Do you Remember When?

This is for you mature adults here. Mature like old, ripe, and maybe rotten (too mature).
Take a trip with me back to the 1959's and 1960's when life was less complicated than now. TV was in its early beginnings, black and white, that is, color was just a dream. We had only gotten color movies just before World War II. There were no computers, and jet planes were still military planes. Bell Labs had just announced the transistor, which they claimed would replace the vacuum tubes in radios, and change the radio and television industries.
Remington Rand, I believe it was, had just announced the worlds first computing machine, UniVac, and claimed blinding speed calculating great quantities of numbers.
Hard drive meant heavy traffic and rough roads getting to grandmother's house on Sundays. If someone had mentioned software, you might have thought it was a frilly nightgown.
When we drove up to a service station, we bought gasoline for our car, but got lots more than that. The words "service station" meant that an attendant would come out, pump our gas, raise the hood and check the oil, and water (radiator fluid wasn't called coolant then. We put water in the radiator in the summer, and added anti-freeze in the winter. The attendant also checked the air pressure in our tires, and added more air to them if needed. He would also wash your windshield if it needed it. All of this and more for a 30¢ gallon of gas. Actually, no one bought just a gallon of gas unless it was for their speedboat, and the gas was usually mixed with oil because many boats used two-cycle engines. This was the era of big, high powered, fast, gas guzzling cars. Why not? Gas was cheap, and the supply unlimited.
Even though the end of WWII did not bring an end to conflicts, and the Korean war, things were a lot different in the '50's. We did not have to commit all our domestic production to the war effort. We were having our cake and eating it, too, and letting the good times roll. Our economy was booming, with no end in sight.
But the end did come. In the LBJ Administration, we began to see rising inflation, coupled with higher prices and increasing wages. This was not leveling out, as wages and prices kept spiraling upward. Then, in the 70's duri9ng the Nixon administration, all of a sudden we began hearing reports of a gas shortage. Yep, here it came bigtime. I won't bore you with the details of waiting in line for hours for 5 gallons of gas, and the price had increased to over 40¢ per gallon! President Nixon invoked a wage price freeze. I won't debate the pros and cons of this, but just say it didn't work for me.
With the Carter Administration, came another gas shortage, and an increase in price to 60¢ a gallon.
Since then, gas has been generally available, but with ever increasing prices. One thing however, did disappear. The Service Station. Yes, gone were the owner-operator neighborhood station. The oil companies had been quietly closing them down, and replacing them with gas stations and food marts. The old 7-11 food marts were among the forerunners of this. The pumps were still out front, but no smiling, pimply-faced youngster came out and asked, "fill 'er up, mister?" You drove up to the pump, got out of your car, and pumped your own gas. Even members of the fairer sex who once would never have dreamed of doing so, have learned how to use a gas pump. It has now narrowed down to two methods of paying for your gas; either you pay before you pump, or pay with a debit or credit card. If you're filling up and pay cash, you may have to make more than one trip inside because you have over or under estimated the amount of gas you need.
This is the classic case of pay more and get less. You got a real bonus if your full service station also had someone available that knew a little more than average about cars. If you drove in with a broken fan belt, or busted radiator hose, someone could repair or replace that for you. Fixing flat tires was routine. To get most of this kind of service done now, you will have to go to a garage, or maybe learn to do it yourself.
Over the years, cars have become more complicated, and it's sometimes difficult to locate even fan belts. I'm sure those who grew up with with these nightmarish machines have no more problems with them than many of us did with the simpler cars of the 50's and 60's.
In some ways, I miss these earlier times, but I still contend that "The Good Old Days" are right now.
Consider these things:
Who ever heard of a lifetime warranty on an automobile? Used to be 90 days, tops. Tires that would last 50,000 miles or longer? 6,000 miles or longer between oil changes? Coolant (anti-freeze) good for 5 years? Engines running over 200,000 miles with no major problems. Many vehicles to choose from that get 30 miles to a gallon of gas. Safety features unheard of such as shoulder harness, air bags, better crash resistance, anti-lock brakes. If we had a seat belt, chances are we installed it ourselves, and felt like we were ready for the race track. Bodies that don't rust out in two or three years. GPS equipment so we know where we are at all times, and CD stereo music that rivals home theater systems, and with changers that will provide several hours of continuous music. TV or DVD for rear seat passengers, most common in vans and SUV's.
One thing more and I'll quit.
If you read "the funnies" as I did, you will likely remember the comic strip, Dick Tracy. He was a police detective who had all kinds of neat things. The one I remember the best was his two-way wrist radio, a cumbersome looking box that he wore on his wrist which gave him communications with headquarters. Real Buck Rogers stuff! Now what do we have?
The bane of many drivers. The Cell Phone! Instant communications with nearly anyone around the globe that we carry in our shirt pocket. The bane of many drivers? Yes, the person using his phone in high speed traffic and not concentrating on his driving. Some states are attempting to address this problem, and are requiring either hands free equipment, a speaker phone, or banning cell phone calls while driving altogether. Kind of interesting, but there is a need for some uniformity throughout the country, or the knowledge of what different states require.
Ok, take and read this, and reply if you are so inclined, or ignore it, whatever you wish to do, but have a go0od day, and may your next gas purchase be at a discounted price.