Jeff Steele, Writer/Photographer

Do you remember life before the internet?

$0.25 per week.  That was my allowance.  It didn’t matter much how or what the twenty five cents was spent it on.  What mattered was when it was gone, it was gone.

The coolest hot wheels car ever made graced an ad in the back of the Marvel comic book.  One look and I was hooked.

$5.00 would add it to my collection.  That included the price of the car, tax, plus the shipping and handling fee.

Week after week.  I skipped the ice cream cones, cokes, and stayed the course.

What seemed like an eternity truly had taken half the school year.  Finally the day arrived.  I had saved up the money. 

Opps!  I forgot about the stamp and the cost of the money order.   Those added a other 35 cents.  ‘Man! Two more weeks! Really?’

Each day I combed the local grocery parking lot and street gutters for coins.  It worked, too.  Four days later I had been fortunate enough to have found 43 cents.

Straight way to post office and off went the order.  Now it was a matter of patience because shipping was the great unknown.  In super fine print the ad said please allow 4 to 12 weeks for delivery.  Truth was you had no way at all of knowing when the package was shipped, when to expect it.  It simply was the ultimate waiting game.

Days went by, then weeks.  I lowered the kick-stand of my single speed bike, with a slick for a back tire, padded banana seat and ape-hanger handle bars.   Entered the house for a drink of coolaid before I’d be headed out again to some adventure.  Afterall it was now summer break.

‘You’re package came today.’ My dear grandmother announced. 

Wondering for a moment what package as I had seriously almost forgotten. 

A quick unboxing and there it was.  The Hot Wheels Chrome ‘Boss’ Mustang.  Months and months of saving and months more of waiting.  Just one memory of The Great Unknowns of life before the internet.