When Ice Was A Buck

Just yesterday I was in Wal Mart, doing the weekly town trip. I check my blood pressure and heart rate at the pharmacy department, make sure to visit the sale aisle, and see what's new in the camping/ outdoor department, lifting various items for weight.

I noticed a bag of ice now goes for $3.50. Where have I been?  Used to be a buck. I know it was, I remember that.

Then it occurred to me I sound like my mom, kinda getting old. And it further occurred to me why youngsters, you know who you are, aren't disturbed by this, or anything bothering the country now.
This is their reality. They don't remember when you could get a Baskin Robbins cone for a quarter. They don't remember when  you could find a pay phone nearly everywhere you went. Now we need cell phones cause you can't call home from the nearest pay phone. Aren't any.

And it occurred to me they won't remember when you couldn't find ultralight backpacking gear. Used to be you had to wait forever for a little cottage industry to fill an order, or buy some silnylon from a outfitters five states away and try to talk mom into sewing something for you.

Its good, all good. No wonder there is a measure of hope in our kids because this is their reality. Some of the older folks I talk to seem out of hope, expecting Armageddon at any time. Breathing down our necks. They remember the times when ice was a buck.

Media can work us over, hammering for a story. I'm guilty of much worry over the economic mess our country is in. Can we still afford to follow our path? Can we afford not to? Life is short. Think Amy Winehouse.

And too, I remember the huge Y2K thing  that was supposed to happen. All the computers going down, people were stocking up on dehydrated goods, toilet paper, not flying. I was working at a retirement center at the time. They asked me if I could be on standby, just in case. Like the ovens might go down? I said, sure, no problem. Just call me.
Last week they warned us about Carmegedon in California. Didn't happen.

Need to warn us about the real things. Like maybe too many politicians on the payroll. I say down size, down size them all. How many senators do we really need? I think one per state would be able to hold up  negotiations just as well as two.