Knowing Where You’ve Been to Know Where You’re Going

As I get older I find myself getting more and more nostalgic with things that remind me of the past.

It can be while taking a walk on the boardwalk in Seaside or driving by WOBM’s old studios in Bayville as memories (both good and bad) flood my mind and I find myself almost transfixed back in time.

There are moments when I’m consumed in thoughts of 20, 30, 40 and even 50 years ago and I’m sure some of my younger work colleagues think I spend more time in the past then in the present and clearly not the future.

They are wrong.

I simply find myself thinking about what my father often said: ”you have to know where you’ve been to know where you’re going.” In other words you need to have a sense and appreciation for history and the past and I certainly do have that, maybe more so than I should.

Why I bring this up is a couple of things that have happened recently which have me waxing poetic which really isn’t a thing but is sometimes used to describe someone becoming increasingly verbose which I guess I can be at times.

First came a handwritten letter (which in itself is nostalgic) in which Paul Lusnia of Toms River sent me a new subscriber application from when his parents first purchased cable TV from Clear Cable back in 1976. Clear was the original cable provider in the area back in the 1970’s and would eventually sell to Adelphia who would later be acquired by Comcast/Xfinity.

On that July day nearly 43 years ago the Lusnia’s received three cable boxes plus the cable service for an initial fee of $20 with their monthly service to cost $10 after that. In addition to a whopping 35 channels they also received Channel 8 local programming including news, high school sports and bingo. It was Channel 8 as a high school senior where I did my first sports broadcasting of Central Regional sports.

The other recent nostalgic reminder came when my friend Joe Gomulka gave me an empty Rolling Rock 7 ounce pony bottle he found while cleaning up outside. Talk about a flashback. We called them “hand grenades” back in the day and there was nothing like an ice cold rock on a hot summer day. Rolling Rock was brewed at the Latrobe Brewing Company in Latrobe, Pennsylvania from 1939 to 2006.

I seem to remember buying half cases or 12 packs for just over $2.00 way back when but that may be a wish more than a fact.

Regardless, don’t ruin the memory. It’s a special one.