Everything Old - Just Keeps Getting Older


The death embrace, er merger, of Sears and Kmart has inspired me once again to indulge my predilection for all things fleeting and nostaligic by wallowing in sentimental remembrance of things gone by. I don't why it's so, but the mere idea that the mighty Sears Roebuck and Co. could someday fade into the history books...well, I never imagined it could ever be so.

Yes, with Sears on the ropes I can't help but reflect on how many of the big names from my childhood have gone the way of the Dodo. I really can't count them all. Montgomery Wards, The Emporium, Woolworths, White Front, and Gemco, or lesser names like W.F. Grant & Co, Newberry's, Payless Drugs and Rexall Drugs (not officially dead but a mere shadow of its former self). Hell, I'm even old enough to remember my mother redeeming her books of blue chip stamps down at the blue chip stamp store. It was all such a long time ago.

Of course, many of the old stores didn't expire but merely changed their names or merged and morphed into the big mega institutions we have today. Gas stations, in particular, seemed to follow this pattern. When I was in high school we had 3 gas stations on the main intersection down the street and all of them have disappeared. Let's see, there was a Mobile station, and across the street a Standard station, and on the opposite corner sat a Humble station. They were all what we called service stations back then which meant that they fixed cars as well as pumped gas, and by pumped gas I mean some guy in a greasy blue shirt with a little oval name tag sewed on the fron would pump your gas while you sat in the car. Folks in Oregon or Quebec will know what I'm talking about.

Anyways, Humble Oil became Esso which merged with Mobile and became Exxon Mobile which calls itself Valero, and Standard changed their name to Chevron just like Richfield changed it's name to Arco. Gas stations like to confuse things, don't they. Route 66 stations merge with Phillips and become Phillips 66 which merges with Conoco and becomes Conocophillips, or Mohawk is swallowed by Getty which in turned gets swallowed and is now a part of Texaco, and Gulf Oil...hmmm...whatever happened to Gulf Oil?

Well, everything changes and I'm sure that when I finally shuffle off this mortal coil the world will be nothing like it is today. That's just one of those things that ages a person and makes him wonder "geez, how old am I, anyways?" I know the number but the number doesn't seem right. In fact I read a survey once where they asked people how old would they say they were if they didn't know how old they were. The top answer was around 19 years old, and that sounds about right to me even though I'm sure I can look over my youth and recall daily events from the past that would seem ancient indeed to today's 19 year olds.

I mean, how many contemporary 19 year olds can still remember milk trucks and milkmen? Not many, I bet, but I can still remember the Carnation trucks and Edelweiss Dairy trucks that used to cruise the streets of my neighborhood. Wasn't that a long time ago. A lot of our neighbors used to have their milk delivered, but we always went straight to the dairy to pick ours up. Saved money that way, I guess, and I can still remember going down to Bab's Dairy with my father to buy those big half-gallon bottles (as in glass) of milk. That used to be one of my favorite trips because my Dad would always buy us all Eskimo Pies whenever we were lucky enough to tag along.

Whoa, I'll tell you how old I am. I can even remember when the bakery truck used to come around to our house in Covina to deliver fresh bread and donuts. Man, that goes way back. Big yellow bakery trucks (vans, really) with great big brown donuts painted on the side. Can you imagine that happening today? Or can you imagine buying your fruits and vegetables fresh from the little stalls and open-air markets along the road. Well, they still do that today, I guess, with farmer's markets and such, but when I was a kid no one bought produce at the supermarket when there was so much abundance for sale in the roadside stands. Corn, cherries, watermelon, you name it, and best of all were the strawberries. I remember we always got our strawberries from a bent-backed old japanese woman who ran a little stand down on Berryessa Road. She was about 200 years old, I guess, and not much for conversation, and she used to sell these fresh, juicy strawberries for a quarter a basket. I know, I know, I'm wallowing, but those were the days.

And nowadays, well you get in your car and drive to the local megastore or local megacenter and fill your basket with pre-wrapped, pre-measured, pre-processed, corporate food products that have all been carefully inventoried and barcoded for your convenience. The youngun's take it all for granted of course, but us old crotchety types know that new isn't always better and even if it is, well, it just isn't the same. Heed my words, you new generation, for someday it will be your turn to remember for your children and grandchildren when there used to be a Sears.