Today I bought a can of Plantation brand chocolate straws. In the good old days they were long, sweet sticks of candy wrapped around a filling of chocolate. They’ve shrunken a bit since then, and are now more bite-size and melt faster on the tongue. Still good, but not like it used to be.
As the years go by, Christmas doesn’t seem to be the same. Everything becomes new and improved, which usually means cheaper. With the economy looking bad for awhile longer, maybe the best thing to do is remember what used to be, because maybe it could be that way again.
I seem to remember that Cherry Hill Mall used to have a walk-through exhibit featuring an Eskimo boy. I can’t remember his name or anything else about it, but it was fun when I was a kid, to walk along and watch the scenery unfold. I think the kid went to Hawaii in one of the exhibits.
I remember the year when the gas company Sinclair brought a dinosaur exhibit to Cherry Hill Mall’s parking lot. They had a vending machine which produced models of dinosaurs out of molten plastic. That was cool back in the good old days.
I recall the annual television program from Hess’ Department Store in Allentown, PA. They featured animatronic displays. Today, kids probably wouldn’t appreciate animatronics: video or holographic avatars catch their eyes these days. Then again, the movie Hugo seems to be packing in audiences at the box office, and that movie features an animatronic figure. Maybe all is not lost.
I remember that the holiday season didn’t start until Santa entered the toy department on Thanksgiving Day. Now, we start seeing processed holiday foods being sold in September, and the first holiday ornaments arrive in July.
Back in the good old days, we had real ice cream parlors like the local hangout Green Valley. I first discovered jukeboxes there. The whipped topping was real, and the portions were massive. Every table had a free basket of pretzel sticks. The atmosphere was warm and the ice cream cold (and made from scratch).
Also, back in the good old days, it was possible to say Merry Christmas to anybody without having to stop and think to oneself if anybody would take offense. Greeting people meant good will to all men, whether they celebrated Christmas, Channukah, Kwanzaa or nothing at all.
If we wanted it, we could get it back again.
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