I have often thought of the contrasts that present themselves when we look back at our early days on this earth; or for that matter, even before we got here.

Did you ever look at pictures from the 1940s and 1950s and think that those people were well-dressed and mature looking?

I mean, when you see a photo of teenagers from an old yearbook, you think those people looked like they were ready to get married and start a family while still going to high school.  Heck, many of them did do that, either at the end of high school or fresh out of there.

Those kids would be out carousing and would be dressed in clothing we would wear to formal places these days. Guys wore ties way more than we’d ever think of these days.  Ladies weren’t supposed to wear slacks too much.  

It was a different time, for sure.

So some things seem to have gotten less formal, for sure, but as I said, there are contrasts one tends to notice.

The other evening, we went to the Cardinals game and had a wonderful time.  It was a warm evening.  Familiar smells and sounds of the ballpark filled the air.  There is just something to be said about a trip to the ballpark. The sounds remind me of sitting out in my grandparents’ yard in the pitch blackness of the night, listening to the game on the radio with them and having only the stars and the light of grandpa’s pipe to illuminate the night.

But I think of how formal the new ballpark looks these days. I remember not long ago going to the ballpark with some of my buddies and getting bleacher seats for a few bucks. The day would be sweltering hot, and people would think nothing of being barefoot or half-dressed, sitting in those bleachers getting a lot of sun and a lot of baseball for an unheard of price.  There would be peanut shells all over the place.  

Sounds like we were a bunch of hippies, doesn’t it?

It was a lot of fun back then, and somehow, the food tasted better, the smells were more pungent, and everyone was there for the love of baseball and the experience.

I think that particular vibe still remains, but people seem more formal.  Prices are definitely astronomical, and gone are the hard bleacher seats along with the prices and the barefoot people.

It reminds me a little of the pizza joint we had when I was a kid. We usually got a pizza on Friday nights and the little corner was a hopping place on weekends.  It was your nondescript hangout; people would come and go, picking up their pizzas.  Teens would be there, splitting a pizza and nursing cokes for hours. The tables and chairs were covered in material that was easy to clean up, and sometimes kids would play cards at the table while they greased up their fingers with that wonderful tasting pizza. I think there was probably a jukebox.  The skating rink was next door, and you could hear a kid hitting the wall from time to time.

When I was a young adult, the little pizza joint built a brand-new, sorta fancy new building down the way. The pizza was the same, but there were pictures on the wall, fancier booths and tables, and even a back room for meetings.  You could get salads and plates of spaghetti and lasagna. There was no jukebox that I can remember, and you certainly didn’t see teens playing cards or even hanging out long, for that matter. It was more of an adult place now. Fancier.  More high-brow.

In some ways, upgrading to new places is better, but let’s face it, some of our best memories are from times when things were a little shabbier, and a little less formal, and a little more carefree.  

I went to get a little box of nachos at the game, and after paying about a million dollars with my debit card (the stadium no longer takes cash), I sat down and indulged.

They didn’t taste the same, and I wasn’t surprised.

Still, we won the game, and it was a fun night.  

I can’t complain, and no matter how much I lament, it can’t go back to how it used to be.