I was watching an old Steve McQueen movie today. Bullitt. 1968. As I watched Mr. McQueen muscle car his way around San Francisco, I was reminded of how different my life was growing up from what my children experience.There were no fax machines. In the movie, they had an old machine that hooked up to a phone and took forever and was huge and has this big spinning drum for getting copies.
There were no ATMs. As the two detectives in the movie search a woman's matching pink leather travel cases, they find traveler's checks. Traveler's checks? I had forgotten all about them. You didn't go visit another state without those. It was one more thing to add to your check list of things to do before you could leave on vacation.
All the women wore hats. Now, I don't really remember a time when the women all wore hats. I was too young. However, when I was little, women wore hats all the time when they went out and everyone dressed up to get on a plane. You wore your Sunday best. Now, you wear whatever you want.Apparently--and I'll have to compare my recent experience with planes with the plane shown in the film--there was enough aisle room for two people to walk past each other without scooting into a row of seats!!!! That is just too mind blowing for me to imagine. There was Stevie boy, inching his way closer to the bad guy through an entire plane load of passengers going the opposite direction. I think my jaw actually dropped when I saw that one.
And of course, being the good old days, anyone and everyone could just waltz around the airport and on to airplanes with their concealed weapons. Yikes! No X-ray machines, no security lines. Just masses of dressed up people filing into spacious planes potentially carrying guns.
I don't really know the point of this post. It's not like I want to go back to the days of traveler's checks and start wearing pill box hats with matching purses. It was just a huge reminder of how much life has changed in the last 40 years and how much I just take it for granted--and how much at a loss my kids would be if they got magically transported to 1968.
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P.S. On a completely unrelated note, I embarassed myself the other day by not realizing ALL DAY LONG that I was wearing my bra inside out. How is that possible?
8 comments:
My kids are freaked out by black and white tv shows. Their father tried to convince them that life was in black and white until 1983.
Remember when kids were gullible enough to believe such things? My kids won't believe anything, until I verify my facts on wikipedia. Lil' cynics.
My husband's grandmother is the only person I know who still dresses in a skirt and heels to fly.
I have seen people wearing just about everything on an airplane, everything but an inside out bra...just kidding!
Inside out ... that's a good one.
I was looking at a photo my grandmother took while on a plane back in the late 60s or early 70s. It does look more spacious. I have wondered though about the aisle space. I seem to remember that you could scoot by the stewardess (yes, that is what we called them) and her cart in order to get to the lavatory. Or did they not use carts? Could we scoot by because they didn't use carts? Of course, the fact that you could have two people in the aisle at a time does signify some additional space. Is the spaciousness that we see on old movies just an illusion because it is a set? Hmmm .... Either way, I'm pretty sure we weren't crammed in as tightly as we are now. Sardines on an air bus. Not so glamourous. Yeah, I'm meandering now so I'll stop typing ;o)
Waaaaait - Alpha Dogma commented on your post? I miss her.
A friend once sent me a grouchy email that there was a young woman wearing pajamas on a flight that she was on. It's casual day ALL THE TIME!
I miss Alpha Dogma too!
And yes, I wish we could find some happy medium between skirts and heels vs. pajamas to fly in. Not to mention more room on the planes!
My kids are the same. We tell them there weren't cell phones or laptops when we were their age, and they are amazed and once asked us if there were phones at all! "Eh? Speak up sonny!" I quavered at them, but they didn't get that either.
My grandma STILL dresses to the nines to fly..it's so cute! I have to admit that I dress up to fly too. I guess I'm just a throwback! :)
i personally can't get enough of steve mcqueen, that should have been the point of this post, don't show colin the movie of he will try to slide the bmwer around a couple of turns. we've all done it!
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