My first car was a 1971 Cutlass Supreme convertible. I loved that car but couldn’t afford to keep it after I started university.
The Canada Day Classic Car Cruise reminded me of that car, the beautiful old classics driving through South Delta, the chrome shining in the sunshine, the astronomical amount of fuel required to drive the few miles they went. Ahh, the good old days.
We look fondly at those cars and think of a simpler time, forgetting how much work it took to keep them running. A car back then was lucky to make 100,000 miles, now that’s a cake walk. As always, a nostalgic look only brings the good we remember, the bad stuff has melted away.
The original VW Beetle? Revered. Really? It has nothing in front to protect you, the heater was a vent from the exhaust and the air conditioner was a rolled down window.
This is why I was a bit surprised when I heard about a survey that said 77 per cent of Gen X’ers wanted to go back to pre-internet days. Really? Even 63 per cent of Millennials wanted the same. You didn’t grow up without the internet, you don’t even know what it’s like.
Let’s start with your mapping app. You know what we used back then? A book with maps in it. You had to read the edge of the page to find the next part of the street you were on. It didn’t talk to you to let you know when to turn, and you had to plan your own route.
Music? They were called cassettes, and you had to record your own music onto them, from records. And you had dozens of them. Want to find a song? Rewind or forward fast, and you never landed at the start of the song.
If you want to know what life was like before the Internet, talk to a Boomer. They were the least likely to want to go back - too hard reading the map book without my glasses.
Brad Sherwin, MBA is a long-time resident of South Delta, and has over 30 years’ experience in marketing, public relations and business strategy. He teaches post-secondary marketing, coaches hockey goalies and is past president of Deltassist.
