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MOUTHFULS OF NOSTALGIA
On many occasions, I am unable to recall what I had for dinner yesterday. I mark this short-term memory loss off to advancing age and interest in other topics of the day. While I am unable at times to recall yesterday’s dinner, I am often able to recall events and situations that took place more…
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IN DEFENSE OF BUTTONS
It is possible but unlikely that there are men and women around the world whose memory is so long that they can remember a time when the existence of zippers was completely unknown. Zippers today appear in a multiplicity of places. They are on our clothes as well as on some of our plastic bags…
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NOSTALGIA FOR CALVIN COOLIDGE, HERBERT HOOVER AND OTHER CONSERVATIVE ROCK STARS
In the latter half of the 1960s, AT&T decided that I could serve the corporation best by working in its Washington Office. At that time the company maintained a relatively small office in Washington headed by a full vice president who was assisted by two assistant vice presidents. There were about five department heads such…
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THEY DON’T MAKE YEARS LIKE THEY USED TO
I started out life as a youngster. Granted that was in prehistoric times when dinosaurs roamed the great state of Missouri. As a youngster, it seemed to me that the years that were given to us were sturdy and rugged and were intended to last for more than 100,000 miles. In those days, the months…
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FRIDAY’S FISH
Most of you over the years have come to know how I feel about religion. There is one aspect from long ago that you may not know. As is widely known, in smaller and smaller circles, it was my fate to grow up in the suburbs of St. Louis. This would have been in the…
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FLIES
This essay has to do with how men’s clothing is tailored. It does not have to do with the insects that buzz around our heads in the summer time nor does it have to do with fly balls as in the case of baseball. Primarily it has to do with the opening in the front…
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FANS
In earlier essays, there was a tribute to railings and to our bashful commodes, both of which bring joy and comfort to our lives. In that same spirit, I believe it is time to pay tribute to fans of all kinds. For the first twelve or thirteen years of my life, I was forced to…
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GRIM NEWS ABOUNDS
This is only the third day of June, 2009 but we have had enough bad news to last a lifetime. On Monday of this week, General Motors filed for bankruptcy. At about the same time, Air France lost one of its airbuses on a trip from Rio de Janeiro to Paris. Both of these events…
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CLAYTON 714-J
People with prodigious long-term memories may recognize the title of this piece as being a telephone number. That is indeed the case. It was a four party line associated with the town of Clayton, Missouri. In 1934 or 1935, my father was again employed after a layoff of six years, which was a function of…
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RADIATORS BOILING OVER
As I am dictating this essay, it is approaching the end of October. When I worked in the filling station business, the people who owned the filling stations ordinarily would set out to buy antifreeze at this time of year. As everyone will recall, the radiators on automobiles are almost always located near the front…