Long Distance Telephone Calls

      One of the many things which distinguishes my generation from the current one is the solemnity with which we used to bestow upon long distance telephone calls. If we received one at the house everyone was told to be quiet because "it's long distance!" The cost of the call was foremost in our minds. The fact sometimes the connection might be less than stellar was another good reason we had to listen carefully and everyone nearby had to be quiet as church mice.

 

 

 

 

     It similar to what a friend of mine from college days told me about his children. He is fascinated by stereo components, as we all were at one time. His ear for music demands that he have a high fidelity option in his life. His sons cannot conceive of why he wants this, as opposed to relying upon ear buds connected via wireless to their smartphones. I suppose if you've never heard music on the best equipment you just don't know what you're missing and simply accept the convenience which the smartphone offers.

 

     From my long experience working on and helping build the Internet one Cisco router at a time, I'm usually partial to the whole experience simply working! The times the traffic didn't flow as expected were always fraught with a bit of terror as to what the customers would think. Now that we have perfected the transmission of sound between two stations we expect sound so good you can hear a pin drop, from anywhere in the world. What's more, we have basically reduced the cost to nothing. Times have certainly changed, but  to tell the truth, I still am a little awestruck by a long distance call, and think to myself what it must be costing. Then I come to my senses and simply enjoy the convenience with we know to be so commonplace.

Nabisco Factory

      The factory in Fair Lawn opened in 1958, and the 110-foot building is the tallest structure in the borough. You couldn't drive by it without smelling the Oreos or whatever was in the ovens that day. Though recently I have driven by and haven't been able to smell anything. Likely this is due to the car fumes on route 208, but I could have sworn we used to be able to smell the factory anytime we went by it. Maybe the ovens have a better filter system. I always thought it was great advertising to let all the smells out so as to encourage consumption.

 

 

     Just like many things of this era, once we figure out a more cost-effective way of doing something we discard our old ways. This iconic building with its ability to provide a pleasing aroma for miles around is so unlike factories built in 1958 or before. or those built today with no aromas at all. Wouldn't it be so incongruous with modern day Capitalism if they had kept this factory where it was and had marketed themselves as being a company known for "polluting the air" with a sense of nostalgia as well as the ever popular confections? I realize there is no chance of the money counters who work at the Brazilian hedge fund which owns Mondelez of having a change of mind. Sadly, they will trot out the old line about share holder value being paramount and forget entirely about the community and customers they serve. My favorite response to people who believe share holder value is the prime objective of a corporation is to ask, "How many executives have ever been prosecuted for failure to enhance the share holder value of the company which employs them?" The answer is none, but go try and convince them of anything else!

A Place We Don't Want To Lose

      On those rare occasions someone writes me personally about the blog I always sit up and take notice. In my world I never know when someone will provide me with food for thought, or even better, with some fully fleshed out, professionally crafted articles.

     This morning a local MD encouraged me to "keep on writing and bringing us to a place we don't want to lose." This person couldn't have been more spot on. The world which I briefly describe in this blog, and which is fleeing from my memory faster than I might like, is precisely a place I don't want to ever forget. I may not write about all the difficult times but they are all part and parcel of the era.

     When I am drawn to describe today's world in comparison to the one I knew, there is always a part of me which marvels at the simplicity of the times I can recall. In comparison to our new world which I find increasingly more complicated. At times I find life above and beyond my capacity for understanding. When these moments overwhelm I simply recall how my grandfather, an Eye Doctor in Fulton, Missouri might have described it from his window on main Street. Just imagine: He got paid sometimes with chickens and wrote a weekly column for the local paper describing the comings and goings outside the confines of his office. Looking at today's events I believe he would have come down on the side of mask wearing, social distancing, and getting a vaccination. He had been through World War I and knew too well the horrors of a pandemic. He also raised a family during the Great Depression so I think it would have some insights to keep us calm on our current economic calamity. Lastly, he saw the better days when his sons had returned largely unscathed from World War II, became professionals, and settled down to raise families just as he had done.

     The world may well be beyond my capacity to comprehend, but this fact has troubled better people with more worthy minds than mine so I usually can calm myself down these days by recollecting this simple but true observation. No doubt it might be the prescription my grandfather followed during a period of history fraught with the same kind of perils we see today.

     The Kingdom of Callaway County, circa 1944.
 

Snow Day 2021 (Updated)

     I wrote this post before checking to see whether or not schools were closed. Good old Ridgewood closed them and gave every student enduring online schooling a break for a day.

   

 

 

     Just when I couldn't think of another thing which the Internet hasn't disrupted, we had a snow day. In the NYC area we ought to receive between 12 and 18 inches of snow. This was plenty good enough for a snow day when I was growing up but now with people working from home and schools online, there is no stopping to admire the flakes. I think we learned as much sometimes on a snow day as we did when we were sitting in classrooms. 

      It wasn't just sledding, snowball fights, and shoveling snow. Though those were the best parts. There was the waiting by the radio for your town's school system to announce they were closing. In our house it was always the radio, not the TV which we used as proof of no school for the day. I guess we could have walked next door and knocked on the door of Willard School and asked but they didn't have the drama of waiting by the radio. The TV wasn't fast enough and was playing to a much wider audience than the radio stations were.

      When the good news finally presented itself there was the rush to get dressed and go see who else in the neighborhood was up and active. Usually we cleared our sidewalks first then maybe some sledding on the hill at Willard. Depending on the type of snow there might be a snowball fight or a snow fort built. Lots of things to keep young minds active, just like being in school but with better choices.

     I realize the pandemic will likely be over by next winter and in-school instruction  will return. But I can't help but feel sad for the kids who have been robbed of a snow day. Who's to say they won't eliminate snow days entirely, now that at home schooling is possible on those days when the roads are made unusable by an arctic blast and a foot of snow.  That would certainly be a loss.