We have now come to that part of the program for awards for
the famous and the infamous, the dubious achievement awards
as it were. We are talking about changes, and we have seen a
few.
Consider this: The graduates of the 50's were before the
pill and the population explosion (probably not unrelated
events). We were before VCR's, Xerox, Polio vaccines,
Frisbees, and computers... Before VISA, Master Card, and
polyester. For us time-sharing meant togetherness, not
vacation homes. A chip meant a piece of wood...hardware
meant hardware and software wasn't even a word. There were
no miniskirts, bikinis, nor drip-dry clothes. For some of
us, there weren't even TVs. Ice makers, dishwashers, and
disposable diapers had not yet arrived. It was before men
wore long hair and jewelry and women wore the pants. In our
time closets were for clothes, not for coming out of. In
those days bunnies were small rabbits and rabbits were not
Volkswagens. Beetles were insects, and heavy metal was
machinery. We were before Peyton Place, Jaws, Rocky, and
Snoopy...before yogurt, yuppies, and flower children. We
married first and then lived together. We remember when air
was clean and sex was dirty.
When we were at Messick, McDonald's had a farm and not a
billion plus hamburgers. We thought fast food was what you
ate during lent. Smoking was in style, and grass was what
you mowed. Coke was only a drink, and pot was what you
cooked in. We were before day care centers, house husbands,
computer dating, and dual careers. A five and dime was a
store where you could really buy something for five or ten
cents. A nickel would buy you a coke or the Commercial
Appeal, mail a letter, or pay for a phone call. Twenty-nine
cents would buy a gallon of gasoline, and we drove around
and around and back and forth from Berettas to the Town and
Country to Fortune's Jungle Garden, to the Pit.
Vaughn E. Stimbert
Master of Ceremonies
Some ideas from Rose Marie Weber Manning "A Different World,
but in Many Ways the Best of Times'
