To the Editor:

Every year on New Year’s Eve, I lay back, watch the ball fall in New York and think about all the things I have to be thankful for. Of course there are many, my seven children, good health – well, almost good health – and a successful retirement. But most of all, to be born when I was. That was many, many years ago.

In the ’40s and ’50s, we had great music and singers like Sinatra, Mario Lanza, Bing Crosby and too many more to mention. Look at what we have now, Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga and other names I can’t remember. We had great music to dance to like rhumbas and waltzes.

Now, people just stand there and shake, jiggle and wave their arms. We used to call that the “he-be-jeebees.”

Look at the hairdos now. The women have their hair in a knot on top of their heads. Some men have pony tails and some shave their heads bald. Their faces are covered with hair. Much more than the five o’clock shadow that we had when I was that age.

Look at the clothes that men wear to parties. They wear a nice suit coat or sport jacket and a pair of pants with holes in the knees. Instead of a white shirt and neck tie, the shirt looks like a table cloth. With the holes and whiskers and beards they look like homeless vagrants. I’m surprised they don’t get arrested for vagrancy.

The women now wear skirts so short they barely cover their hinders. Their boobs hang out so nothing is left to the imagination anymore.

I always wore tailor-made suits and was always clean shaven. I always said if I were ever to get ugly, I would grow a beard. Well, maybe I should. How lucky I was to have been born when I was.

Gene Mancel

Rosholt