For thirty cents a pack.
One day recently I was going into a store with my kids and was floored. The price now is north of five bucks and not for a carton but for a single pack of cigs. Do they still call cigarettes that?
My kids wondered why I was floored.
That's why.
It seemed everyone smoked in every movie I saw. To be cool, you smoked too, or at least I did. I said to myself in college that I would only smoke until it didn't make me dizzy. That never happened so I left it behind.
Thirty cents a pack. A long time ago.
Movie stars never used to do TV.
As a matter of fact they never used to do commercials. If I said, "What's in your wallet?" would you think of Samuel L. Jackson? Last time I checked, he was a big movie star. So is Matthew McConaughey, so is Jamie Fox. These days you're seeing Oscar winners doing commercials.
Check network TV shows for movie stars. They're there. Do HBO and other cable outlets count? If they do, they're there, too. Plus Netflix (Home to House of Cards. Kevin Spacey is a multiple Oscar winner) and every other binge watching network.
They're all over the tube. That's a barrier that doesn't exist any more.
When you see telephone booths in movies like The Sting or Airplane they seem kind of quaint. Truth is pay phones are long gone. Everyone, even grandmothers, have cell phones.
Remember when people couldn't find you?
It's gone from "Where were you?" to "I called you a thousand times. How come you didn't check your messages?"
These days? It's hard to disappear.
I tell my kids that back in the day you could arrive at an airport twenty minutes before your flight in plenty of time. Not only would you make the flight but your bags would be on that plane as well. It seems so long ago but there was a time when you didn't have long lines at security and those people in the blue suits just weren't there.
Nowadays you're advised to arrive at the airport two hours before your flight.
How about that?
You may have heard, this is Slurpees' 50th birthday which prompted this question from one of my twins, "Dad, do you remember when Slurpees were first invented?"
Actually, I remember before 7-11 had them.
I remember before Rap. I remember before Star Wars. I remember when gas was 30 cents a gallon. I remember when Ford Mavericks were $1995. If you have to ask...
I remember when Batman was this comedy on TV. I remember before Sponge Bob. I remember when water came out of a faucet or a water fountain.
Only.
I remember all kinds of things.
#MarkMcEwen
Subscribe to my blog: Mark McEwen's World
Follow me on twitter: @mcewenmark
Like my page on facebook: www.facebook.com/markmcewensworld
And also visit my website: www.markmcewen.com
There was a Dean Martin (as Matt Helm) movie on the other day. He's smoking. He's drinking. He's womanizing. Seemed perfectly fine at the time.
ReplyDelete