With the advent of yet another summertime in my life, I took a drive through the “old neighborhood” and realized it’s about eight blocks long and three blocks wide.

Most of my childhood was spent at my grandmother’s nursing home on Eighth Street. Looking back, I think it was so my mom could play board games with the residents.

Many of the homes and businesses are gone or drastically changed. The city has changed and people along with it.

Soft drinks were bottled here, baked goods were sold out of small “mom and pop” shops, there was a choice of clothing and people gossiped over the back yard fence.

My first column was written on AP fanfold in 1975 and sent back to production after the editor looked at it. Associated Press teletypes clattered out a series of stories, then they would be placed on nails in the back shop so typists could create perforated tapes that would be sent through a typesetter that would spew out yards and yards of one column copy that would be waxed and pasted on pages that would be printed.

The children touring the newspaper from time to time wouldn’t believe the evolution of today’s newspaper.

Until journalism hooked me, my knowledge was based on a trip to the newspaper on Main Street, where it seemed there were so many steps to take before the newspaper landed on the doorstep with a thud.

A 1920’s newspaper I found in a box showed how news has changed. 

Back then, it was a big deal when Millicent Velhagen motored to La Jara with friends to play cards. Another family welcomed a baby girl and Herrick & Olson received a new shipment of spats, bowlers and kerchiefs.

Life itself has changed.

I’m not sure how many readers will remember the “Teen Canteen” that existed at the intersection of Fourth Street and State Avenue. It was a place to go, hang out, dance and enjoy being a young person. It was open evenings and people went.

There were four soda fountains, several small cafes and two “five and dimes.”

In the old neighborhood, there were small grocery stores and a gas station that had what seemed like hundreds of different sorts of penny candy.

Cracker Jacks had real toys inside the boxes, shredded wheat had interested printed matter between the layers and one could buy a make-it-yourself spaceship kit for just a few dollars. The “funnies” in bubble gum were amusing and “comics,” which cost a dime could be traded until they fell apart.

Television wasn’t common and when it was developed, we had few channels. People who had the tallest antennas had more and color television was slow in coming.

My dad ordered a plastic sheet that was supposed to create color TV. It did. The bottom was green, the center was “flesh” and the top was blue.

He threw it away after I and several friends turned it sideways. Little green men.

My most recent “remember when” conversation involved just that. Things that were unthinkable when we were children are now common.

Any child can own a small computer that is worn on the wrist if mom or dad will buy it, and there’s always grandma.

This grandma wants to see young people reading books, riding bikes, walking barefoot and building pretend houses and fortresses.

It was good enough for us; it can be good enough for you.