Rest In Peace June

June Allyson died over this past weekend at the age of 88. June Allyson was a very well-known actress in the 40s and 50s. She was best friends with Judy Garland and always included in the typical “movie star” crowd of that time. Unfortunately, for a lot of us, June Allyson will be remembered as the spokesperson for Depend adult diapers. Lately it seems more and more there are events, people and just in general ‘stuff’ in this world of which younger generations are completely unaware. The logical answer seems that I notice this because I am getting older. I’m not so sure this is the only reason. When our parents were growing up, their parents were aware of what a record and a record player was. They might have even owned them. In my lifetime I’ve seen music generated on vinyl, reel-to-reel, 8-track, cassette, CD and of course, digitally. Board games, baseball cards, comic books, Barbie dolls were all things that all three generations were familiar with as kids. Today it’s easy to stump our parents with talk of Gameboys, Text Messaging, MySpace and MP3s. I heard a story the other day stating that in the past one hundred years society has seen more inventions and technical advancements than in all of civilized history combined. Think about that for a moment. If you are at least in your mid 30s, you remember life without microwave ovens, video cassette players, call waiting, caller ID and certainly cell phones. As a kid, if you were lucky enough to own a TV with a remote it probably had an On and Off button, volume control, and channel changer. And it clicked… loudly. When I was 7, I remember my Mom telling me about the cool gift her company gave their employees on their 5 year anniversary of employment. It was a digital watch, the kind that you had to press the button to display the red led numbers. It even showed the date! They retailed for about $500 dollars, back in the mid-70s. My Mom worked for Intel and they were the company who mainly were responsible for putting those watches on the market. She worked in Silicon Valley in the 60s, long before it was ever called by that name. Intel was not known by most people then. As for watches, my Mom had a regular old analog watch, as did her parents, as did their parents. I think I saw a digital watch the other day at the 99 cent store, much like the one my Mom got as her anniversary gift from Intel. So getting back to June Allyson; she may be most remembered for the Depend ads by the majority of people these days, including me. In this case, it may simply be a case of age. Or not. It could also be a matter of the fact that so much is passed in front of us on a daily basis and we’re expected to keep up with this ever-changing world that we simply don’t expend the energy to commit all of it to memory. Including June Allyson.