A cancer diagnosis was a death sentence. Everyone smoked cigarettes everywhere, including doctor’s offices and the doctor often had one hanging from his lips while giving examinations.
Cars had big exterior sun visors above the windshield and, because the visor blocked your ability to see the traffic light, there was a thick glass pryzm on top of the steering column that you could look into and see when the light turned green.
When I first moved to Clearwater, Florida, every gas station had three restrooms: Male, Female, and Colored. On the main street, there were two clearly marked drinking fountains side by side on every block: White and Colored. Brown Brother’s Coffee Shop had a sign next to the cash register: No Coloreds will be Served Here and they didn’t have to have a third restroom. The local country club excluded Jews. They had their own clubs. We had segregated schools (except the Catholic School). We had new text books. The black public schools got the used public schools’ used ones along with their athletic and band equipment. The KKK was a legitimate men’s civic organization who that money to (white) hospitals, Little League Baseball, etc. The Little League, Babe Ruth League, PAL Football League, were for white kids only. Cub Scout Dens and Boy Scout Troops were segregated as were the Girl Scouts and Blue Birds.
We had coconuts on our palms, but never again after the freeze of ‘63. The bays were clearer, ice blue—you could see the bottom, but since they’ve blocked the natural ebb and flow of tide by building artificial islands for real estate purposes, they are now dark grey or dirty blue-green. Mullet schools migrating the bays were literally measured by the acre on the nightly fish report, a segment of the local news. People often burned trash in the back yard in 55 gallon drums. The Mass was said in Latin. We rarely ever watched TV before dinner. The local paper was 10 cents. Today it’s $1.00. A cup of coffee was 10 cents and a penny tax. Krystal hamburgers were five cents each. A new, white Van Heusen dress shirt cost six bucks.