What Once Was

You used to have to lick a stamp
Or else it wouldn’t stick;
And if you didn’t wind your watch,
Of course it wouldn’t tick.

At one time when you watched TV
You couldn’t change the station,
Unless you got up from the couch
And caused a knob rotation.

The oven wouldn’t work unless
You lit it with a match;
And pasta wasn’t in a box –
You made the dough from scratch.

The freezer needed boiling pots
Of water to defrost;
And roller skates were useless if
Your skate key wound up lost.

As years go by and things improve,
It’s easy to forget
The way that life once used to be
And could be that way yet.

But progress marches on and so
Nostalgia finds its place,
Reminding us that what once was
Has slipped from our embrace.