THOSE WERE THE DAYS MY FRIENDS — Sharon Mark Cohen

From drinkable water fountains in the park to pay phones, those were things we used to expect to find. Heck, in years past, there were lines of thirsty athletes and weekend picnickers fidgeting while waiting for a refreshing taste of the water that often splashed up at our noses.

A familiar scene was watching as every person on the line walked off, still swallowing and wiping the splattered moisture around their lips and from the tips of their noses. I still envision my father lifting me over the fountain to get a drink in the park on a hot summer day, wiping my mouth afterward, and swiping the water off my nose. That was after balancing and, as my parents cautioned, making sure my mouth didn’t dare touch the faucet.

At the waning of the COVID pandemic, I spotted plastic draped water fountains in a hotel lobby. Rightfully, no one wants to spread any contagious viruses out there these days by drinking from a public fountain.

Personal handheld cell phones, such as the one in the park pictured, eradicated the need for public pay phones. Remember phone booths and hustling to find the correct change to make a call? What about making collect calls? How about sticking your fingers into every coin return door on those antiquated pay phones to see if you could pick up some spare change?

I can “hear” my mother firmly saying, “Don’t put your mouth on the receiver.” Ah, the germs we endured.

Being in a park in the Sullivan County Catskills in February 2023 and seeing those cornerstones of my childhood made me smile. Too bad that life isn’t as simple as it once was — or that it seemed to be.