Happy New Year!!!!!!!!!!!

2010 -- Like a lot of folks, I never thought I'd live this long. 1939 was a long, long, time ago. Pre WWII. How many changes?

Pre TV, pre computers, pre-wide screen MOVIES, etc., etc., etc.

No cell phones, no long playing records, no CD's, no cellphones, no cheap long distance rates. Air travel still a luxury. No jets.

Childhood diseases still a scourge -- polio a major killer.

I had mumps, measles, whooping cough, various strains of flu -- there were no antibiotics, or, at least, none available.

A very, very different world. Refrigerators did not have real freezers -- there was usually a little space under the ice cube trays -- ice cream was something you had to go out for -- it was a real treat.

The very IDEA of "foodies" was unthinkable. Pizza was exotic Italian food -- and, a "Pizza Joint" usually was a joint.

We made great stuff. Lots of it. The WORLD wanted an American car. We had turned it from a rich man's plaything to a tool, a utilitarian implement, something that had to work, no matter the weather.

We were, and still are, a "work in progress".

Not that it matters what I think, but I like much of today better. I am upset by the loss of civil liberties, the invasive eyes, the all-seeing cameras.

At the same time, just having the internet, the ability to communicate across the world almost instantly, still amazes me.

All our new-fangled stuff takes some of the sting out of being old.