By Bob Batz

It’s time we started getting rid of some of the silly things that have become important parts life in America.

We are surrounded by all sorts of doodads and gizmos that supposedly are designed to make living more fun for people.

Pennies are a good example.

What good is a penny at today’s prices?

Heck, you can’t even buy a piece of bubble gum for a penny any more.

For a long time, America had penny candy. Kids flocked to buy it, chew it and it cost their parents the billions of dollars they spent for dental work for their offspring.

Penny candy has now gone the way of pegged pants and ducktail haircuts and lots of other things that were once parts of our lives.

Yes, many things and traditions have bitten the proverbial dust during my lifetime.

When I was a teenager pegged pants were all the rage as were ducktail haircuts.

Ditto for stiletto shoes – pointy-toed shoes that every boy longed for back then.

What the heck happened to mini-skirts?

Bobby sox are gone, too, and, hey, where are all those hit songs from Elvis you-know-who and Fats Domino and Little Richard .

I was there for the birth of rock and roll music and, at the time, we all thought it was here to stay for a long, long time but , of course, it wasn’t.

Yup, the whole world has changed big-time during my lifetime.

But that doesn’t mean we have forgotten all those things we used to love.

Maybe some will return to once more be part of our lives.

Maybe it’ll happen in four or six or twelve years.

Then again, maybe it won’t.