THE WAY IT WAS…
...How Time Changes Everything
by Al Eicher

When you are nearing 75 years of age, it is easy to reflect on the times and events of years’ past. For those of you early morning people who frequent a local restaurant or coffee shop to meet with the guys or gals, the conversation could be any topic under the sun. Everything from local and pro sports, hunting stories, who died, someone hit a deer and did you see that television show? If the coffee group is over 50, the conversation can easily drift into “do you remember.” So let me jog your memories of the good old days and compare them to how times have changed. Many of you know I grew up in Pigeon. No one in our town in the 1940s locked the doors to their house. Everyone had a skeleton key for their door, which also fit the locks of other people’s doors. In 1950, someone broke into the gas station and stole some money. Soon the hardware store was selling many locksets with a tumbler and a key to match.

Today, depending on where you live, some will have to lock their front door and back door when they mow their lawn. Living in Bloomfield Hills, I never had a lock on my garage door, which was about 16 feet wide. It was manually operated and no handles on the outside. One fall night I left it open and the next morning I noticed tire marks on the frosted grass leading to the road, 300 feet from the garage. Someone had stolen my 10-horse, 48-inch cut, lawn tractor. How do you haul away a big piece of machinery like that? This happened several years ago when drugs were becoming an issue.

Reflecting back on my early school days, I remember getting a hug from Miss Brodiem my first grade teacher. My baseball coach in high school put his arm on my shoulder and said, “Go out there and pitch a good game.” Not long ago, I talked with a male elementary principal who told me he used to greet the kids in the morning when they came into school from the bus. He said, “I knew them all and some I would give a hug.” Today, I don’t hug a boy or girl and I know some of them need that hug.” Events over time bring about change.

For 25 years, we never locked our church. I was property chairmen of the church in August of 1978 and a young man of 28, walked into the sanctuary early one morning and lit road flares and inserted them under carpeting and piled choir robes on top. Within five weeks he burned two other churches and two YMCA’s before he was caught. A warped mind due to drugs! We learned the hard way and locked the church and also added an alarm system.

I am sure many of you will remember the “Hot Lunch Programs” at school. In the ninth grade, Mrs. Foster and Mrs. Shaffer cooked the greatest lunches ever. For 12 cents we could eat mashed potatoes and gravy with sometimes, meat loaf, chicken or roast beef, applesauce and a half pint of milk. Oranges and an apple were usually available. I am sure state or federal funding was available for this program.

This year my granddaughters told me of kids in the middle school and high school stealing shoes, laptops, cell phones, coats and credit cards from their classmates. I don’t remember “kids stealing from kids” in school. We didn’t have laptops, credit cards and cell phones. I was curious as to how someone steals your shoes. Kristen said, “When we go out for sports, we change shoes and clothes in the gym locker room to play volleyball or tennis and this is where it happens.” What has happened with honesty and respect?

Do you remember going to the doctor’s office to get your annual physical to play high school sports. We never made an appointment with the doctor, the coach just said, you need to get checked out and just go to the doctor’s office and have him sign the form. I remember, he checked my heart rate, looked in my ears, and gazed into my eyes and asked if I could keep up with the others? We boys had the normal hernia check and went on our way. My teenage grandchildren play sports. Today the doctor and clinic fees including blood work, urine sample and a shot can reach $500 for that single child visit.

My sister-in-law checked into the emergency service at the hospital when her pacemaker batteries were failing. The two-day stay in the hospital for emergency room plus surgeon and doctor fees was $50,004. No wonder health insurance is so high!

Have you driven by people’s houses on trash day to see what things are at the curb? It is now normal to see television sets, computer towers and screens, cooking ranges, refrigerators, ink jet printers, washing machines, etc. My guess is they cost too much to repair, or we just want the newest model. I am sure you remember the radio and TV repair shops. Today, they don’t exist. When a radio, DVD player or TV set breaks, we throw them away and buy the digital model hoping it will last a few years. We are now a throw-away society, caught up in having the newest gadgets!

We will never again see 16 to 19-cent gasoline per gallon or a double dip ice cream cone for 10 cents. In Pigeon, at the Gem Theater in 1950 an adult movie theater ticket was 35 cents. Where I live, the movie theater ticket is $10, and sometimes the matinee is $5. What happened to all the Drive-In Theaters?

Last October, I went to an MSU football game in Lansing. It was a little chilly so we wore extra warm coats and carried a blanket to the stadium. No beverage containers or thermos bottles were allowed in the stadium. I wanted to take my new HD television camera…no cameras allowed. Going through the ticket gate we were checked. You would think the president of the USA was at the game.

I was in Russia, at the Kremlin Red Square and walked up to within 100 feet of President Putin’s house. Try that in Washington to get near the White House! There were no inspections in the Russian subways, at the Moscow Circus or the Russian Space Training Center, including their museums. We did have inspections at the airport. Last year in Germany, Austria and Holland there were no inspections in the subways or at public events, again only at the airports.

Here in America, the events on September 11th have changed our way of life. Also, we are in the second year of a deep recession and for some, a depression! Failure of many banks, Wall Street brokerages and mortgage lending institutions have given us feelings of unrest. We want to believe that “the good old American spirit” and our competitive nature will pull us through these difficult times. I hope and pray that is again true! Remember, we are one nation, indivisible with liberty and justice for all…I hope that never changes. And what about “In God We Trust?” It is still printed on our nickels, dimes, quarters and paper money…Will that change?…I hope not! And that’s the way it is in January 2010.

Al and Dave Eicher provide television production services to corporations, ad agencies and nonprofit organizations.  They also create Michigan town histories and offer lecture services on a variety of Michigan History Events. You may contact them at  248-333-2010;  E-mail: info@program-source.com; Web site:  www.program-source.com.