Now that I’m an octogenarian, being 81 years of age, I have learned how damn useless I am.

I hope I just wear out and not rust out.

Yes, I have most of the answers, but no one asks any questions.

Growing old sure ain’t for sissies. This was not really an idea of mine.

I got it from one of my many letters I received from my 102-year-old Vero Beach, Fla., friend.

He was Floyd Gifford and was born in 1891, the same year my mother was born.

They went to school together.

I still have my file of letters written to me over the years.

We sent tapes to each other also.

Being a real popcorn freak, how many can recall when Jiffy-Pop came into our world?

Jiffy-Pop came in a small aluminum pan with the popcorn in it.

Connected to the top of the pan was a very light aluminum folded cover.

When you moved the pan over the burner of the stove, the popped corn would raise up the cover to make an aluminum bowl of popped corn.

Eureka! You could eat the corn from this raised bowl and when it was emptied, the pan and connected bowl went into the trash can.

Next came the bags you put into your microwave.

I’ve seen lots of ways of how to pop corn. In fact, years ago I bought a special bowl that could be put in the microwave.

You put in just a tablespoon of cooking oil and the corn.

Actually, it was one of the best ways I’ve found, as it always did a good job, but it is so much faster and easier to pop a bag in the microwave.

These modern conveniences make lazy people out of us, do they not?

Come to think of it, I can remember way back as a youngster, my folks had a wire-like square basket with a long handle and you pushed it with popcorn in it across the top of your stove burner to pop your corn.

I can remember when we used a piece of baling wire to make a minor repair job. Now we use duct tape as a substitute.

How many old timer radio listeners remember the Lucky Strike Hit Parade? It was a favorite of many years back.

I wonder if anyone can recall April 3, 1975. In a looking back column, we had the worst storm of the winter, a barrage of sleet, rain, snow and wind.

Winds of 35 mph gave us five-foot drifts with an icy crust on them.

“Cardinal Charlie” Gill writes a nostalgic weekly column about growing up in the Grand Old City. E-mail him at cardinalcharlie@hotmail.com.