School always started the same every day: the pledge of allegiance, then someone would pray. Not every kid made the team when they tried. We got disappointed and that was all right; we turned out all right. "It was a different life When we were boys and girls Not just a different time It was a different world. "Lyrics from: "A Different World" by Bucky Covington I was thinking about many things with which I grew up and which were a part of everyday life in rural North Florida that are now part of the past. For the sake of time, I am going to list just a few: 1. Rotary-style telephones. 2. Typewriters. 3. Social columns published in local newspapers. 4. Mimeograph machines. 5. Black and white televisions. 6. Vinyl records and record players. 7. Full service gas stations.8. Tobacco markets. 9. Fountains in drug stores where one could purchase fountain Cokes. 10. Party lines for rural telephone service. These were a part of many of our lives until my adult years and, then, technology...the biggest advance in my lifetime. But, once in a great while, my mind travels back to typing class, the taste of a vanilla Coke at the drugstore, and reading full page columns describing a wedding plus all the accompanying pre nuptial parties, and one more, a huge one, community medical doctors who knew you and lived in our communities, and we knew and loved them.Yes, it was a different world. I do miss a lot of it. Now, where is my cell phone? From the Eight Mile Still on the Woodpecker Route north of White Springs, wishing everyone a good week.
