You don't say!
Those were the good ole days, often enough.
When I was a kid I remember watching tv shows where limousines had phones in the car. It was like an actual phone we had in the house, but there it was in the back of the car. It seemed like a fantasy.
Jump forward a decade, and I’m in the mall at Christmas. There were posters all over the mall that said if you spent $50 in any combination of stores, you could get a free car phone! Not cell phone, car phone!! I don’t think cell phones existed at that time. This would have been about 1989 or 1990, I think. I took my receipts to the kiosk in the middle of the courtyard, and they signed me up. I was gonna get a real honest-to-goodness car phone!
I had to sign a contract, and my calling area was in Winchester, VA, and I told them I lived 30 miles away, and I wanted to know if I could use it at home. Of course, I could use it at home, but not too far beyond that or I’d get roaming charges. Remember those? Roaming charges meant I paid a hefty fee for making or even taking a call. And I also could get charged for long-distance calls, too, which from work to home was, so I’d have to be close enough to home to make the call, but not too far beyond they said. I didn’t care about the charges, I was getting a free car phone for my brand new Toyota Tercel. I didn’t have to get a stretch limousine!
It took a week, but my phone arrived and was ready for pick-up. They told me how to install it. It was in a black leatherette bag, which came with a handle so I could carry it outside the car, even though I couldn’t take calls outside the car. I just took it in so no one would break into my Tercel and steal it. I don’t know that anyone would look to steal anything out of it. When I bought it, I wanted cloth seats, a sunroof, and air conditioning. I got vinyl, a hard top, and crank-down windows. A car phone was a major upgrade, so maybe it was smart to take it in the house with me. Can you imagine carrying a phone with you every time you left the house? No, me either.
Well, it didn’t take me more than the first month to find a spot between work and home, where I wasn’t roaming, so I could call the phone company and tell them that they were wrong about my home not being out of range, and I’d gotten long distance charges. My first bill was like $30, and I thought I was gonna go broke quickly. They told me that the salesperson was looking at a map that they were going to be expanding, and not where service was already available. They also told me that the phone number I got was for the county where the mall was and not where I lived, so no matter what, I was gonna have to pay long distance to call the house. But they did offer a solution by giving me a new number with the area code of my county and treated it like I had moved. Remember when you would get a new cell phone number if you moved? Well, it was just like that with the car phone. So now I could call back to the house, but I still had to be careful not to talk too long. I think that’s where the phrase “Time is money” came from. Still, I had a car phone, and everyone knew it. I didn’t call everybody to tell them, they knew the moment they saw my car and saw the antenna I had on the back. I had to run a thick wire from the bag, under the carpet, under the seats, and out the back of the hatch. It was like a flag up there telling everyone that I was rich enough to afford a car phone. I was fancy now!
When my contract ended after a year, I pulled it from the car, where I had eventually velcroed it to the console and left it, thieves be damned. I left the antenna for a while longer, so as to keep up the illusion. The Tercel name didn’t throw them off I’m sure. I can still remember the ad for the car; “Still in the 50’s” and they showed a girl in a poodle skirt to sell the car with a price on the ad of $5,999.00. I doubt I could even buy that very same used car today for that price.
Ah, those were the good ole days. You could feel fancy for just a few bucks, and people could call you anytime you were driving. I think it was just a few years before that, that our local phone company was showing the new video phone you could have installed in your house. And if someone else with a video phone called you, you could see each other on a 1-inch black and white screen. Can you imagine if we could have that technology today, of being able to see and talk to someone in our cars, or heck, anywhere we are? But can you imagine a time when someone could only call you when you were home, and if you weren’t, the phone just rang until they hung up. No voicemail, not even a text to interrupt your day? They just had to call back.
Yeah, those were the good ole days. Today you might be reading this on an Iphone that never leaves your side. These are kinda the good days too.
This past weekend my best friend visited for my birthday, and we had such a great time! We drank too much (not much though), ate too much, and shopped too much. We hit thrift stores and antique stores, retail stores, and even looked online for a few things. We didn’t really need anything, but we had things to look for. Since moving my office out to the greenhouse, I’ve been wanting a new chair, and I got it! Just $10 bucks for an old solid wood office chair. It looks like the old desk chairs that were on wheels, but this is just a four-legged piece that’s in great shape. It creaks in all the cool ways, and it sits perfectly. The chair I had was good, but I couldn’t sit in it long.
We’ve gotten quite a haul from the garden beds! The squash and zucchini are coming in like crazy. I’ve made 10 loaves of zucchini bread and a squash casserole. We only ate 1 loaf over the weekend, but delivered the others. We gave a couple of loaves to our veterinarian’s office. It was Veterinarian Appreciation Day, and we really appreciate them. We also dropped off some to our pharmacist. I know that may sound odd, but we use a local hometown pharmacy. They save us way more than our insurance ever did with the big drugstores, and they know who we are when we walk in. I also sent a loaf with Mick for an appointment he had this morning. So we have a couple of loaves left in the freezer for anyone else that we may need to drop some off to. It’s a recipe my best friend’s mom gave me, and it is the best in the world. I’m not kidding.
The potatoes are ready to dig up, so we’ll do that this weekend. I’ve gotten about 4 pounds off the greasy beans and those are all strung up for leather britches. We’ve cooked the tenderettes twice, roasted some once, and gave a couple of messes away to friends. Tomorrow I’ll pick a small mess and make some for Mick’s Mom. She said she’s been wanting some. The sugar snap peas are about done. I didn’t plant many, so I didn’t get that many off. I shelled the last batch and have them in the freezer to add to something. It’s about a cup of peas. They are fantastic roasted. They get crispy on the outside. The cucumbers are coming in, so I think I’ll make my first batch of pickles this weekend.
One of the most incredible gifts my best friend gave me for my birthday was a cookbook from 1889! I’ll share more about that once I’ve had time to go through it and play with some recipes, but here is a recipe I found a couple of years ago in an old cookbook, and it was handwritten on a piece of paper stuffed in the book. On it was a logo for “miniature candles Norcross Inc. New York” It is delicious and perfect for this time of year. If you want a cool dessert, this is it.
Pineapple Ice Box Cake
1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs, separated
1 tablespoon cream or evaporated milk
1 cup crushed and drained pineapple
1/2 cup pineapple juice
25 Graham crackers
Cream together butter and sugar. Beat 2 egg yolks and add 1 tablespoon cream. Warm over boiling water, whisking until smooth. Add to the creamed butter and sugar. Fold in crushed pineapple and pineapple juice. Beat egg whites until stiff. Fold them in. Crumble Graham crackers. Line a loaf pan with parchment or wax paper. Spoon half the Graham crumbs into the bottom. Pour 1/2 of the pineapple batter into pan. Cover with other half of Graham crumbs, then the remaining pineapple batter. Cover with parchment paper and secure tightly with rubber band. Place in fridge 4 hours or overnight. Turn out onto serving platter and serve cold with whipped cream or whipped evaporated milk.
