“Can it be that it was all so simple then, or has time rewritten every line? If we had the chance to do it all again tell me, would we, could we?”
These lyrics are from “The Way We Were,” a song that Barbra Streisand recorded in 1973. The song reflects on days gone by. It seems the longer we live, the more we tend to look back on experiences from our past. Some memories are nostalgic, while others are just plain fun.
Here are a few phrases that .we don’t hear anymore:
“Fill ‘er up” – This was the instruction that you gave to the gas station attendant who came out to pump your gas. Remember full service gas stations?
“Rewind that tape” – This could refer to audio or video tapes.
“Operator, I’d like the number for…..” – Sometimes called “Information” or later “Directory Assistance”, there was a live person that you could call to get telephone numbers. Imagine that!
“Penny candy” – This one is pretty self explanatory, but still amazing
“Put the bottles out on the porch” – Milk actually came in glass bottles and was delivered by the milkman
“Pay the paperboy” – The newspaper was delivered daily by a boy, usually someone in the neighborhood, who came by weekly to collect money for the newspapers he’d delivered.
“Can I borrow a dime for the pay phone?” – Do pay telephones still exist? If so, they cost more than a dime.
“Change the typewriter ribbon” – I learned to type on a manual typewriter that required inked fabric ribbons to deliver the characters to the paper. It also required manual carriage returns at the end of each line. Typing was a serious contact sport.
“Do you have any carbon paper?” – Carbon paper was coated on one side with a layer of a loosely bound dry ink or pigmented coating, that was used for making one or more copies simultaneous with the creation of an original document. If you made even one mistake on the original, you had to correct all of the copies, or just start over. Thank God for copy machines!
“Here comes the ice cream man!” – All of the children in the neighborhood were familiar with the playful melody that came from the truck filled with sweet, frozen treats. Life was simpler then….
“So it’s the laughter we will remember, whenever we remember the way we were.”
These are the ending lyrics from “The Way We Were.” Although we shouldn’t live in the past, those memories and experiences make up the fabric of who we are today. So from time to time it’s nice to look back and remember.
What are some of your favorite memories?
