The other day I was out of town eating at a fine dining establishment. This place was so fancy that you ordered by the number. The food was delivered in a plastic basket with wax paper. The drinks were served in plastic cups. I’m talking fine dining. When I went to pay for my enjoyable repast, I noticed that one of the items read, “Senior Citizen Discount.” I suppose there are some things you can’t do anything about. I am getting older. I have more experiences to remember.

I have experienced black and white television. We received only three stations. Because we were not wealthy someone had to go outside to adjust the antenna which was anchored to the roof of the house. My family didn’t have cable until I went to college. And someone had to get up and change the channels or turn the television up or down.

Do you remember when your telephone hung on the wall? Better yet, do you remember rotary dialing? When you wanted information you dialed one, the area code then 555-1212. When you were out and about there were pay phones and phone booths, a phone call cost a dime and then a quarter. As they were vanishing a pay phone was running thirty-five cents.

A good stereo was also a piece of furniture. I’m looking for an old Curtis Mathes if someone has one for sale and has extra vacuum tubes send me a letter. Oh yes, letters had envelopes and stamps and were delivered to your house once a day, except on Sunday.

Speaking of Sunday’s, do you recall “Blue laws?” Nothing was opened on Sunday but the hospitals and the movie theaters. The movie theaters opening on Sunday was scandalous when it first happened.

Kitchen appliances came in one color, white. The dishwasher was my mom at the sink and one of the children drying and putting up the dishes.

Children were free range kids in cars. There were constant backseat wars. “Mom, she’s on my side of the car.” The choice spot was on the ledge under the back window. Air conditioning was rolling the windows down. There were no power windows, locks, seats or steering. The radio, if your car had one was A.M.

Cigarette lighters and ash trays were everywhere. Ash Trays were a favorite craft of Vacation Bible School in the 1960’s.

Church, if you missed three Sundays in a row the deacons would knock on your door. You had to get your ticket punched three times a week to be a real Christian. Sunday morning, Sunday night and Wednesday night prayer meetings were the minimum requirements for loving Jesus.

In the office there was the sound of typewriters, adding machines and mimeograph machines. The phones all rang with the same bell sound. But phones only rang where they were attached to the wall or the wire. There was only one phone company, Ma Bell.

People actually talked to each other when they were in the booth at the local Shoney’s.

Football, you could double team on a block, you could “high-low” someone, you could punish the receiver coming across the middle, you could block below the waist and the word of the official was not reviewable. If you did anything in the end zone but hand the ball to the official it was a fifteen yard penalty.

In baseball there was no designated hitter. The pitcher’s mound was higher. Bats were made out of wood.

Our news came from a daily newspaper. Social media happened at the barbershop or the beauty salon.

Life is not better or worse. It is different.

You get the idea, lots of things have changed. The only constant in life is change. I have hope for today and tomorrow that Jesus is in the business of changing things. He is beginning, in our daily lives, one of the great promises of eternity.

“Behold, I make all things new.”

Even for people who receive Senior Citizen Discounts.