I’m thankful for a lot of things, but these are probably different than the ones you’re thinking about.

I’m thankful I got to answer a phone hanging on the wall because someone called our number that started with S-W.

I’m thankful for black and white television. The picture was black and white, not the box, and every night a TV test pattern came on when they ran out of stuff to broadcast.

I’m thankful for AM car radios with chrome push buttons.

I’m thankful for typewriters with sort of a kick-stand sticking out I had to pull over after hearing a ding. I could type really fast. Still can

I’m thankful for the metal bright-lights switch on the car floor over by the clutch, and for manual shift on the column.

I’m thankful for the rubber hose on the gas station driveway that makes a loud ding-ding-ding inside the building so someone in a Texaco uniform will come out and fill the car with gas for three or four dollars, and for gas station bathrooms with the cloth towel that disappears back into the box it came from.

I’m thankful for the milk box on the porch.

I’m thankful for the clothes chute and a slamming screen door.

I’m thankful for ice milk that tasted like a snow cone without the red syrup.

I’m thankful for street-car wires.

I’m thankful for chalk dust.

I’m thankful for player-piano rolls.

I’m thankful for pedal cars, even though I never had one, but I did have a new bike.

I’m thankful for an abacus with blue, green, red, and yellow beads.

I’m thankful for hard green clay that got soft after I held it for a while, then rolled out a long worm, wound it into a spiral, folded up the sides, made little green balls and put them in the bowl.

I’m thankful for hand-towel cranks.

I’m thankful for white gym class towels that smelled like something I still can’t describe.

I’m thankful for small battery-powered reel-to-reel tape recorders that make you sound like a chipmunk when you put new batteries in it.

I’m thankful for huge film projectors that make a clackety clack sound.

I’m thankful for cash registers that make a loud ding when the drawer opens.

I’m thankful for huge Hires Root Beer barrels.

I’m thankful for Oxydol and wax covered milk cartons.

I’m thankful I got to spit in a tiny toilet bowl at the dentist’s office.

I’m thankful I got to ride in a car with an upholstered rope across the back of the front seat.

I’m thankful I tasted Elmer’s Glue and ate a dog biscuit.

I’m thankful I made long Christmas chains with construction paper and learned to write with a fat pencil on tan paper with green lines on it.

I’m thankful I called collect and asked for myself so my mom would know I arrived safely.

I’m thankful I drank milk from a cooler in the barn.

I’m thankful I got to hold a young calf on my lap and play with a baby raccoon.

I’m thankful I got to stand waist deep in grain and yell in an empty silo.

I’m thankful we had a baby lamb in our kitchen.

I’m thankful I learned to water ski.

I’m thankful I talked to a friend through a tin can and a long string.

I’m thankful for Ola Corners.

I’m thankful for walking over the Mackinac Bridge. Twice.

I’m thankful for Nik-L-Nip wax bottles.

I’m thankful for Fizzies and sea-foam frosting.

I’m thankful for Bill Knapp’s.

I’m thankful for Ken & Tillie.

I’m thankful for Radio Mystery Theater and Suspense.

I’m thankful for Maurice and Villetta Brundage.

I’m thankful for ditto paper and mimeograph machines.

I’m thankful Mary said, “Yes”.