How Bizarre

Last night, I had a number of Christmas carols in my head, and this led me to remembering going Christmas Caroling as a child. I had to then wonder if there were still people who do this. It seemed so unreal to me that it was almost as if I were making up the memory. I can't imagine it happening today, but really it wasn't all that long ago that we got together with family and friends, bundled up against the cold, carried photocopied booklets of Christmas carols, rang the doorbells of people all around the neighborhood, and sang to these people (primarily strangers) when they opened the door. How very warm, cozy, and completely surreal.

This train of thought led me to thinking about other things from my past that at this point just seem bizarre. For example, when we were in grade school, we had to take fluoride once a week. Every Wednesday, one student from each class went to the Teacher Aid room and brought back fluroide for the whole class. When it first started it was in small plastic cups, and then later it came in little packets. On the teacher's word, each student had to put the fluoride in his/her mouth and swish it around for one minute before spitting back into the cup or packet. Then one really lucky student got to come around with a bag and collect all the swished and spat fluoride. How absolutely weird! Enforced dental hygiene at school. It seems so 1950s or so Communist or something.

And the other thing I thought of was how we used to have potato chips delivered to our house. The chips came in a large yellow-brown tin, and my mom kept it in the cabinet where the Tupperware now is. They were called Charles Chips, and I think that was all the man delivered. Maybe pretzels or other chip-like snacks, but he wasn't like one of the more current delivery services such as Schwann's or the grocery-store delivery options that offer a wide range of products. Just chips. As if you couldn't just go to the grocery store and buy them. As if they were a delicacy. So so so strange.

Isn't it amazing how quickly the world changes? I'm not even 25 yet, but I can still look back at things in the span of my lifetime and be incredulous that they actually happened.