January 19, 2020

Whatever happened to the "pump jockey" in uniform and bow tie. Whatever happened to the milkman, the diaper service, the neighborhood butcher, English speaking taxi drivers and generally whatever happened to courtesy.

When one lives for a fairly long time he sees good things come and go. Things that back then we complain about eventually remember with fond memories.

Years ago, and I mean many years ago one could leave the milk bottles outside the door with money in it without worrying that someone would take it.

If one drove up to a gas station the attendant approached, dressed in a nice uniform and pumped gas. At the same time he cleaned the windshield and checked the oil. At most of the gas stations there was fairly good mechanical service available For quite a while competing gas stations gave free gifts to people, like glasses, kitchen utensils, green stamps or S&H stamps just for their business. Also, gas was about 25 cents a gallon.

Some friends of ours who had babies used the diaper service. They put the soiled diapers outside the door and the service replaced them with crispy clean ones. Well, not too crispy but clean anyway.

If one sat in a taxi and gave the address the driver invariably knew where that was. He also spoke good English and didn't take the passenger on a sightseeing trip just to make the fare last longer. Oh yes, and the driver was never occupied on his cell phone or texting while driving.

Sometimes they even got out of the cab to open the door for the passenger or help with packages.

If one went to the neighborhood butcher he already knew his costumers, knew what they liked and was always courteous.

Those were the good old days!

These are only memories by now and only seen in the movies.

Today one drives up to a gas station it is self service, at least in New York. We are hard pressed to find a station that offers mechanical service as well. Competing gas stations just compete, that's it. Their prices are the same and really there is absolutely no advantage to go to one over the other. It's just a question of convenience, like which corner it is on.

A couple of times I needed direction so naively I thought I ask the guy at the gas station. Not that he didn't know the area he didn't even understand the question.

So, if one is lost in the fog and in the distance there is a dim light of a service station, watch out. This is not an oasis, avoid it because they can not help.

Taxi drivers in New York are rude, drive like they are in downtown Karachi or Hong Kong and don't know the city at all.

For them only Manhattan exists. The other four boroughs are foreign country. But even in Manhattan they get lost. They get confused on which street and avenue runs in which direction. One tries to talk to them it turns out they don't speak English. But they are their cell phones all the times yapping away in their native tongues.

Getting out of the car and help, forget it. It will never happen.

They were know to take the hapless visitor on an unwanted "sight seeing" trip between points A and B.

There used to be public telephone booths like the one Doctor Who uses. They are no longer around. Now the public phones are out in the open and are vandal proof for obvious reasons.

This is the way life is in the Big City. Maybe out in the provinces life didn't change that much but if someone here wakes from a fifty year slumber he will be unpleasantly shocked at what we became of.

Why don't we have a singer like Frank Sinatra or Dean Martin? Why don't we have good comedians like Bob Hope, Alan King, Rodney Dangerfield and Richard Pryor? Why don't we have good actors anymore? What we have is fly by nights. Here today gone tomorrow.

Nostalgia is very dangerous. It brings back memories of time past and time that can not be repeated.

It is like going to a class reunion and see the former classmates and say oh my God, do I look as bad as they do?