Chicago Tribune

Commentary: Give me old things for the new year. Bring back paper maps and pay phones

Unlike many of my boomer brethren, I do not yearn for the good old days. Instead, I embrace change and shed no tears for the disappearance of manual typewriters, four-barrel carburetors or Meister Brau beer. But there have been some extinctions for which there was no rhyme or reason, and whose losses, I believe, have diminished us in some way. So, in the spirit of optimism and hope for the new ...
A man puts coins into a Pacific Bell pay phone July 9, 2001, in San Francisco.

Unlike many of my boomer brethren, I do not yearn for the good old days.

Instead, I embrace change and shed no tears for the disappearance of manual typewriters, four-barrel carburetors or Meister Brau beer. But there have been some extinctions for which there was no rhyme or reason, and whose losses, I believe, have diminished us in some way.

So, in the spirit of optimism and hope for the new year, I advocate a comeback of the following worthy staples of

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