually abandoned, as it has fallen victim to Amazon and “shopping” via the internet.

    I remember cheap used cars, but I also remember that those cars were relatively easy to fix. If one bought a car with over 80,000 miles on the odometer in the late 1970s, one or two problems were expected (granted, it didn’t help that many of those cars were pony cars and old muscle cars that had seen a fair amount of abuse). But plenty of young men knew how to fix those cars to keep them running.

    Not only are today’s vehicles more expensive, but fixing problems is much harder without all sorts of diagnostic tools and specialized equipment.

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    • Another thing about the cheap used cars of old was that the basic components were usually quite durable. I don’t recall any US cars from the 60s and 70s with inherently weak or brittle engines or transmissions, with the exception of the Vega. Now they are everywhere. You used to be able to count on some old lady’s Buick with a 3.8 V6 and the 4 speed automatic. But now it seems like every modern engine or transmission in a U.S. car comes with a laundry list of issues that will bite you if you are not lucky.

      I miss lunch counters in stores. The last place I remember those milkshakes was in a place that had to vacate a drugstore lunch counter when the store was bought by a chain and remodeled. The old guy who had run it forever opened a small breakfast and lunch place a few doors down the building and ran it for several years more, until he finally aged out and retired.

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