by Darrin Vindiola
Fleeting thoughts of the way things used to be, has got me thinking about things I miss seeing. Here are just a handful of those things..
Phone Booths
What an invention! If you needed quick access to a phone and you weren't at home, you simply needed ten cents to make a phone call. The booth made for a quiet, private area to speak, and it even shielded you from the elements!
Shoe Repair shops
If you have a pair of shoes needing repair, finding someone to fix them for you has become a bit harder to do nowadays. My old man had several pairs of shoes when I was a kid that he would always get re-soled and re-heeled. Visiting the cobbler in addition to regular shoe shines, kept his shoes usable and good looking for decades! My how times have changed!
Drugstore cafe's and soda fountains
On more than one occasion, I enjoyed a freshly made soda, or food hot off the grill whilst my mother shopped in Walgreen's or Woolworth's drugstores. What's more.. the food was usually pretty good. Nothing could compare to a fresh patty melt or grilled cheese sandwich fresh off the grill from one of these places!
Fix-it shops
My folks recently threw away a thirty year old coffee maker because the burner fizzled out. They gave in and bought a fancy new coffee maker, because they could find no one who could.. or wanted to repair it. Over the years, they had the burner replaced on their old coffee maker twice. Once in the 70's, and again in the 80's. Now in 2010.. the fix-it shop that performed those repairs has been closed for years. When asked how she liked her new coffee maker, my mom simply replied.. "It doesn't make coffee nearly as good as our old one".
Drive-In movie theater's
I saw the movies ROCKY, JAWS, and GREASE all at the Drive-In. I can honestly say that they were all very memorable experiences before, during, and after the movies! While Drive-In's may not be extinct, they sure are far and few between. When I was a kid, it seemed like almost every town had a Drive-In. On a recent 3,000 mile road trip from Colorado to South Padre Island, I didn't see a single solitary Drive-In theater! Fortunately, existing Drive-In's in the United States seem to be cherished, and many of them are being refurbished and restored to their former glory.
Yes.. I miss seeing all of these things on a regular basis, but when I do encounter them, it's a moving experience that truly makes me long for simpler times.
