How old do you have to be?

So, I saw this article on-line that was going to reveal the original purpose for the little pocket near the belt, inside the front right pocket of your jeans. "The one you keep your tic-tacs in," was how the article described it.

How old do you have to be to know that little pocket is for the aptly named 'pocket watch'?

I know only a precious few folks still have pocket watches, but when did our collective memory forget that watches used to go in that pocket? What else could it be for? Tic-tacs, I suppose.

What else, I wonder, has slipped out of modern American consciousness while I was blissfully thinking everyone remembered things I remember?

How about shoe horns? I haven't used one for decades, preferring my shoes half-a-size too large so I can slip them on (already tied!) like a loafer. I'll have to visit a real shoe store and see if shoe horns are still around.

Potato mashers? We still have one but does everybody or do they buy their potatoes already mashed in the cooler at the store...or use a wand or their food processor?

Back scratchers? When I grew up there was one in most people's homes--at least one. Plastic or wood, about 18 inches long with a little claw on the end to reach those itchy places you can't with your hand. I itch in this cold weather and rubbing my back against a door jam, I long for a back scratcher. Are they on Amazon, I wonder?

How about metal ice cube holders with a lever to pull the loosen the ice? We have half a dozen fancy plastic ice cube makers, none of which I can free the cubes from? Wonder if I can find one of those lever holders anywhere?

I showed Bern the little pocket in my jeans after I read that ground breaking article and asked her what to put there.

A watch, she said. She remembers too, though she's never had a pocket watch in her life.

Vests, if I remember correctly, had a watch pocket too, back in the day. Do they still? Another field trip to a store with three piece suits.

I actually own a pocket watch. I'm going to find it (I see it from time to time) and put it in it's pocket in my jeans. I haven't worn a wrist watch for years, but that pocket watch....Think of all the young people who would say, "hey, your watch fits in the tic-tac pocket!"