I’ve never been the nostalgic type. The way I see it, nostalgia is the false sense that things were better because they happened so long ago we can’t remember them accurately. Still I have to admit there are a few things I miss from the past — rolodexes, manual typewriters, encyclopedias, prizes in the bottom of cereal boxes. I’m kidding. I don’t miss those.

But one thing I really do miss is letters. You remember those. I used to love getting letters in the mail — real letters from friends or family. Not letters from political candidates asking for money or letters from the clerk of courts telling me I’m on jury duty. I still get those.

There’s something truly wonderful about receiving a letter from someone you care about. I’m not nostalgic about it though. You’ll notice I said I miss receiving letters. I don’t miss writing them.

I spent a lot of time writing letters long ago because it vastly improved my chances of getting any. That probably wouldn’t even work these days. If I wrote someone a letter now, they’d probably text me back to thank me for it.

And I miss how easy it used to be to turn my television on and off. There was a time the power button was right there on the TV. And I could change the channel with a dial that was also right there on the TV.

Then I could turn it off fast with the same power button because there was nothing to watch on the only two channels that were available to me at the time.

I don’t think it’s even possible to turn on my current television without a remote and if it is, I don’t know how to do it. This is a problem because, as I’m sure you’re aware, remotes have a bad habit of following the last person who used them to wherever that person was heading when they turned off the TV.

We do have access to far more programming than I once had, but finding something to watch requires knowing which of our 10 or 12 remotes to use. Maybe it’s not quite that many, but it’s a lot.

Consequently, I don’t spend any more time watching television than I did long ago, but I do spend a lot of time tracking down remotes and trying to figure out which one to use. 

I also miss drinking pop out of glass bottles. It really does taste better and it’s not just my imagination. Apparently there aren’t any chemicals in glass bottles that can affect the taste of the beverage inside.

Meanwhile, the chemicals in aluminum cans and plastic bottles can actually alter the drink’s flavor—at least if what you read on the internet can be believed. And I believe everything I read on the internet.

Not really. But speaking of the internet, I miss a time long ago when lies, insults and other stupid stuff couldn’t yet go around the world in literally minutes and then be repeated so easily and so often that they started being accepted as common knowledge.

But I’m not nostalgic about the pre-internet days. I’d never want to go back to a time when I’d have had to research beverage containers in a dusty set of encyclopedias. Or for that matter, to a time when we had to mimeograph and mail our lies, insults and other stupid stuff.