... I smack myself in the head for not thinking.

That's generally immediately after I've said or done something I shouldn't have.

Sometimes I think that instant karma should be my middle name.

If you take the time to watch the video, you'll see a piece of America in the year 1967.

It opens with a commercial. In 1967, most of t.v. was still being shown in black and white. My family didn't get their first color t.v. set until the following year.

The clothing and hair styles are the same as when I started high school in the fall of 1967. Three years later, when I graduated, we were all starting to wear bell bottoms and letting our hair grow long.

Here's a taste of my life at age 15:


And the black guy dancing really gets into it! lol

~

It's kind of a Christmas movie (that's where it starts) but more of a 'What if?' movie:


Either way, it's still pretty good.

... what would happen if some kind of super computer virus were unleashed that knocked out the internet and all computers.

After years of trying to become a paperless society (which still hasn't worked), banks and businesses would be in turmoil until some older form of billing could be re-instituted.

Old fashioned cash registers would be in high demand, along with people (like me) who know how to operate them.

Cars built before the early 1990s (when they started putting computer chips in them) would be the only ones on the road.

Newspapers and magazines would make a comeback and analog t.v. would rule the airwaves.

I seriously hope and doubt this will happen,

but

I don't think I would have much trouble adjusting.

Life would go on.

~

It saddens me that, with the way the world has changed since I was a kid, children can't be children any more.

We had so much personal freedom 50 - 60 years ago, but today parents have so much to worry about:

You don't know your neighbors any more. Is my next door neighbor a pervert? A neighborhood used to be like a village, where adults looked out for kids and kids respected adults. Not so much trust any more. Sometimes parents get too involved with everything a kid is doing and trying to be their buddy.

I could bemoan the internet availability to too many vices. And how t.v. panders to sex.

What the Hell is wrong with kids just playing together without a parent being there? We used to play pick up games all year around all day long. We had fights, but nobody when home and got a gun because they got their ass whipped.

The world is cruel and getting crueler year by year.

Yes, I long for a more innocent time. But how can you turn back the clock?

You can't... and sadly,

Life goes on.

~

But where's Hogan?


~

Thank God I found this, because hearing Gene Autry's version makes me want to scream:


~

Christmas shopping is done.

When you know what everyone wants, it's easy to click and send -

even gift wrapped.

What will I do with all of this free time now?

O.K., to most of you here much younger than my 68 years, this is not a big deal, but to me, it makes me smile.

Today, I learned I could download an app for my car to have remote control of it.

Now, before I leave my house (especially on a cold day like today), I don't have to worry about using my key fob to remote start my car. Just use the app.

I'm smiling big time and marveling at what would have been unheard of to my generation years ago.

I know younger generations take all of this in stride, but to me it is truly marvelous.

I have been a Chicago Bears fan since I was a kid in the 1960s.

Back then, the only reason you watched them was because they had future Hall of Fame players Gayle Sayers and Dick Butkis. The rest of the team was really bad.

The team this year is just as bad as those old '60s teams, but they have no stars.

I actually turned off the Bears/Packers rivalry game Sunday night.

A fan can only take so much pain.