HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

On this the 44th anniversary of my birth, I thought I'd focus a post on how the world has changed in that time. At first I thought of comparing 1964 to 2008, but as my media world in '64 consisted of a mobile over my crib, I instead decided that 1968 to 2008 would be a better comparison.

In Surburban Philadelphia in 1968, there was ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS, and three UHF channels. Remember, dear reader, that at the time Philly was the third largest city in America. And it had 7 channels. As I recall, one broadcast 24-7, while the others went off air at some point in the middle of the night. It actually mattered what night it was TV-wise. There were good TV days and bad ones. Cable -- ha! Cable was a line under the ocean that could transmit a phone call to Europe for about $5 a minute.

There were FOUR major daily newspapers in Philly at the time. Now there are two, but really one as they are owned by the same company. One is just a broadsheet, the other a tabloid.

The news was Walter Cronkite, and he gave us new info about the war every night, with film, and death toll. No coverage of who got knocked off Idol, though, as Idol didn't exist. There was no happy talk, no food fight commentary, and everyone knew someone fighting in Vietnam. Heck even I knew someone and I was 4.

Gasoline at the time cost 15.9 cents per gallon, and you got green stamps with it. S&H, the good green stamps.

In our house we had a Ford station wagon (a Torino as I recall), and a Plymouth Barracuda. Japanese cars, at the time, were oddities that were perceived to be crap and low quality to boot. Foreign cars generally were oddities -- there was the counterculture VW Bug and of course Mercedes, which only Doctors could afford.

The nearest McDonald's from our house was 26 miles. This was less than 40 miles from Philly BTW. For our dining out, we went alternate Fridays to The Charcoal Pit, a sit down burger joint, or Pappy's, a local chain of pizza that I loved because they gave free Pepsi refills. One a month we went to Howard Johnson's for Fried Clams.

For a treat we went to Woolworth's for a hot fudge Sundae at the counter, which was about $0.80, $1 with tip.

In any era there are improvements and roundabouts -- some things get better, some things worse, and some things disappear entirely.

But as I look at the world today versus then, one truly amazing improvement I can point to with certainty is the web. It's the only force that flies in the face of total media control in the US by 5 companies. It is a way for millions to speak their minds. It allows tiny media voices to have the same potential impact as CBS -- ask Matt Drudge, who was once a tiny little blogger until Monica Lewinsky got her internship at The White House.

Gas may cost more, Detroit may no longer sell much iron, newspapers have died, and Woolworth's is no more. But we have the Internet, and for that I am very thankful.

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to write.