Where was I? I forgot
The point that I was making
I said if I was smart that I would
Save up for a piece of string
And a rock to wind the string around
I remember a time when you could knock someone out with the receiver of a telephone, at least you could if you were Jim Rockford on TV, fighting off thugs with mustaches who took him to a 70’s hotel room for interrogation… usually with a blond client. *bonk* The bad guy would get conked, and out they’d run.
I’m old enough to remember a time before touch tone phones, and when a phone call from a pay phone only cost a dime.
I actually remember seeing stores with ¢ on their signs. Menus, too. Woolworth’s, especially. When I was eight years old or or thereabouts… I must’ve been eight as it was just after the bicentennial. I’d wait out my mother’s shopping by getting a huge plate of french fries at the Woolworth’s snack bar for 45¢, (I forget how much the coke was) and sit and read my three comics that proclaimed a cost of 30¢.I remember really being happy that I could squeeze two dollars into a meal and a fistful of comics, with a little left over (not a lot, though. It usually got blown on gum or whatnot.)
Those were good times, for me… I got some solitary reading and junk food, with the Mom and 4 year old brother didn’t have to put up with my being a distraction in other parts of the store. I got to know a few of the regulars workers there, Middle-aged women in uniform, usually very nice, and the time of day meant that I wasn’t taking up valuable tip-space. I always left at least a dime as a tip, and it usually tickled the counter-staff that a young kid was being courteous enough to do something like that. My Mother had a job as a hairdresser at the same collection of stores, and I would spend a lot of time at the Woolworth’s or at the salon on days that I had no school, but she still had to go to work. My brother got a babysitter and sometimes I’d be called on to keep an eye on him… but I was pretty much left to my own devices, as long as I didn’t wander too far off. The times with the brother were fun too, but wandering solo at eight years old has a real magic to it. There were a lot of really nice people at the mall, and I fairly had the run of the place…at least the places that a kid would like.
So, anyway… I wonder if the cent sign is about used up, these days? I remember when the ¢ was on typewriters, too, but I can’t say as I’ve ever seen them on a computer keyboard. Fractions, as well. hmm.. come to think of it, I think the @ was a shift-¢ (or vice versa).
I’m really looking forward to watching the show about Kandula tonight on Discovery.
“On a seemingly ordinary day in November, 2001, something amazing happens at the Smithsonian National Zoo in Washington, D.C. – Baby Kandula is born. His birth marks a rare success and huge scientific milestone for the zoological community: The 320-pound newborn is only the second Asian elephant to be born through artificial insemination.
Watch as this playful, rambunctious youngster grows up right before your eyes – taking his first steps, learning to feed and figuring out how to manipulate objects with his trunk in rare footage of an Asian elephant progressing through the newborn and toddler stages.
Baby Kandula cavorts and romps across the zoo grounds, yet is oblivious to his own importance globally. The pioneering science that made Kandula’s conception possible gives new hope to the worldwide network of pachyderm experts desperately trying to reverse the Asian elephants’ ever-quickening march toward extinction. The fervent efforts to understand a deadly virus that is sweeping through the elephant community may rest solely on this little one’s ample shoulders.”
Radar using existing cell-phone signals. Continue reading #6283 Whatever comes to mind, kid memory, cent sign, elephants
