Then and Now – Communicating with Family and Friends

As I was growing up, letter writing was the primary way people communicated long distance. Telephone calls were still comparatively expensive – primarily for emergency type communication. Letter writing was something we learned in school and I had at least one long distance friend to hone my skills….and I wrote to my parents when I was away (at camp, for example). Postcards were less expensive that letters, but I usually wrote letters.

For local type communication, the telephone was the main path. Most of our phones had rotary dials although the push button phones began to take over during the 60s; they were all ‘land lines,’ of course. There was only one phone in our house for most of my growing up years, so there was no privacy for conversations; that became troublesome during my teens.

These days we no longer have a land line. Almost all people (except young children) have their own cell phone. The devices are still phones…but there is a lot of communication via text (and occasionally email) using the same device. I have stopped sending letters and cards entirely.  Some of the multi-person type communication (like my neighborhood or my high school class) is done through social media groups rather than mailed newsletters.

There are times I wonder if non-profits have kept up with these shifts…there are a few that still send note cards as an incentive to contribute. I have been putting them in a donate pile…but maybe they should go in recycle instead.

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Then and Now – Photography

Photography has changed a lot between the 1960s and now.

My mother was the photographer in my family and, as we got old enough, she allowed us to use her camera. It was an Instamatic that had a flash cube option. Film was expensive enough that we were careful to make the most of each shot. I remember sending off the rolls of film to be developed…another expense. She had taken pictures of us as babies earlier (in the 1950s) – with a camera I don’t remember – and the images were all black and white. By the mid-1960s, there are more family images in color. She often wrote on the back of the pictures: date, names of people, location.

Cameras that produced digital images became broadly available in the 1990s and now a lot of images are produced with our Smartphones. The two ‘cameras’ I used now are a Canon Powershot SX70 HS and an iPhone 15 Pro Max. The Canon is best for instances where I need the optical zoom capability (for bird and butterfly photography, for example) and I find that I can hold it steadier than the phone (i.e. the form of the camera is easier to ‘hand hold’ than the phone) The iPhone is best for macro photography. The iPhone also has the advantage of being with me almost all the time.

There are many advanced functions on both cameras. The only one I find that I use is the ‘night scene’ one that stacks low light images into a single image. Both of my cameras have the function…and it works well.

Digital cameras allow easy review of pictures immediately which shortens the photographic learning curve – no waiting until the film is developed to see if the image captured was as anticipated. I love to experiment with different settings to create high key images…and reduce the ‘burn out’ in part of the image on sunny days.

There are a lot of ways to edit pictures now – both in the ‘camera’ and post processing. I choose not to use any of them except cropping. It makes me uncomfortable to change an image to something the camera did not ‘see’ --- and it’s not something I want to spend time doing. I challenge myself to get the image I want with the camera I have! With the optics and image stabilization that cameras have today that is not as hard as it was in the 1960s.

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Then and Now - Ironing

Back in the 1960s, ironing was a skill my mother taught us. Many of our clothes needed to be ironed because they were made of natural fabrics like cotton. We sprinkled clothes in bags and then ironed them after the moisture was fully absorbed; the clothes were damp but not wet. The irons did not have a water reservoir to make them into ‘steam’ irons. Even if they did, the amount of ironing was enough that the steam would not have lasted for the whole time. My father bought a mangle iron for the laundry room in our newly built house in 1963 which my mother used for flat items like napkins and table clothes…disappointed that it was not easily used for clothes.  

I particularly remember ironing two gingham shorts/top sets during a summer in the mid-60s. I eventually got pretty good at getting all the wrinkles smoothed away.

By the later 1960s, the amount of ironing had dropped dramatically with most clothes being permanent press cotton or synthetic fabric.

Now the only things I iron are cotton bandanas! I iron them straight from the washer – which spins so much water out that they are dry by the time I iron them. I use a new-looking iron that I found when my sisters and I were cleaning out my parents’ house and an ironing board that I got when I married over 50 years ago (the cover has been replaced once).

Ironing is one of those historical life-skills that might not be important now!

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Then and Now – Cars and Driving

The first car I remember well was in the 1960s – a small red Ford my father bought for my mother. It did not have air conditioning…or seat belts (it was before they became standard equipment in the later 1960s). The windows were opened/closed manually with a handle. There were no car seats for children either although my mother generally put my sisters and I in the back seat. I was the oldest so sometimes road in the front seat. It did have power steering and brakes…probably because my mother was not very good driving with a manual transmission. The car was the second for our household and was parked at the curb since my father’s car was parked in the one-car garage.

My father’s car did have air conditioning and was larger. He started buying new cars (Oldsmobile or Buick were his preferred make) almost every year in by 1963; my mother got to drive his older car and they traded in her car. Those cars had windows that opened and closed with a button. I remember the first car my father owned that had seatbelts because he had a serious accident in it; a truck sideswiped the car on the driver’s side and he always claimed that he would not have survived if he’d been wearing a seatbelt since he was pushed to the passenger side during the accident. It took several years before he started wearing seat belts consistently and even more years before he took his keys/locked his car when he parked it. I also remember my father’s first car that has radial tires in the late 1960s; the road noise was noticeably different.

Most of our road trips were to visit family members. My mother drove my sisters and I to visit her parents (aunt, uncles, cousins) at least once every summer. The trek was between Wichita Falls TX and Beggs OK and was a lot of 2 lane roads…often very curvy. We took food and drink with us…stopped at gasoline stations for the bathrooms (which were usually in bad shape). My mother was not a great driver…but she knew her limitations and never had an accident. She shared that when she first learned to drive, she tended to look at the front of the car when she was driving; my dad noticed shortly after they married and coached her to look further out – to become a more defensive driver.

I learned to drive in the two cars my parents were driving at the time (a large Oldsmobile and Buick) later in the 1960s. My driver’s ed class emphasized wearing seat belts and I convinced my whole family we needed to ‘buckle up’ consistently.  Both of my parents encouraged me to drive whenever I was in the car with them as soon as I got my learner’s permit; I got my driver’s license on my 16th birthday and became the designated driver for my younger sisters and my parents when I was available. I didn’t have my own car until after the 1960s.

Now – the car I drive is smaller – a plug-in hybrid (2017 Prius Prime). The air conditioning and heating has a thermostat rather than the 1960s switch controls. Perhaps the equivalent of the big Buicks and Oldsmobiles of the 1960s are the SUVs that are very popular now. The cruise control is adaptive. Many of the controls are digital rather than switches. The navigation system is a big improvement over a collection of paper maps or a road atlas kept in the car at all times. There are handy places to put drinks that were absent in the 1960s cars. My car has a hatch opening in the back rather than the enclosed trunk of the big 1960s cars; SUVs also have an opening in the back that connects to the interior of the car. The seatbelts (one unit lap and cross body) are more comfortable than the clunky lap belts and then clucky two-piece lap/shoulder belts of the 1960s. The bucket seats in front have more adjustments than the bench seats of the 1960s and the material covers are more durable. Cars frequently last for 100,000 miles or more now; that was very unusual in the 1960s.

Cars have improved a lot since the 1960s – in both function and durability - and driving is easier because of those improvements and the highway system that has matured (although it often needs maintenance). My frequent road trips would certainly be more challenging/less enjoyable in a 1960s car and on 1960s style roads!

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Then and Now – Strategies for Reducing Food Costs

Many of the strategies for minimizing food costs my mother applied in the 1960s are still applicable today. The goal is to get the best nutritional value for your expenditure….and waste nothing.

• Minimize out-to-eat meals. It always costs more to eat in a restaurant – even a fast-food place. In the 1960s there were not as many options as we have now; takeout and delivery of prepared food was not as common. My mother made our hamburgers at home; I didn’t have a ‘fast food’ version until I was a teenager. I remember getting grilled cheese sandwiches and a cherry limeade at the drug store…but not frequently. We took picnics when we made road trips to see our grandparents. I eat out more now than I did for most of my growing up years…although not as much as I did during my career. One way to reduce the bill at a restaurant it to drink water with your meal. Another is to eat half your meal…have the rest for another meal (i.e. spread the cost to 2 meals rather than 1). I try to avoid the poor nutrition options that seem dominate many fast-food chain menus.

• Plan meals in advance. My mother wrote out her menus for a week or two at a time; I remember them on legal sized paper posted on the refrigerator. I don’t write menus now, but I do know what I have ingredients to make. I usually give my husband a choice for our big meal of the day each morning since he is harder to please than I am.  The focus is on nutrition – enough protein and other nutrients – and avoiding high sugar/fat, ultra-processed foods.

• Have ‘backup’ meals in the pantry or freezer. My mother always had a well-stocked panty – canned goods (soups, vegetables, fruits, and meats (chicken, tuna, salmon)), nuts, potatoes, onions, peanut butter, bread. These days we eat fewer canned vegetables/fruits – skew toward frozen versions which I can buy in larger packages than fresh since they will last long enough for us to eat the whole package. My mother bought larger packages of raw meat and froze the part that she wasn’t using immediately. I still do that.

• Scrutinize protein sources and amount. Meats are an expensive item. My mother was a fan of eggs as a protein source; eggs are easy to prepare and they are the least expensive source of protein that we all liked – and not just for breakfast; she didn’t serve them daily…but it was close. I don’t eat eggs as often now (and I have added frittatas and quiche to the way I prepare them), but they are still a relatively low cost source of protein. We generally only have meat once a day and utilize other lower cost sources to add up our daily protein requirement for example, peanut butter, milk, eggs, mushrooms, beans, nuts, bread (not the ultra-processed variety), protein drink/powder.

• Go to the grocery store with a list…and only buy what is on the list. You want to buy what you need when you shop, avoid another trip to the store for something that was forgotten. In addition to the expense, the spur-of-the-moment purchases are often not healthy choices. It was a special occasion when my mother bought chips or popsicles or oreos or soft drinks or chocolate bars….and I shop the same way now. The strategy is to avoid all ultra-processed foods most of the time.  They may seem inexpensive…but they often have no nutritional value; from your body’s standpoint they are a hinderance rather than a benefit.

• Leftovers. My mother always used leftovers (i.e. no food waste); they were usually small amounts so we would have a ‘cafeteria day’ and clean out the refrigerator. Sometimes she would combine or add new ingredients to achieve the nutritional value needed for a meal. We do the same now. Nothing goes bad in our refrigerator!

There is a new way I reduce my grocery bill now that didn’t exist in the 1960s: I shop for myself…don’t pay extra for someone else to do shopping or deliver it. I did during the height of COVID-19, but that was a special situation.

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Then and Now – Pattern of Days

During my growing up years in the 1960s, my days were largely determined by school – at least during the school year. Now, there is nothing equivalent to that structure. The lack of externally caused structure now is somewhat like the summer days when school was not in session - when I had more self-determination of how I would spend my time.

I have always been a morning person although I get up earlier now  than I did in the 1960s (5ish rather than 6ish). By the mid-60s I chose to shower in the morning rather than take a bath at night. I was the one that got the paper from the front porch and read the parts I wanted before anyone else. My family had breakfast together and it was never the same two days in a row. These days I still shower in the morning and browse through news feeds in my office on two screens while I have a light ‘1st breakfast’ – something with caffeine and some supplements. By 8ish I am ready for something more substantial. Right now, peanut butter on toast is the dominant ‘2nd breakfast.’

I spend the morning in my office now and there is quite a similarity to things I did in the 1960s – reading and writing and art and science and PE. The difference now is I control how much time I spend walking (PE), native plant gardening (science), Zentangle tiles (art), or volunteering…and how much a computer or a phone is part of almost every activity now. At least once a week, I mow my yard during the growing season (battery powered); there is no corollary to that in the 1960s although I remember a few times that I helped use the riding lawn mower (gas powered) to mow my parents’ yard. Another day, I shop for groceries; I always had list just as my mother did (even though mine is electronic and hers was on a piece of paper) and am generally more successful than she was at only going to the store once a week!

Lunch is the largest meal of the day for me now and it is about 1 PM; I plan the menus and do most of the cooking while my husband cleans up afterward. We often watch news or a series on television while we eat sitting in comfy chairs. In the 1960s I either ate in the school cafeteria or took a lunch from home during the school year; lunchtime happened between 11:30 to 12:30 depending on the schedule for the school. In the summer, the schedule was roughly the same at home; often we helped prepare part of the meal with my mother….and had part of the cleanup job too. We ate at a table at school and at home.

After lunch, is more of the same….both in the 1960s and now. Overall – I determine more what I do than in the 1960s. I sign up for classes I am interested in rather than keep to a curriculum like I did in the public schools of the 1960s. Some of my classes cost something rather than being free but I often benefit from discounts because of my age.

In the 1960s, the evening meal was between 5:30 and 6 PM and was the same or larger than the mid-day meal. In general, homework was completed before that. My mother limited our television viewing to an hour a day or less. The evening was family time. Now –  our evening meals are always lighter than our lunches – a smoothie being my preference for summertime evenings; it is the time of day when family phone conversations usually happen.

The pattern of days is the baseline, but a lot happens that is outside the routine of the pattern. Some are similar between the 1960s and now: road trips to visit family, seasonal events like Christmas lights, local events like fairs and festivals, and out-of-town family members visiting us. I thought I was busy in the 1960s, but when I look at what I get done now, it seems that I accomplish more!

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Then and Now - Progression in Health Issues

There are lots of changes in my perception of health between the 1960s and today.

Allergies. Hay fever sneezes were a big part of my life during the growing season in Wichita Falls. TX in the 1960s. I remember learning to swallow pills as a young teenager so I could take over-the-counter medication! Now I almost never need to take anything for allergies. Perhaps better air filtration indoors overcomes the pollen and mold I experience outdoors….and maybe the areas I frequent now are not a challenging for people with hay fever tendencies.

Gastro-intestinal bugs. I remember having short duration ‘stomach flu’ in the 1960s. My mother gave us chipped ice, fizzy liquids or apple juice until we could graduate to saltine crackers and slowly back to other food. It never lasted very long. Strangely enough – I don’t remember any recent instances!

Blisters. I remember getting blisters from my shoes as I was growing up. It was probably because my heals were too narrow for most of my shoes…so the shoe tended to move around somewhat independent of the foot and rubbed when it did. I had a pair of sandals in the late 1960s that rubbed a blister on my big toe that was sustained enough (because I continued to wear the shoes) to create a scar. I guess I learned to buy and/or wear my shoes more effectively because I haven’t had a blister in a very long time.

Sunburns. Sunscreen was not available in the 1960s although I do remember thick white zinc oxide that lifeguards at the pool used on their noses. In general, people talked more of building up a tan early in summer to avoid burns later. Now – of course – sunscreen is very big deal for me…and wearing hats and sun-block shirts.

Cuts and scrapes. I had my share of skinned knees and minor cuts growing up…nothing bad enough to require stitches or an extra Tetanus shot. Some of them produced scars that have faded over time. These days I am more likely to get a paper cut than anything else although I am consciously eliminating as many fall hazards around my house as I can. My last scraped knees happened almost 10 years ago when I tripped over a chunk of asphalt at a star observing gathering in Hawaii (in the dark…the chunk of asphalt did not show up at all) and those scars are relatively new and very white. The response is very similar between the 1960s and now: clean the wound (soap and water), stop the bleeding with pressure, antibiotic ointment, bandage if oozing (otherwise give it air).

Foot/leg cramps. My feet have always been prone to cramps. In the 1960s, the cramps were most frequently arch related but sometimes involved the toes as well. In retrospect, they might have been mostly caused by dehydration. The same happens occasionally now but less frequently in my feet/toes more…in my ankles and calves. If I pay attention to my hydration before bedtime…they usually don’t occur!

Exercise. I remember tennis and softball and playgrounds in the 1960s; we walked to elementary school; hiking was one of the activities with Camp Fire Girls. I didn’t consider myself athletic and I still don’t, but I am more conscious of getting a baseline of ‘steps’ every day and sometimes longer walks as well. Mowing the yard and doing other gardening also counts as exercise for me now. In my current stage of life, exercise is one of the pillars to sustain mobility and health.

Coordination. I was growing fast in the 1960s, struggling to improve my coordination enough to dance or swim, play a musical instrument, or perform the tasks of living. Coordination now involves the challenges of intermittent aches in my back and joints…I move differently to keep from hurting! So far, I haven’t curtailed any activities, but I can envision a time…hopefully years in the future…when that could happen.

There is a contrast between growing up years and the being 70ish – but I also realize that it is not as substantial for me as it is for others. I have been fortunate.

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Then and Now – Vaccinations

When I was growing up in the 1960s, there were a lot fewer vaccinations…but I remember my mother was keen for my sisters and I to get all the ones that were available: Diphtheria – Pertussis – Tetanus (DPT) and smallpox, and then polio when it rolled out in the mid-1960s (I remember lining up at the elementary school to get the sugar cube). My father had almost died as a very young child and my mother always thought, based on his mother’s description, that the cause was probably whooping cough (pertussis) which was before the vaccine was widely available. The ‘childhood diseases’ (measles, chicken pox and mumps) required another strategy for mothers of that era: expose their children to those diseases to develop immunity to them by being sick with the disease. It was a risk but, in many cases, not as great a risk as having the diseases as an adult. I can remember being very sick with rubeola --- missing a few weeks of kindergarten. One of my sisters had a memorable case of mumps with a lot of neck swelling – but I didn’t have any symptoms at all which worried my mother because she had no way of knowing if I had developed immunity or not; years later in the 1980s, I got tested for mumps immunity during a pre-pregnancy appointment and evidently I had immunity (so no need to get a vaccination that did exist by that time).

In the 1960s at least 2 of my grandparents had pneumonia and were hospitalized. Would the vaccine we have today made it less severe or prevented it? There was a lot less antibiotic resistance in the 1960s so perhaps antibiotics were more reliable to helped them recover.

Now there are new forms of the old vaccines (except for smallpox which is no longer a circulating disease as it was in the 1960s) and new ones too. A lot of the childhood diseases are easily prevented. There are vaccines that are honed for older people too – applicable to my life stage: flu, shingles, pneumonia, RSV and COVID. I appreciate these developments since I am concerned about antibiotic and antiviral resistance; I prefer to stay well --- reduce the times I need treatment for an illness and vaccinations are a way to do that…along with maximizing the nutrition I am getting from my diet (with some supplements). Another strategy is to avoid or mask in times and places where I am likely to encounter people that are sick (indoor crowds particularly in the wintertime).

I am grateful that that are vaccinations available to prompt my immune system…so that I don’t have to be sick to gain immunity!

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Then and Now – Eye Care

My third-grade teacher was the person that realized I needed glasses – when I couldn’t ever get the right answer during multiplication flashcard drills! That was in the mid-1960s. I remember my first frames were white plastic with tiny pink dots and the lenses were easily scratched. Later in the decade I was wearing rigid contact lenses (soft ones did not exist yet); they provided the best correction for me because they corrected astigmatism perfectly with their rigid surface. In the later 1970s I switched to soft contacts for comfort…but they were never as perfect as the rigid lenses.

These days I am wearing glasses except for close work. For photography – I often look over my glasses to the camera’s screen! I have two pair: single vision computer glasses and progressives with magnetically attached tinted lenses. Doing most of my reading on screens is easier for me than paper-based materials; the brightness of the screens is helpful.

At some point I will need cataract surgery. My dad had his cataract surgery in his mid-70s, but my mother didn’t need it until her 80s. One of my younger sisters had it recently so I know what to expect…however my eye doctor can still correct my vision to 20/20 with glasses so it might not be that soon. Whenever I have it – I hope to enjoy at least some years without having to wear glasses or contacts (except sunglasses); it will be a welcome break after 60+ years.

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Then and Now – Food

My mother had taken a college nutrition course in the 1950s, so my memories of meals growing up were relatively well balanced.

• There were more canned vegetable and fruits than we eat now when we usually eat fresh or frozen…very few canned goods. I do remember frozen strawberries, spinach and broccoli in the 1960s…but they didn’t come in a plastic bag (it was a box of thin cardboard,sometimes with metal ends). Fresh fruits and vegetables were seasonal. A lot of our produce seemed to come from the Rio Grande Valley of Texas (and we lived in Texas). My grandparents had vegetable gardens; I particularly remember corn on the cob, tomatoes, watermelons and cantaloupe during the summer. Still - most of our food came from the grocery store which is true today as well. Fresh fruits and vegetables were purchased whole – not cut up or pre-washed as they sometimes are today. Vegetables that were stable at room temperature like potatoes and onions were kept in a bin in the pantry --- frozen versions were not generally available.

• Meats were mostly cooked from raw although my mother did use canned chicken, tuna, and salmon (I have canned chicken and salmon in my pantry…but I don’t like tuna). The raw chicken was more likely to be a whole chicken that my mother cooked whole or cut up and then cooked; now I buy boneless chicken breasts exclusively….and I never fry chicken; my mother didn’t fry chicken either she but she did bake chicken with crumbled Cheez-it cracker crust.  Bacon was the same although the curing might have been a bit different; it wasn’t packaged in plastic. Ham was purchased whole usually with a bone; sometimes it came in a ham shaped can without a bone. We rarely had deli meats although there were some packaged meats like hotdogs, baloney and chipped beef…which my mother served occasionally. My mother liked to buy ground chuck rather than the higher fat hamburger meat. These days I buy more chicken than lean beef and almost no pork.  My mother probably served more beef…followed by pork…and then chicken. I skew toward organic meats; even though that labeling did not exist in the 1960s, the meats were probably closer to organic since it was before CAFOs and prophylactic antibiotic use in farm animals.

• My mother searched for whole grain bread. It was hard to find. Roman Meal was the brand I remember the most. White Wonder bread seemed to be the most popular with everyone else. These days I buy whole grain organic bread with a short ingredient list.

• The other foods from grain we ate included oatmeal (generally for breakfast), pasta (egg noodles and elbow macaroni were more frequently served than spaghetti), boxed cereals  (Cheerios were a favorite although my Dad really liked Sugar Frosted Flakes…which my mother frowned on), and crackers (saltines and graham crackers). My father didn’t like rice so my mother rarely served it.  I still use oatmeal occasionally but there are new grains too: quinoa and bulghur wheat. I rarely eat rice; it’s not that I don’t like it…but I just don’t like it enough to cook it. I don’t buy crackers since I don’t need the empty calories and neither does my husband.

• The only beans my mother liked were pinto beans. I can remember her cooking a large pot of pinto beans whenever she had a ham bone…it was the last ‘meal’ made with a ham. We ate the beans with chunks of ham as a soup as soon as they finished cooking and then as leftovers with other meals. I generally my organic canned pinto beans now when we make chili.

• Eggs and dairy were a daily part of my mother’s meal plan. She always kept whole milk on hand. She bought it in gallon cartons (not plastic coated) since there were enough of us to drink it relatively quickly. These days I drink 2% fat Lactaid milk since I have become lactose intolerant, and it comes in a plastic jug. My mother used Velveeta cheese for grilled cheese sandwiches and macaroni and cheese (she cooked the macaroni…made a white sauce that melted the cheese…put both in a baking dish with wheat germ sprinkled on top to bake together before serving). I don’t eat cheese sandwiches or macaroni and cheese anymore! I do still occasionally have cottage cheese…but I take a Lactaid pill when I do. Eggs are still prepared as they were in the 1960s: hardboiled, fried or scrambled (but with spray on a non-stick pan rather than in bacon grease). I also like frittatas and quiche and other egg casseroles which we didn’t make in the 1960s.

• We did occasionally have Koolaid or Lemonade or Hawaiian punch in the summer or a soft drink for a special occasion (making an ice cream float or when I visited my grandmother at her work). Most of the time we drank water or milk. It was a special treat to have sweet iced tea with special meals or to eat a popsicle (usually frozen in our freezer) on a hot afternoon. Ice cream was always a favorite – but not eaten daily. I drink soft drinks more often now and unsweetened tea…but milk and water are still frequent beverages. I am trying to cut back on soft drinks and any beverages with sugar (refined or artificial).

• Nuts were used for snacks although they often required a hammer and cutting board to get the goodie out of the shell. My mother seemed to enjoy buying a bag of mixed nuts in their shells (pecans, walnuts, filberts, Brazil nuts, almonds) from the produce section during the winter holidays. Our favorites were probably pecans. Now I general buy nuts that have already been shelled. We also liked peanut butter; my mother did not approve of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, but we enjoyed peanut butter and celery or peanut butter on toast with brown sugar sprinkled on top. My favorite breakfast in recent months is peanut butter toast (no sugar on top).

Food is prepared differently now too:

• My mother’s favorite quick meals were a protein (hard boiled eggs, canned tuna, chipped beef, canned chicken) in white sauce over toast with a canned vegetable (green beans, for example) or fresh vegetable like carrot or celery sticks. For the younger children, she would cut up the toast before spooning on the white sauce concoction; as we got old enough we learned to cut it up for ourselves after the white sauce was on top. Now I tend to do stir fries for fast meals. I usually do the whole meal in one pot and serve it in a bowl rather than a plate. Gravies like white sauce are not part of the meal at all.

• There were no microwaves in the 1960s. We made popcorn in a pan if we wanted it. I still use the same type of popcorn…but have a bowl that I use in the microwave to pop it in and I use walnut or sesame oil rather than butter.

• Sometimes we had hot tea for breakfast or when it was cold outside (always with lots of milk). We made it with tea bags in a little pot or directly in our cups. There were no Mr. Coffee or Keurig machines! I use a Coffee Maker that has never made coffee to make pots of tea now.

• There were Czech desserts for special meals when I was growing up; no one picked up the role to bake like that after my grandmother died because we just don’t eat that much bread and sugar anymore.  These days we rarely have dessert although when I do - I am still partial to desserts that include fruits (apple pie, apricot tarts, etc). I do enjoy a good carrot cake or red velvet cake but might buy it from a bakery; if I make it myself, I usually serve it without icing!

• Salads are somewhat easier now. Greens can be bought pre-washed and in convenient bins…and there is a huge variety of kinds beyond iceberg and Romaine lettuce (I like arugula and spinach and ‘spring’ greens). Other ingredients can be bought already cut up now although I generally choose to buy salad ingredients that I cut myself (with the exception of carrots which are my go to snack in the afternoon). The selection of salad dressing is much greater now too although Ranch dressing seems to be too dominant; in the 1960s I remember Thousand Island and French and Vinegar/oil dressings.  I get dressings with names like creamy ginger…or make my own balsamic vinaigrette.

• My mother sometimes prepared milkshakes (milk, ice cream, raw eggs) for breakfast with toast. She had a blender with a glass body that was heavy but did the job of making a slightly thickened drink. These days I have a Ninja Master Prep and I make ‘smoothies’ rather than milkshakes…without raw eggs. I use milk, frozen fruit (banana + another fruit), frozen veggie (like broccoli), protein powder if I am short protein for the day, and hemp seeds. It comes out the consistency of soft serve ice cream but without any refined sugar!

Overall – there are a lot of ways to eat healthy today even though there are also a lot more ultra-proccessed foods to avoid. Right now, with the exception of soft drinks, I am eating healthier than I did as a child!

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Then and Now – Heating

During the 1960s, the heating where I lived in Texas transitioned from electric wall heating to gas powered central heating. Both had to work harder because the windows of the houses were single paned and had little insulation. I remember that my grandparents’ houses were often colder in the winter than mine was. My paternal grandparents’ farmhouse had gas burning (probably propane) stoves in each room and my maternal grandparents’ house had gas burning (probably natural gas) floor furnaces; in those houses, the kitchen during meal prep time, was the warmest! Prior to the advent of thermostats, the controls on the heaters were tweaked manually.

My house now has two central heating furnaces (2 zones) – one natural gas and one electric. Within the next 5 years, we will be transition to electric powered heat pumps. The house has well-sealed doors and double pained windows….and was well insulated when it was built in 1999. It has two gas fireplaces which we haven’t used; the gas is turned off and we have sealed the vents with magnetic strips to stop the drafts in the winter. We have a ‘smart’ thermostat that we can program to change the temperature at different times during the day; since we are retired, that is usually letting it cool down a bit at night while we are sleeping.

In general, modern heating systems and houses, make it easier to feel warm in the winter. I wonder sometimes if that changes the early years of children’s lives. For example – a baby born in December would be learning to walk a year later. Prior to central heating, that would mean more clothes to get in the way during that process than a child born in July would have as they learned to walk. Did mothers of winter babies keep them close to their own bodies to make sure they were warm (i.e. did winter babies get held more in their very early lives)? Central heating might have made early childhood development more consistent because it took away much of the seasonal variation experience for babies!

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Then and Now – Books

Books – and other reading material – have changed a lot between the 1960s and now.

In the 1960s they were all physical – printed on paper. There were already paperbacks, but I remember hard backs more – textbooks and reference books along with fiction. Now those physical formats still exist, but there are digital forms available too. I have shifted almost entirely to digital forms (Kindle and Internet Archive mostly) for my reading. Most of what I read is something I will only read once so there is no reason to have the book permanently. Another reason I like digital books: the weight of the device I use for reading is less than one book; I can access a lot of books with no additional weight!

In the 1960s, we had sets of general references like encyclopedias at home; now we either use a search of the internet or sites like Wikipedia to get that type of information – i.e. digital vs a physical book. And the wed sites are usually free rather than purchased. There is also the added advantage that the information is refreshed frequently (although we do have to become more adept at accessing the quality of the information provided). In addition, many references I use now come in the form of apps (for example, Cronometer for calorie/nutritional information about foods, Merlin for bird identification, iNaturalist for other organism identification, and NPS for details about national parks).

It seemed like books were expensive in the 1960s; there were some we bought but most of them we checked out from libraries (school or public) or they were provided during the school year. My mother bought children’s books for my sisters and me prior to us becoming proficient reader; some of those books still exist – distributed primarily to her grandchildren over the years. Kindle books are available from my library…but I buy one occasionally. And Internet Archive has older books that are freely available and newer ones that can sometimes be checked out for 14 days (or for 1 hour which is ideal if it is a needed reference). It still is probably true that physical books are popular with young children/new readers.

Finding a particular book in the 1960s was done with card catalogs or a ‘books in print’ reference. Today I search the Amazon site; books are easy to find and then purchase. I don’t remember going into book stores in the 1960s, perhaps because we lived in a small town rather than a city….or my parents deciding that libraries should fulfill our need for books as we became good readers.

As I was growing up it always seemed like there were never enough books near at hand to read. That set the stage for me to start buying books – new and used – as an adult (past the 1960s) so that I would always have a substantial pile of books at home, ready to read. When digital forms of books became able – it was like a dream come true. At first, I printed some of the eBooks so that I could read them offline. Gradually, I began reading more and more books entirely online. These days I never lack for reading material…and I donated most of my physical books. We have a lot of empty bookcases.

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Then and Now – Family

In the 1960s, I was growing up in a large extended family. My mother had 8 siblings and my father, an only child, was close to his cousins. Most of our traveling was to visit family. By the time I was in elementary school, my parents had a second car, and my mother took us to her parents’ home for a week or so during the summer to see the aunt and uncles…continuously growing number of cousins. I remember my grandfather’s construction projects that included a covered patio/carport with a very long table and bench overlooking a large elm where he’d fashioned a table and benches to fit neatly around its large trunk. We ate every meal aside from breakfast outdoors! There was also a large barbeque pit with a huge grill and an oven built into the chimney. He built a fountain of natural stone near the garden…the swimming pool was a little further away. Prior to the swimming pool being built, he often found a river suitable for swimming for all the aunts and cousins….and he would do some fishing. I enjoyed one-on-one time with my maternal grandmother at her work (she owned/ran the mill); I remember her writing letters to one of her daughters that lived far away over a few days before deciding it was long enough and sending it off.

 My paternal grandparents moved to live near us in the late 50s, so I saw them very frequently – lots of good food, gardening, crocheting, sewing, dominoes and checkers. We saw my dad’s extended family at gatherings held at his paternal aunt’s house. I remember my great aunt had hollyhocks beside her porch. We visited his maternal aunts (and grandmother) that lived in the same town. I associate my great-grandmother with chocolate covered graham crackers and her daughters with plants (my grandmother had a number of plants that she received originally from her sisters).

The food was always plentiful and included veggies from the garden. The paternal side of the family also cooked Czech desserts (kolaches!).

Now the family is significantly smaller. I have 3 sisters and am the only one that lives further away; only 1 of my sisters has children so the number of cousins is small. My husband had 2 sisters, but they are already gone as is his extended family. My sisters and I are transitioning from a relationship that has be very focused on caring for our parents over the past few years – not yet settled into a new normal without our mother. I am not close to my cousins although I have been seeing 3 of them more frequently at funerals recently…realizing that we have in common our adjustment to life after long-lived parents die.

I drive from my home in Missouri to visit my dad near Dallas once or twice a month in his assisted living home. My daughter goes with me sometimes. One sister visits him almost daily. The other two visit once or twice a week when they are town. I try to see at least one of them when I visit Dad. Two of them have visited us in Missouri. We text each other frequently – mostly keeping each other informed about what is happening with Dad. There are infrequent emails, phone calls, or zoom meeting. I enjoy my access to a frequently updated cloud folder of great nephew pictures. The way we keep in touch when we are not together has changed significantly since the 1960s!

Food had changed as well. We seem to all have foods we are avoiding now (and the problematic foods are not the same!)…and desserts are not something we want as frequently. We tend to go to a restaurant for special occasions more often then eating at home.

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Then and Now – Music

Music has always been…but it too has changed over the years. The differences between the 1960s and now are significant.

 I remember live performances in the 1960s…and records…and AM radio. There are still live performances now although most of my listening to music is done in my home office or when I am driving…more like the AM radio use in the 1960s. Now I choose what I want to listen to (from Apple Play primarily) rather than being at the mercy of a DJ picking tunes. The app does have a mode where it picks tunes for me by genre or ‘like’ what I have listened to previously which offers the benefit, like radio, of learning about new music.

In the 1960s we bought records and had a player. There was only one room of the house which had the player and speakers. My mother leaned toward classical (Dvorak, Strauss, etc.) and soundtracks from musicals (like Sound of Music, Mary Poppins, Oklahoma)…a few country western and rock albums. And once a record got a scratch, it was not pleasant to listen to anymore. Now all the music I listen to is digital and via subscription.

 In the 1960s, my friends and I sang with records or sang a capella or with guitar (rarely with piano too). Now I rarely sing except sometimes when I am tired and driving. I start Simon and Garfunkel’s greatest hits and sing along to keep myself alert!

 Right now, I listen mostly to instrumentals: piano and cello (like Brooklyn Duo), harp guitar (like Jamie Dupuis), cellos (like Low Strung), and Celtic (like The Boys of County Nashville).

 The other improvement over the years is Bluetooth – to connect phones/tablets/PC to speakers in my office/car (I’m asking for Bluetooth speakers in my office for Christmas)!

 There is such a rich environment for music now…so much easier to listen to whatever I choose!

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Then and Now – Universities

My parents prompted my goal to go to college; it was still in my future during the 1960s. At first there was only a vague idea of what universities were like. That begin to change when my mother went back to school so she could become a teacher when I was in junior high. I learned about required courses and textbooks and the library. My sisters and I were in the audience when she acted in a play as part of a drama class. I remember paging through a very thick book for a biology/life sciences class – relishing how much more it included beyond the encyclopedias and schoolbooks I had looked at before. When I started an insect collection for special credit before my sophomore year of high school, my mother took me to the campus bookstore and we bought special black straight pins for the project (there must have been a class at the university that required insect collection too). My collection impression my teacher so much that she asked to keep it!

I was also aware of the protests of the Vietnam War at universities in the 1960s via the news and now with protests of the war in Gaza also via the news. I never was on a campus when one of the more significant protests happened at either time of my life.

Now my perception of universities is based more on first-hand experience from the 1970s and early 1980s when my husband got his PhD and I got my masters, vicarious experience (again) from 2007 to 2019 when my daughter was at 3 universities for undergraduate through to PhD and post doc, my daughter being employed as a professor at a university now, and the prospect of a course each semester at the university beginning next fall taking advantage of the free tuition for citizens age 62 or older.

In the 1960s, the prospect of heading off to the university was all about continuation of my education…preparing for a career…getting the required credits toward a degree. Now, I’ll be taking courses because I am interested in the topic and not ‘for credit.’ Courses that offer field experience or labs will be my primary focus…things that I can’t get in an online format or from a book. The first course will likely be a field course identifying woody plants; the second might be geology course which includes field trips and a lab; the next one might be pottery making!

In the 1960s, I was oblivious to the administration of universities. In retrospect, there were a lot less non-faculty staff at universities in the 1960s. And those non-faculty people often get higher salaries than the faculty; they are largely responsible for the cost of university education increasing faster than costs in just about every other sector. And those non-faculty people make decisions about how funding cuts will be made so their ranks will never go down! How does bloat in a university’s administrative staff ever get trimmed?

It seems that universities are changing very slowly compared to the rest of society. There is a paradox of research that is often leading edge coming out of an organization that incorporates processes that are almost like hazing (qualifying exams for graduate students that are traditionally ‘failed’ the first time through…committees of other faculty members that review tenure track packages and provide negative feedback, sometimes not factual and sometimes personal rather than relevant to the position…minorities and women judged harshly).

The role of universities is not as clear now as it seemed to me in the 1960s. I’m not sure if that is true because I know more about them now or if they have not changed in the intervening years in ways that they should have.

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Then and Now: Groceries

In the 1960s, my mother did the grocery shopping for the family – usually going once a week.  I went with her occasionally but not often. She usually shopped while my sisters and I were in school. Her favorite grocery store was Safeway. I am now shopping at Walmart most of the time since it is the closest grocery store to me and once a week is still my goal. The hours my The Walmart is open from 6AM-11PM, 7 days a week; the hours grocery stores were open in the 1960s was a lot less than that and there were items they couldn’t sell on Sundays if they were open then (‘blue laws’ in Texas).

The carts were similar in design to the larger ones in most stores now although they were all metal (no plastic) and did not have seatbelts for young children. Most grocery stores now  have a few smaller carts along with the larger ones but I usually am buying enough that I get a large cart.

My mother always had a list that accumulated over the week; most of the time she made the additions to the list but as my sisters and I got old enough, we sometimes wrote in items. Now I use the OurGroceries app so that my husband and I can add items to the list from any of our devices and I use my phone when I am in the store rather than a piece of paper.

My mother only bought food at the grocery store…not toiletries or over-the-counter medications; those were purchased at a drug store which also included a pharmacy. I buy many non-groceries during my weekly shopping now; toiletries are frequently on the list, but I sometimes buy clothes or office supplies as well. It’s an advantage of shopping at Walmart rather than a grocery store. We still pick up our prescriptions at a CVS; the pharmacy at Walmart is not open at the time I usually shop (between 7 and 8:30 AM on Friday mornings).

At checkout, a cashier had to enter the price of each item on the register and the strip of paper that my mother was handed at the end only included the prices and the total. She paid with cash or wrote a check. Now I scan my purchases myself, use a credit card to pay for them, and get an itemized list that includes an abbreviated description of each item along with the total.

Mother’s purchases were put in brown paper bags by the cashier. Now the store provides single-use plastic bags; I’ve used my own bags for more than a decade (they are stronger, and I don’t have to take precautions to contain the single-use bags from littering and polluting the environment). I put my items into my bags after I scan them. All the refrigerator items go into an insulated bag and the remaining items are grouped into bags to make unloading easier once I get home (and to make sure bread, chips, and eggs are not damaged in transit).

There was a lot less plastic. Milk came only in cartons (waxed…not plastic coated) and juices and soft drinks came in glass. Canned foods were purchased frequently, and the cans were not lined with plastic. The produce section included mainly seasonal foods along with ones that could be easily stored/transported (like bananas). Broccoli was something we had periodically as a frozen vegetable, and it was packaged in a box rather than a plastic bag.  We enjoyed strawberries seasonally or frozen (in a box); now my husband likes the frozen ones (in a plastic bag) more than he likes fresh ones! Plastic is the dominate packaging now: jugs of milk, bottles of water/soft drinks/juice, bags of frozen veggies and fruit, robustly sealed meats, bags of snacks and fresh vegetables/fruits, jars of peanut butter. Sometimes there is an option to buy in class jars but most of the time there is no choice; the packaging is plastic.

The most common type of bread was white; my mother wanted ‘whole wheat’ and bought Roman Meal when she could find it. I buy Dave’s Sprouted organic bread….avoiding a lot of added chemicals that have been introduced over the years to keep bread from molding or otherwise ‘improving’ it in some way (‘improving’ is in quotes because many breads cross over into the ultra-processed realm with the additions that are quite common today).

Some of the brands are still around: Cambell’s, Nabisco, Kelloggs, Green Giant. I don’t buy them as often as my mother did…only Cambell’s Tomato Soup and Green Giant Niblets Corn for my husband.

There are a lot of products in the grocery store that were not available in the 1960s…most of them ultra-processed and they fill up whole aisles of the grocery store. It requires some willpower to steer clear of those (although it gets easier over time). On the healthier side, it is now easier to find international foods (salsas and tortillas, etc.) and things like boneless chicken breasts…a lot more options when it comes to pasta, sauces in glass jars, greens (kale and arugula were not in grocery stores in the 1960s), grains/seed (quinoa and chia are new…’chia pets’ were not introduced until the later 1970s), and no salt seasonings. There are now targeted foods for special diets; for example, milk that includes Lactaid for those that are lactose intolerant and protein shakes for diabetics or those dieting and concerned about getting adequate protein.

My mother was very conscious of nutritional guidelines; she had taken home economics courses in college. We had some form of protein at every meal along with fruits and vegetables and grains. Sugary items were only for special occasions. There were seasonal fresh foods, but she relied on canned goods more than we do now, particularly during the winter. Both sets of grandparents had big gardens and we enjoyed their bounty whenever we could – supplementing what was purchased at the grocery store; we knew how food was grown and a little of how it was preserved (canned) for later. Now we buy more fresh or frozen fruits and veggies rather than canned because they are readily available during the whole year. I also buy organic as much as I can….something that didn’t exist in the 1960s.

Groceries have changed significantly since the 1960s. Availability of healthy foods is probably better now – although it takes more attention/knowledge to avoid the ultra-processed foods that are often intermingled with the healthy food.

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Then and Now

The is the first post in my Then and Now series that will include my reflections on my ‘growing up decade’ (the 1960s) and now. A lot has changed over those 60 years, and I’ve found myself thinking more about it recently – maybe prompted by my mother’s death or me being 70 years old. Choosing these decades leaves out my career almost entirely – only the perspectives of preparation for it in the 1960s and reaping the benefits from it now in my post-career years.

I was 6 to 16 years old in the 1960s …remembering vivid snippets primarily about friends, family, and school…and a few events in the news (the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963 and a tornado that I saw through my school window before the sirens went off on April 3, 1964). In the 1960s I assumed I had a long life ahead of me; now I assume that it will take more and more focused effort on my part to remain healthy and enjoy the years left in my life. The way I live now definitely has roots that began developing in the 1960s!

The posts will focus on a particular aspect that has changed and will come out weekly on Monday mornings. Stay tuned….