Back Again

It's Autumn. And many of us are in the Autumn of our lives, a time where we reflect on how things once were.

Way back when we didn't have anything called "fast food." Microwave ovens weren't even a dream in anyone's mind, except some mad scientist somewhere.

If someone asked me today, "What was your favorite fast food when you were growing up?" I'd tell them, "We didn't have fast food when I was growing up. "All the food was slow."

We think of college students, even though just starting out, as young adults. The label "child" ends with their graduation from high school. After all, 18-year-olds are old enough to die for their country, so why should they be thought of as anything less that adults.

But they're still young. Very young. Members of this fall's entering college class of 2014 have emerged as a post-email generation for whom the digital world is routine and technology is just too slow.

By Bob Urban

burban@tnonline.com

Even though I sit in front of a computer most of the day, I still find myself longing for the old days, when things were simpler and less stressful. You know, the days well before Sept. 11, 2001. We made do with a lot less than, and maybe we were better off for it. A reader sent along this poem that brings back many good memories. For instance, we had:

A little house with three bedrooms, one bathroom and one car on the street.

A lawn mower that you had to push to make the grass look neat.

Our military is a no nonsense organization, no matter what branch you serve. Some of the most logical wisdom comes from training manuals.

A case in point was recently sent to me by a reader. See if you agree with the intelligence of the following advice that came from various manuals.

'If the enemy is in range, so are you.'

– Infantry Journal

'It is generally inadvisable to eject directly over the area you just bombed.'

– US. Air Force Manual

'Whoever said the pen is mightier than the sword, obviously never encountered automatic weapons.'