Elizabeth Smith, 79, Annapolis
Biggest problem in today’s society? I think electronics. Children watch too much TV. They have too many toys. They should be going outside, learning how to communicate, exercising.
I grew up in Boston. We would play outside. Football, baseball, hiking. When you’re little, you don’t need video games. I just don’t think you need that. We had cartoons; watched them every once in a while. Not every day; just every once in a while.
It’s too easy for children today. So when they’re older, they want everything. They expect everything. I think kids get greedy because they are given everything that they want from an early age. Back in the day, we’d fish, we’d get jobs cutting grass or working at the market. You have to work. You can’t expect your mother and father to take care of you. You agree, right?
Kids have access to all of this information: the Internet, the iPhones, the iPads. You know what’s the best thing in the world? Libraries.
Oh, and the music was so good back then! Dean Martin, Sinatra. You could understand everything! You can’t even hear a word with these rappers today. On Friday nights, there was a basketball game at the high school. We’d lie on our stomachs and look in through the window because we weren’t old enough to get in. And then there’d always be a big party afterward. That’s where I learned to dance, watching them.
Back then we had gardens; now we have Whole Foods. We just used to call it nature! One time, my dad told his dad, “Pa, we’ve got green beans in cans now.” Pa said, “This will be the ruination of our country.” He was right. You know how much sodium is in canned foods? He was 89 and he knew that. They were so smart in everything they did, yet they didn’t have any college education.
It’s such a fast pace in this life. We used to have such simple things to make us happy. We used to sit on the porch and wait for the ice cream truck once a week, you know the ones that play the music? Now that was fun.