Rudi Steiner, Icon columnist-in-residence, provided the following column in anticipation of the Bluffton High School class of 1961 50th reunion in July. It was recently e-mailed to members of the class. Rudi now of Homewood, Illinois, is the brother of Fred Steiner of Bluffton.
Not too long ago...
I gave a presentation I titled "Om Dooby Dooby Dooby Doom" (Om Dooby Dooby, Dooby, being the good times we had and Doom being times of change and conflict we experienced).
We came of age in a small rural town in Ohio in the late '50s, we shared personal, technological, economic and social changes, which will never be experienced in the same way by future generations.
I guess we are not true baby boomers, we are part of a generation called the "silent generation or traditionalists, but we identify more with the baby boomers than the silent generation.
True boomers were born after 1946 ... like boomers we were parented by parents, grandparents, and neighbors who experienced the depression and WWII... thus we are who we are.
Fifty years ago, the world we ruled was different; we went to Sunday school, to Woodstock, to Viet Nam, and even to the Moon. We burned our draft cards, we burned our bras and maybe even some of us burned crosses. We paved the road from the "Edmund Pettis Bridge" at Selma, Alabama, all the way to the "White House."
For our kids we bought the first Atari electronic games, Big Wheels, Speak and Spell, Legos, and other must have popular toys.
For ourselves we bought the first hand-held calculators, microwaves, laptops, cell phones, digital cameras and 60-inch Flat screen HD TVs.
We loaded cars with options that included 8-track tape players, CD players, DVD players, navigation systems, satellite radios, TV cameras, heated seats and much more.
We powered them with hemi V-8's, V-6's, and V10's. We even turbo-charged them. Now we want bicycles, hybrid and electrics cars. I guess you could say we have been there and done that.
Could it be we that were born because our grandchildren are Cyber kids... better known as Digitals? Digitals need us to give them some sense about how all the "stuff" they buy and the kind toys they play with influences their lives, their development and ultimately whom they will become.
Our Cyberkids want it now... and in 3-D and without the glasses! These kids and their parents are the ones who are going to choose our nursing homes.
Our digitals will never experience "Main Street Bluffton" on a hot Saturday night in August. The Main Street we knew was Dixie Highway, U.S. 25. In our world you could drive the Dixie south out of Bluffton past the Dari Delite, through the dogleg curve at Gratz Crossing all the way to Beverdam and on to Lima.
After you went through Lima, and if you kept on driving, five days and 1,378 miles later you would be in Miami, Florida. When I-75 bypassed Bluffton, our Main Street became the "Old Dixie Highway," then Old Route 25, now it's County Road 313. The Main Street we knew had three traffic lights, now it has two.
Our Digitals will never discover the treasures we found at Ruff's, then Crow's 5 and 10 store. They will never play Lester Neuenschwander a game of checkers, taste hand cut cinnamon candy at Charlie Hankish candy store, navigate the narrow isles at the Rexall Drug Store filled with school supplies or the smell of freshly popped popcorn coming from the 9 o'clock show at the Carma Theater.
No Bixel Ford with a Thunderbird and a Crown Victoria in the show room, no Main Street traffic jams when Triplett left out, no Hauenstein's Bakery with fresh baked rolls in the window, or the aroma of 8 O'clock coffee being freshly ground at the A & P.
Their experience will always be Wal-Mart, the Dollar Store, Macy's, Best Buy, Kohl's, Target and the next big box store to take the place of bankrupt mega store.
No Kaiser Gaiffe to make certain you didn't soap any Main Street windows and certainly no Miss Ocie Anderson to censor "what you read."
The cars parked on our Main Street on Saturday night were Oldsmobile 88s, Pontiac Bonnevilles, Mercury Turnpike Cruisers, Ford Thunderbirds, Plymouth Furys, Studebaker Golden Hawks, and an occasional Rambler, These classics are all gone now.
On Saturday mornings their places are now filled by Mustangs (not yet 50) Hondas, Toyotas, Audis, Kias, Scions, Hyundais, Lexus, Mazdas and an occasional Smart car.
We knew Electrolux as mom's sweeper now. Electrolux is a kitchen stove. Bosch was a spark plug found in VW's now it's a high-end dish washer.
An Apple was a fruit we ate to keep the doctor way, now it's an iPod, iPad, iPhone or a Mac computer. Mom's Kelvinator refrigerator kept food cold and made ice cubes, the LG refrigerator dispenses crushed ice, ice cold water and reminds me daily that Life is Good!
The last time I was in BHS it seemed smaller than when we went there 50 years ago. They made the halls narrower, lowered the ceilings, and installed smaller lockers.
They made the old gym smaller too, took out the study hall and the "dirty book" room. Bluffton-Richland Library is across the street now, where Dean Nonnamaker's Phillip's 66 used to be. For 27 cents a gallon Dean would fill your tank, check your oil and wash your window.
He didn't sell day old hot dogs, stale nachos or slurppies -just gasoline, motor oil, wiper blades, shock absorbers, mufflers and tailpipes. And if your car was broken he would fix it.
This was our time and nobody experienced it but us. Our past is still alive. We are the keeper's of time ...the rememberers of happenings ...and the tellers of memories.
These were precious times we experienced and still share. Our past is alive and for us time has yet to disappear. Fifty years is really not a very long time ...it seems like it was only a yesterday away.
I can't wait to see what tomorrow will bring.
My perspective of Bluffton is not as a resident, but as an outside observer. In many ways Bluffton is a much better place than when I left town almost 50 years ago and even after 150 years Bluffton is still a rich vibrant community. Only the people, the places and names have changed.
When I return to Bluffton I find that it's not only the town I miss, but also my childhood, my youth and a community that nurtured me.
Bluffton is a good place to miss and a great place to come home to.
Looking forward to seeing you all, July 2.
Rudi
