I’ve been fortunate to live at both ends of the stick.

Today we now have new homes, new cars, washers, dryers, television in every room, cell phones and all kinds of conveniences. Wow!!! We have it all.

Let’s turn the clock back to yesterday. Some may recommend and others God has taken upstairs.

Once upon a time people would say, “Please and Thank you.”

Men and Women wore hats. People wore socks and shoes. Mom used a scrubbing board to clean clothes and then hung them on the clothes line to dry.

A man would give up his seat to let a lady sit if she was standing. Sunday was a day of rest. Some readers may recall the saying, “Come day, go day, God sends Sunday.”

Kids walked to school. I didn’t even know what a school bus was or looked like. We had roller skates to skate in the street and I got a bike when I was about 12 years old. It was fun climbing trees and catching lightening bugs and putting them in a jar. There were games called, “Hide and Seek” and “Kick the Can.” Drugstores had soda fountains in them and you could get an ice cream soda for a nickel and a double dip for a dime.

Mom would call you in for supper when it started to get dark outside.

We had radio programs in the evening. My favorites were Tom Mix, Captain Midnight and The Green Hornet and if you drank enough Ovaltine, you could get a secret decoder.

That was yesterday and the new people say, “You had nothing,” or “What did you have?”

My answer to the new guys is this. Yesterday we had happiness and we were United and strong enough to win World War II.

I have nothing against our young and new era and I wish them the best. But I have a message for all of my friends out there. “The new is not always the better or best.”

 – Thomas Francis Clark