First off, let me start this article by saying: If your last name is Eller, if you are one of my children, if you are married to any of my children, or are otherwise closely related to me, it is probably best if you put down the magazine you are currently holding in your hands and just walk away so that I don’t embarrass you by waxing nostalgic for times gone by. Second of all, I am going to take a page out of legendary Jewish Press columnist Arnold Fine’s book and share with you thoughts of just how different things were ages ago, a la “I Remember When.” While I certainly wouldn’t want to give up on the many modern conveniences we enjoy today (such as cell phones, dishwashers and non-iron shirts), things were just simpler back in the day. And way cheaper too.
Let’s start with the most basic of basics: water. Way back when (which will be abbreviated to WBW for convenience sake for the duration of this article) we drank plain old tap water, although if we were really lucky, we got water from a water fountain. I remember the first time I went to summer camp. I was seven and the packing list said we needed canteens for our weekly hikes. My mother went to an army surplus store and got me a round metal canteen that was housed in an olive green canvas case with an attached strap. I can’t tell you it was a thing of beauty but we all had them and before every hike we trekked on over to the sink and filled them with good old sink water and took them with us to prevent dehydration. Now? Whenever I go visit the kids in camp, half the car is filled with cases of assorted beverages and my son’s camp even has a box truck designated to drive drinks from the parking area to a central location to make life easier for us parents.
WBW Purim was a whole lot simpler because the words “Purim” and “theme” were never used in the same sentence. You dressed up in whatever costume you could throw together or had in the house and I don’t ever remember seeing a whole family dressing up together. More than that, mishloach manos was relatively effortless. You took a plain white paper plate, threw on two hamantaschen (homemade, of course), an orange or an apple, a paper cupcake holder filled with peanuts and raisins in it and maybe added a few loose potato chips to fill up the plate. There were no gift bags, clever boxes or even cellophane with wired ribbon necessary to hold the package together – you just slid it into a plastic bag (recycled from the last time we bought produce at the supermarket) and closed it up with a baggie tie. You know what the people who wanted to be really fancy did? They stapled the edges of the plate together to make it shaped like a hamantasch. Yup, back then that was called being elaborate.
Anyone out there remember jello? WBW jello was considered a festive dessert, worthy of gracing any Shabbos or Yom Tov table. If you wanted to take your creation up to the next level, you threw in a handful of diced fruit or poured it into a decorative mold pan, so that everyone could ooh and aah when you served it. A slice of cake was considered a perfectly lovely dessert as well and no one felt obligated to decorate the plate with raspberry drizzle, edible flowers or mint leaves nor was there any need to top the cake with cinnamon dusted whipped cream or a scoop of fried ice cream.
Vacations were way less complicated WBW. If we had a day or week off from school, it never even occurred to us that maybe we should be going somewhere special. We were so thrilled to be able to stay home and relax. If the weather was nice, we just went outside and played with the other kids on the block, or as we got older we made plans with our friends. We rode our bikes to the park, went to someone’s house and played ga-ga in the basement or just all hung out together and played board games. The idea that the family should be taking a road trip, flying someplace warm in the winter or planning day trips to the city? I don’t know that it ever once occurred to us and, shockingly enough, we never felt deprived.
Maybe I am just imaging things, but I don’t remember there being so much emphasis on name brands and designer fashions WBW. Yes, I do remember a few classmates wearing shirts with alligators on them when I was in high school but that was pretty much about it. There was no pressure to spend three digit numbers on designer school bags, five-year-olds didn’t carry their lunches to school in tote bags from Bloomingdales and we bought clothing because we liked it and it was reasonable, not because of the name that was embroidered on the label. Sneakers were plain and simple – Converse and Keds come to mind, but they were for gym or running around and were priced accordingly for what they were.
If you have ever tried to organize the different sized roller blades in your garage, you will appreciate the wisdom of the roller skates we had when we were little. Every pair came with a key, and as your feet grew, you could adjust the skates to accommodate growing kids, instead of having to buy a new pair every time your kids’ feet grew. Lots of other things were simpler then too. Toys rarely required the addition of batteries to make them fun. Coffee came in two varieties: decaf and regular. Soda came in a not overly large selection of flavors and if you wanted diet, chances are you drank Tab, although I do remember some other flavors as well. Pasta meant macaroni, and fat-free milk was considered to be a real breakthrough. Your only entertainment in the car was an AM radio – long family trips meant singing songs, spotting license plates or playing the alphabet-based “I went to Israel…”
I can’t tell you that I want to go back to those days. To be perfectly honest, I dislike jello and I love being able to Facetime my grandcuties. I am thrilled to have central air conditioning and don’t know how I would have managed umpteen years of carpool without my spacious eight-seater minivan. And without today’s modern technology I would probably be out of a job. Yet, it isn’t just nostalgia that has me thinking back to WBW. In today’s ultra crazy fast-paced world, simplicity sounds awfully appealing and maybe, just maybe, it is time to take a step backwards and embrace a lifestyle that is just slightly less hectic. And, oh yeah, less costly too.