History: From Then to Now
I remember when I was little, I used to hide under my grandmother’s quilting frame and listen to her and the women in our family complain about how expensive everything was. I asked Mom why Grandma liked to make quilts. She said it was too expensive to buy them already made.
I loved our handmade quilts and thought Grandma was wise to know how to do things like make jam and jelly, can fruit, bake bread, and make pies. She learned practical things, and she knew how to save money.
Growing up in the 1950s, my world was filled with hopscotch, saddle shoes, and black-and-white TV. Elvis was everyone’s heartthrob. We were practicing “bomb drills” in our school basement. The fear of “the bomb” was real, even if we didn’t understand it.
Moving forward to my grade school years, we used to buy movie tickets at school. They came on a card with perforations. Each ticket cost $.25. The whole card cost three dollars and would allow us to go to the movies every Saturday afternoon for 12 weeks.
The 1960s were all about change. I was in the 9th grade when President Kennedy was assassinated. I still remember the shock that we all felt. It seemed like a dream had ended. A few years later, the Beatles landed, and our focus turned to music. In the late 1960s, we watched a man land on the moon, Woodstock happened, and music, freedom, and rebellion defined our generation.
When I started driving, I drove a car that had a 10-gallon gas tank. I remember that the four corners on Center Street and Third Street each had a gas station. Gas wars were common, and the stations would compete for business. The lowest I saw gasoline at that time was $.25 per gallon. For under $3.00, I could fill my gas tank and drive for the whole month.
We boomers have experienced rotary phones and party lines, typewriters, and the birth of computers. We have seen record players replaced by streaming. Women have moved into careers once closed to them, and we’ve seen civil rights struggles. We’ve watched technology change everything from shopping to socializing.
I can’t help but smile when I buy bread today. Back in the day, it cost $.25. The bread I buy costs ten times that amount. The new car I bought in the 1970s cost $10,000. My parents were shocked. They said they had paid that same amount for their house the year I was born.
If you had told my 20-year-old self that one day I’d carry a phone in my pocket that could take pictures, play music, and talk to people across the world, I’d have said there was no way.
History isn’t just in textbooks. It’s embedded in the lives we’ve lived, the changes we’ve witnessed, and the stories we tell firsthand. As a boomer born in 1949, I don’t just read about history; I’ve lived it. And the best part is that the story continues to be written.
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