In The Beginning

Many of the things we take for granted, I was around when they were first introduced. I thought about this after spending time with some kids who couldn't believe, at one time, you actually had to GET UP to change the tv channel.

• Videos/DVDs - The very first movie I rented was "Gone With The Wind." I remember driving home and looking at the little plastic box sitting next to me and not quite believing that I actually had a movie, let alone GWTW, in my possession.

My GWTW Story

I first saw GWTW when I was a junior in high school and my English teacher, Miss Puma (yes, Puma, like the cat), took the class to NY to see it at Radio City. Being shallow, immature 16 year olds, none of us really wanted to see it, especially when she told us it was so long, it actually had an intermission. (Anyone remember those?) We were just happy to be getting out of classes for the day. But, from the moment I heard Vivian Leigh utter the first words "Fiddle dee-dee", I was swept away to the Old South at the beginning of the Civil War. Thank you, Miss Puma, for introducing this film to me (and for getting us out of school for the day).

• Cable TV - I don't remember what movie it was, but when I heard my first "fuck" come from my tv, I was shocked. Not because I never said myself before, but I was just unprepared for it.
• Nail Salons - When I was a kid, the only people who got manicures were the wealthy. They would be located in upscale beauty parlors and spas (which was another place where only the "ladies who lunch" would get pampered, while their very important husbands made the money and screwed their secretaries, ala Mad Men). When I saw my first storefront dedicated exclusively to manis/pedis, open in my neighborhood, I thought "Yeah, right. That'll never last." Just proves that I don't know jack. (Actually I do, he's my brother. But you know what I mean).
• 8 Track Tapes = My GF, Peggy, was the first in my crowd to get one of these installed in her car. I have memories of all of us packed in her '67 Mustang, heading down the shore (we lived in North Jersey then), singing along to Neil Diamond and Carole King's "Tapestry" album which, btw, is one of the best albums ever recorded.
• Yogurt - Yes, yogurt. I'm sure yogurt had been around for 100's of years, but only weird, health food lunatics ate it. I think Dannon was the first to sell it's famous "fruit on the bottom" product in supermarkets, turning yogurt into the mainstream product it is today.