The Westering Hills

The other day, I had to fetch a Band-Aid from the bathroom to stop a bleeding cuticle. As I was peeling back the sticky wrapper sides from each other to free the Band-Aid , I began to reminisce about the old days when one needed to pull on that little red string tucked inside the wrapper to rip it open. “I miss that little red string,” I mused, then immediately recanted–”No, wait, I don’t miss that little red string!” What a pain in the arse it was, having to tear the wrapper corner just so in order to grasp the string, then you had to pull it down in just the right way to get it to rip through the wrapper or else you ended up pulling the string out entirely, mission unaccomplished. Just because I am nostalgic about something from my childhood does not make it cool. I tend to forget that sometimes. Here is a short list of other things I don’t miss.

- Metal (aluminum?) toothpaste tubes. It was so damn hard to roll them up in order to get the last bit of toothpaste out. Anyone remember toothpaste tube keys? They actually had to invent something to help with the rolling. Also, when you did start rolling the tube up, it created those super sharp edges that really hurt when you accidently jabbed your fingers on them. Give me the plastic tubes any day!

- Telephone cords. Sure, it’s fun to recall picking up the telephone to move your conversation to a different part of the house for privacy and even funnier to recall stretching the phone cord taut into the bedroom, bathroom, or even a closet. I hated that stupid cord, tethering me to the randomly-placed telephone outlet, giving me only 10-20 feet of room to move around while yapping to my friends. I dreamed of the day when there would exist a phone that needed no cord. That day arrived for me about 10 years ago and I’ve never looked back! Plus, remember how gross the cord was after years of dirt caked onto it? Ick.

- TV rabbit ear antennae. The incessant, obsessive (well, maybe that was just me!) twirling them around to get the best reception, the tin foil molded onto strategic areas, the broken pieces after years of twirling them. Feh. Cable tv was a godsend.

- Which leads me to, cable boxes! I have to say, the nostalgic factor for the old cable boxes with their push button/lever combinations is strong with me, but I still don’t miss them as a tech product. I spent so much of my time standing next to the box, which was on the table next to the tv, in order to channel surf, watching the tv sideways, buttons getting stuck on occasion, having to relearn the new combinations of button/lever when the channel numbers changed (quite often). Huzzah for the remote control!

What things from your past do you not miss?