A reflection on what’s changed in the last fifty years, other than me…
COMMUNICATION
1. The NYC boroughs all use the 212 area code (and you don’t have to dial it)
2. Touch tone phones are a novelty
3. Phone numbers begin with letters—XX4, FA5
4. The telephone operator makes person-to-person long distance calls for you
5.“Let your fingers do the walking through the Yellow Pages”
6. Mail is delivered twice a day
7. Newspapers have evening editions
9. CBS, ABC, NBC, WOR (local), WNEW (local), WPIX (local), WNET (public TV)—and UHF, if you hold the antenna just right
10. There is only one phone company—Bell Telephone
SHOPPING
11. There is an actual milk man in the Bronx(“…Ask me about our buttermilk, sour cream, sweet cream, orange juice, skim milk, chocolate drink, butter, eggs, yogurt, margarine.— Your milkman, Bill”)
12. A full-size Snickers bar costs $.15 when I am in grammar school
13. A slice of pizza is $.25 and then skyrockets to $.35
14. I purchase cigarettes for my mother after Sunday Mass (2 packs of Virginia Slims Menthol for $1.00)
15. McDonald’s hamburger=$.25, and Ronald McDonald is slightly creepy
16. Gas is $.64 per gallon when I learn to drive
17. A subway ride costs $.20
18. Stamps are $.06
19. Frozen TV dinners
20. The two dollar bill
HISTORY
21. The Beatles break up is all over the news, though I’m not quite sure who they are
22. Martin Luther King, Jr. is assassinated, and my kindergarten class is brought to the hallway to listen to the radio
23. Robert F. Kennedy is assassinated, and my kindergarten graduation is almost cancelled because mothers are so distraught
24. “That‘s one small step for man one giant leap for mankind”
25. Watergate—listening to Nixon’s resignation speech while I shopped
26. Busing and integration
27. John Lennon’s murder
28. The Vietnam War ends
30. Bill Gates founds Microsoft
POP CULTURE
31. TV shows that are in color announce, “Brought to you in living color” at the beginning, since color TV is still a novelty
32. The Brady Bunch and Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood are first run shows, not reruns
33. My sister and I tune in to Laugh In and The Smothers Brothers, although we don’t understand either
34. Disco rules/sucks
35. The Burt Reynolds “nude” centerfold in Cosmo
36. There is only AM and FM radio
37. “Wouldn’t you like to be a Pepper, too?”
38. If you wanted to “download” music, you put your cassette player on “record” and wait for the song to come on the radio
39. “I’d like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony…”
40. The Sony Walkman 2 is cutting edge, as is the VCR
IT’S TRUE!
41. Cars have seat belts in the front only—maybe
42. Taxis have jump seats in the back
43. Our family doctor makes house calls
44. People smoke at the movies and on airplanes
46. The surgeon who operates on me in high school has a cigarette before our follow-up appointment
45. The dentist cleans your teeth himself, and you get a lollipop when he’s done
47. Rapidographs, waxers, Spraymount, T-sqaures… sigh
48. Sending out for type (to Haber, or to Photolettering if you want to get fancy)
49. Ronn Campisi buys a Mac SE for the design department at The Boston Globe and says, “I really think this is going to be the future”
50. Fred Woodward picks up the phone himself one evening in 1987 when I call to ask if he’d look at my portfolio
Illustrations by Ren-Julius Reyes