Proudly serving you since 1966

As of 8:40 this morning, I’ll be an old(er) guy.
For all you oh-so-young and naive readers, let me clue you in on life eons ago.
We had no e-mail, no internet, no fax machines.
We had these weird copiers that worked on light or something, you sandwiched a couple pieces of paper and fed them through the machine slooooowly. We also had mimeograph machines: one would create the document to be copied on a sort of carbon paper form, which would then be placed on a drum that impressed the carbon into blank pages — you’d stand there and spin the drum by hand with a handle. Ka-chunk, ka-chunk, ka-chunk!
Television sets had knobs (not that kind) to the right of the screen, and if your set had the capability of tuning in UHF, there was a second knob. To watch channel 20, you had to turn the first knob (from 2 to 13) to the UHF label, then turn the second one (from 14 to 82) to 20. Needless to say, there was no high definition, progressive scan, or widescreen anything.
A first class stamp cost 5¢ back then. Years later, I remember when people were all up in arms over postage stamps being raised to 13¢.
Lyndon Johnson was president when I was born. Medicare started one month before I was born, and Star Trek premiered one month after.
Walt Disney died.
The “Miranda” ruling — which says that arresting officers must read inform you of your rights — was handed down that year.
The federal debt was $328 million.
The Sound of Music won the Oscar for best picture. The Dick Van Dyke Show swept the Emmys.
My first computer had 8K of RAM, and no disc drive. You typed in the program yourself letter by letter, line by line, then saved it on an audio cassette player. Programs used to be published in computer magazines for users to re-type.
Visa cards used to be called BankAmericards. MasterCard used to be called Master Charge.
My favorite cereal was called Quisp.
And just one year ago, the largest blackout in American history hit the northeast.

Today is also Steve Martin’s birthday, as well as the wonderful Alice Ghostley.