If it takes you longer than ten seconds to read this license plate holder, you are a whippersnapper, a youngster.  For those of us over 40, it is a no-brainer. Which leads me to debunk the adage “with age comes wisdom.”  In fact, all age brings is bad knees and poor eyesight.  What brings wisdom are mistakes – IF you learn from them. There are lots of ‘old people’ who have held the same job for 40 years and think they know everything because they have made no mistakes.  No, people who have made no mistakes are people who have never tried anything new.

Over the past 50 years, America had gone through profound change. Industries that were rock solid in the 1960s are now long-gone. New technologies have changed our vocabulary, politics and view of both ourselves and the world. The knowledge of the 6,000 years is at our fingertips on our desk.  But the technology has only changed our access to knowledge, not our wisdom. A computer will make it faster but not smarter. Age may not make you smarter but it has given you a lot more time to make mistakes which WILL make you smarter.

If you can’t decipher the license plate holder, talk to your father or mother.  But before you do, here are a selection of words from the 1960s which I included in my eBook EATING A BEAR WITH ITS OWN TEETH.  See how many of these terms you know; then ask your parents about the others.

“Far out”             “Film at 11”                   PBX            lay a patch

Hang 10               “Where’s the beef”      33 1/3        Big John and Sparky

Burma Shave       carriage return            car hop      dimmer switch

Deep six               fink                                 hifi              index card

Mimeo                  matchbook                   PMT           Top end floor

Typesetter            whiteout                       USSR          Twist

[See my books at https://authormasterminds.com/master-of-the-impossible-crime.]