Oh my, how the world changes
Steve Martaindale

Thoughts lately have hit on how things change. I suppose that's natural as one accumulates more experiences (read: gets older) because there are more levels of comparison.

I'm a big fan of change. Change is good. Rather, change can be good; it is wise to prove its worthiness and neither approve nor disapprove simply on the face of it being change.

My wife and I were talking about school cafeteria food this weekend. She agreed with a recent news story that the food is much healthier today, primarily because the deep fat fryers have been pulled. What hasn't changed is every kid gets a serving of everything whether he'll eat it or not. That means a lot of perfectly good food goes into the trash.

When I was a student, leftover food was gathered in a separate container and sold to pig farmers. At least, that's what I was told and I've encountered no reason to doubt it. Leah says they are not allowed to do that today. I suppose someone is afraid a cafeteria crew will conspire to cook too much food in exchange for kickback from Farmer Jones. We cannot take that chance, can we?

Playgrounds have changed in some places. Games like "tag" are not allowed. I suppose it might make a child feel inadequate if she is always "it." I wonder if they still choose sides for kickball. I bet a lot of schools require the teacher to name teams so that the last two or three kids always chosen will not have to endure that stigma ... like the other kids cannot tell who doesn't play well.

When I was in elementary school, we had field day in May with races and competitions of various kinds between the boys. The girls cheered. Initially, blue and red and white ribbons went to those finishing first, second or third in each heat. Then they added ribbons through sixth or eighth place. Yeah, you got a ribbon but it was green, yellow, pink or some other color that announced it was a loser's ribbon.

Travel has changed a lot. Automobiles are much safer, even though they are built with less steel and more plastic. Well-researched design has a lot to do with that, along with seat belts, child seats and air bags. I believe we're less likely to have drunk drivers. It wasn't too long ago that drivers with a beer in hand weren't uncommon. Guys would grab a beer after work and drink it on the way home. Of course, maybe they're now stopping at a bar and having three or four beers before driving home. See, you have to watch change; it can be tricky.

Air travel, it seems, is more popular, but I'm not sure about that. It may just be that the same types of people are flying more. There have been jokes about lost luggage since I can remember, however.

Eating out has changed dramatically. It just wasn't done too often. When we ate out, it was an event and usually occurred at one of a couple of diners. Fast food places came into our part of the country when I was a kid. I remember a lot of excitement about McDonalds opening in Longview. That has snowballed, of course, and now you have a selection of fast food on just about every corner. In fact, I'm not sure they're building any more convenience stores without having a fast food restaurant included.

What's next? I wish I knew and I'd make some wise investments. I keep waiting for the Jetsons' style of personal aircraft and food that tastes like pizza with the calories of celery.

Someday soon.

Steve Martaindale is a self-syndicated columnist. Write him at penmanmail-steve@yahoo. com.