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Can you remember when we honored the fallen on Pearl Harbor Day? Seems like this country's memory is getting shorter and shorter. September 11th of this year came and went without much media coverage. I am proud there is a marker in our town that pays homage to that dark day in American history we should never forget. What is happening to America? I have learned a lot from my college students at Kennesaw State. I have found out that twenty-something's don't listen to the radio like they did ten years ago. Ipods and MP 3 players now take the majority of listening time. Downloading music off the Internet has replaced going to a brick and mortar store. Record stores are something most of my students have never seen. How many of you ever bought a cassette or vinyl album from Turtles Records? I had 9 million of their savings stamps that I never cashed in. I remember when King's Music Shop was where I could buy a record album for 3 dollars. I wish I still had my Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass and Paul Revere and the Raiders records I bought from Rev. King. Joel Mabry had the first car 8-track tape player I ever saw. Joel, Ronald McSwain and I would listen to "Otis Redding, Live In Europe" over and over along Highway 78 between the Tasty Treat and the Stand Pipe turning up the volume on "I've Been Lovin' You Too Long To Stop Now". Tivo and other digital video recorders make appointment television a thing of the past. You now can watch a television program on your schedule and not the schedule of the television networks. I can recall when seeing a movie required either going to a theater or drive-in. How many of you can say you saw a movie at the drive-in that once was in the area of the radio station on the east end of town? How many of you saw "Gone With The Wind", "The Ten Commandments", and "Thunder Road" at the Grand Theater? Who among you went to see Officer Don of the "Popeye Club" on Channel 2 come to the Grand Theater one snowy Saturday morning? Can you remember the science fiction and horror movies of the 50's and 60's we'd sit through on Saturday afternoons at Mr. Moon's theater? I remember when VHS came out and you could rent a movie. That technology made way for DVD and now Blu-Ray seems to be the technological rage for watching movies. Today movies on demand can save you a trip to rent a movie. Are you old enough to remember when there was no cable or satellite television. Ray Hitchcock had a Channel Master rotating television antenna and could pick up television from Atlanta, Birmingham, and Chattanooga. Do you remember television before remote control and you actually had to leave your comfortable position on the sofa to change the channel? Do you remember the NBC peacock spreading its colorful wings before shows like "Bonanza" came on? Back in the day our telephones had rotary dials and it was a long distance call to Carrollton or Cedartown. I don't know why I still have a home telephone number because it might ring a couple of times a day usually a wrong number. Many people have dropped their land lines because they use mobile phones the most. To my knowledge I have not had a single student in my classes that doesn't have a cell phone. Texting has replaced email as a big form of communication. Blackberries were once something put in my grandmother's cobblers. Now they're are something that many of us can't live without. We have access to information right at our fingertips with a Blackberry smart phone and the Iphone. I don't own a camera but I do own a Blackberry that takes great pictures. When is the last time you saw a Polaroid Swinger camera? I once won a Kodak Instamatic camera at Mitnick Chevrolet in a contest drawing they had to show off the new Chevrolets of 1967. Do you recall when Mitnick Chevrolet and Kilgo Ford would bring in the new model year cars in September of every year and guys would stand around with the hood open pointing to valves and carburetors? I would sometimes sometimes stand around with them even though I had no clue the difference in a 327 or a 409 engine. The Beach Boys had a hit song called "409" but no one ever recorded a song about the 289 engine of the Ford Mustang. There was a Wilson Pickett hit "Mustang Sally" however. No one ever did a song about the Nash Rambler or Ford Maverick. College students tell me they don't read magazines, newspapers, and periodicals the way the generation before did. I am kind of excited about the city's plan to bring WiFi to Tallapoosa. Internet communication is a marvelous thing. Facebook has become a phenomenal way to communicate and to reconnect with old friends. Are any of y'all learning the communication skill of Twittering? What ever happened to beepers? I am honored to be the commencement speaker to the graduates of Continuing Education at Kennesaw State this coming Tuesday night. It is never too late to learn and learning is life long. I hope you all have a fantastic week and on Monday remember Pearl Harbor.