Christmas is just about over for another year and it’s expected that most of us are already donning ourselves in anticipation for a Happy New Year. But not all.

There of those of us over 60 who are confused by the rapidly advancing tech oriented future, look fondly back to the past, to a simpler period – to when a keyboard was a piano, a memory was something you’d lose with age, an application was for employment, a virus was the flu, a program was a TV show, a web was a spider’s home, a cursor used profanity, a CD was a bank account, a hard drive was a long road trip, and a mouse pad was where mice lived.

We are the last group who had to learn such ever newer things for ourselves. And as we grew up, the country was exploding with growth and advancement, while we of a certain age continue struggling until the GI Bill gave us returning veterans the means to get an education, which spurred colleges to grow. VA loans fanned a housing boom, while pent up demands along with new installment payment plans put factories to work.

New highways would bring new jobs and mobility.

We vets joined civic clubs and became active in politics.

Meanwhile, the radio network expanded from three stations to thousands. And the lack of television in our early years meant for most of us that we had little real understanding of what the world was like.

At the same time, as we married and multiplied, there were no city playgrounds for kids and on Saturday afternoons, the movies gave us newsreels of the war, sandwiched in between westerns and cartoons.

Telephones were one to a house, often shared with party lines; it hung on the wall.

Computers were called calculators; they only performed addition at first and were hand cranked; meanwhile typewriters were driven by pounding fingers, throwing the carriage, and changing the ribbon (either all black or black and red).

The words “internet” and “GOOGLE” did not exist.

Newspapers and magazines at first were written only for adults, and the news was broadcast on our table radio in the evening by Gabriel Heatter.

In the 20s,there were prohibition, crimes and speakeasies, followed by the stock market crash and flag pole sitting (which began simply as a dare). And there were flappers who smoked, danced silly dance styles, wore short hair, less clothes, plenty of make-up, drank and eventually voted.

In the 30s, at first there were outrageous, oversized zoot suits and Betty Poop and dance marathons, until the market crash changed everything.

In the 40s, a slow financial return and “Kilroy was here.” People made money and moved to the suburbs. Drive-in theaters popped up everywhere, especially popular among whole families on weekends and dating couples anytime.

In the easy 50s, there were car hops, burger joints with cute girls in very short skirts serving on roller skates.

Black Jack chewing gum was popular, as were ant farms, DA haircuts for the cooler guys (called greasers). Girls wore poodle skirts and played with frisbees while guys started panty raids at the U of Michigan.

Hula hoops were popular in the United States, and, eventually in Russia, but never in Japan.

Elvis and James Dean were mimicked with black leather jackets, side burns, and more DA’s. Stuffing telephone booths became popular challenges on college campuses. Slinkies were everywhere.

As overseas manufacturing became popular, good prices (but inconsistent results in quality) became acceptable, and as we accepted less-than-perfect as the norm in everything the expression “being dumbed down” grew to acceptance in everything. There are no signs of reversal on the horizon yet.

The 70’s, 80’s and 90’s further defined us, as mothers went to work to add to the family coffers money, the “latchkey” kids took advantage of an empty house without parental guidance, took stock of themselves, and grew up guided by a new affluence that continues to exist today. No longer does a radio or television station ask, “It’s ten o’clock; do you know where your kids are?” Apparently, no one really cares.

And yet, time marches on into an unknown future, entirely based on our continued dependence on what money can buy to maintain our sense of the easy life. And while we of the elder age reminisce, we can’t help by wondering about the future, not just here at home, but the world we’re heading into. What’s happening with regard to climate change, to to intermixing of races, genders, etc. that will certainly one day affect all of us?

Only time will tell.