You Must Be A Baby Boomer If You Remember When...

Helms Bakery Truck

•  You couldn't shop on Sundays.  Everything was closed (markets, gas stations, stores, pharmacies, etc.) so that you could spend the day with your family or simply have a day to just relax and/or play
• Trucks would come down the street playing tunes and delivering baked goods or ice cream.  If you grew up in L.A., like I did, you'll remember the delictable aroma that permeated the air when Helms Bakery was baking.
• Movies cost a quarter for children, 50 cents for adults, and the butter on the popcorn was real
• You could walk down the street with no fear that anyone would try to harm you
• You left your back door unlocked
• Milk, eggs, cottage cheese, and the mail were delivered directly into a slot in your house
• Clothes were air-dried on a line outside
• You walked to and from school, even if it was miles away from your home
• There were only three channels on TV, but there was always something good to watch
• You remember when the first rocket into space was launched and watched when a man walked on the moon for the first time
• All TVs were black & white, and you had to actually walk up to the TV to change the channel
• You could make an appointment for an exact time with the phone company and they would show up on time.  There was only one phone company and you rented their phone for $5 a month -- and that was the full bill
• Stamps were 5 cents
• People were polite
• When you said "Thank you," people responded, "You're welcome," and meant it
• Gas was 25 cents a gallon and it was pumped by an attendant who also cleaned your windows, and checked your oil and tire pressure
• There were no tip jars
• Newscasters reported the news, not their opinions.  I still miss Walter Concrite (I had no idea what his political beliefs were until he retired).
• News opinions were saved for the opinion page of the newspaper
• Schools had a dress code
• You sang Christmas songs with great joy in celebration of the holidays whether you were Christian or not, while never feeling you were somehow being excluded
• Doctors knew your whole family and made house calls.
• You didn't need medical insurance to get good medical care
• Medical insurance companies actually insured you -- their deductibles meant something (I remember, when I was in my early 20s, going to the hospital and paying nothing for surgery and a two-day stay)
• You actually believed what politicians were telling you
• You remember when John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Bobby Kennedy were killed
• You remember the first time you heard The Beatles or The Doors
• No one had a computer
• Everyone left home without a cell phone because -- wait, can it be true? -- there was no such thing as a cell phone.  You could actually be out of contact with everyone for hours on end
• When you went to a ball game, you stood for the Pledge of Allegiance, hand over your heart, and sang with everyone else.  You didn't have to stand silently listening to someone else sing it for you
• "Made in America" meant it was the best quality in the world
• There was no war -- NO, WAIT... I've been singing "Let Their Be Peace On Earth," since I was a little girl, and I've yet to know a time when the United States wasn't at war with someone :-(

If anyone reading this wants to add more things they remember from a simpler time, please share