LORAN SMITH: Life was better back then

As I watch people let their iPhones control their lives, I wonder what the world will be like 25 years from now? What will be the new gadget to cause a stampede to the establishment where it is on sale? How long will it take the icons we enjoy today to become obsolete? What will their replacements be like? What will a college education cost?

Life was simpler in the ’50s. It was, in fact, simpler in the ’80s if you think about it. What are we going to do to the environment in the next quarter century? Who cares? What will we do about the have-nots?

Our parents thought we were going to hell in a hand basket because teenage girls swooned to the swiveling of Elvis’s hips. We flocked to the movie theatres to hear Clarke Gable’s character in “Gone with the Wind,” say to Scarlett O’Hara, “Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn.” That was sensational. Today that vernacular would be as benign as saying, “Good morning.” Is there Hollywood script today which does not have at least one four-letter word in every sentence?

In 25 years, chances are that our scientists will have found a cure for cancer. We probably will be able to put a kangaroo’s heart in a man and see the latter function normally. Such musings always makes we wonder what my grandchildren will consider “the good old days?”

There are some things about the past I can do without — picking cotton, no air conditioning, no indoor plumbing, and 50 minute sermons — but there is something to be said about the times my generation enjoyed when:

— We drank Coke from the small bottle;

— We didn’t curse like sailors in routine conversation;

— We opened the car door for ladies;

— The bottom line was important, but we didn’t worship it;

— We didn’t have to lock our doors;

— We enjoyed our front porch swing;

— We wore a coat and tie when we boarded an airplane;

— We were punished for getting out of line at school;

— Your parents always agreed with the principal;

— We took our kids to the woods and cut our own Christmas tree;

— A bicycle was as important to kids as an SUV is today;

— Outdoor activity and the work ethic rendered obesity unheard of;

— TV evangelism had not been invented;

— Roy Rogers and Gene Autry were our movie heroes and whose female co-stars kept their clothes on;

— We played baseball without uniforms and equipment, all enhanced by friction tape;

— The circus was our Disney World;

— Perusing the funny pages was reason enough to subscribe to a newspaper;

— Gangs were unheard of;

— Reading involved checking out a book from the library and devouring it with such urgency so you could take it back and check out another one;

— If there weren’t four vegetables on the table for lunch and supper, you didn’t have a full meal;

— You took your kids shopping and didn’t worry about a sexual predator lurking about;

— Everybody had a garden, including those who lived in town;

— Radio provided our entertainment;

— The nearest thing to a Playboy was a Sears Roebuck catalogue.