Is it true? Is everything gone?

I'm not sure about sealife but there is something I've been missing that has to do with a beach; Atlantic City, New Jersey, to be exact. I remember going there as a child with my family. I remember staying in a hotel that had a back door that opened up to a balcony, of sorts. These balconies ran the entire length of this very large hotel on every floor, meaning that you and your "neighbors" from all the rooms on that side of the hotel were on one balcony with nothing separating anyone. I LOVED that hotel!!! Yes, I was just a little thing and times were much different then where trusting your neighbors was as natural as breathing. These hotels are no longer there, at least not the one we went to. I don't believe there are any hotels like this anywhere along the coast anymore. I want so badly to vacation at a beach and initially thought of Atlantic City because of my fond memories there. That's when I found out these hotels no longer exist, well, these balconies no longer exist, anyway. Plus, Atlantic City is now full of gambling and some less-than-legal activities. (I did drive through there a few years back and it was so different I wasn't sure I hadn't gotten lost and somehow ended up in Las Vegas! ) I guess I'll have to do some research to see where the best beach is for someone like me now that my childhood memory-makers are all gone. It is sad, isn't it?

So much is gone. When was the last time you got a hand written letter in your mail box from a friend or family member! I loved that! But no more. TV - what junkie trash is on there now! No fun nights with Matt Dillon or Lucy or Dragnet or Gilligan or Father KNows best or My Three Sons or so many of the other fantastic family fun shows they used to have. No more Wonderful World of Disney! The crap that is on TV now is a disgrace. I remember when KNotts Berry Farm was NOT an amusement park and we'd spend our sunday afternoons in the "old west" and had so much fun. What about home entertainment? When was the last time you got out a board game..Monopoly, Scrable, Life, Candyland, Chutes and Ladders etc? Now, all the kids do is sit there holding a device and their thumbs going mile a minute! Just plain and simple going to the park for the day? Now you can't even let your kids play in the front yard without supervision...not cause you don't trust them, but cause you can't trust others. We used to play around out neighborhood all the time...my kids weren't allowed to leave the front yard. We used to be able to go to the playground at the local schools and play, now they are all fenced up. Construction where the vegetation used to be, freeways where there used to be orange groves, homes where there used to be lemon groves. It is sad that so much has been "lost". But I guess the horse and buggy folks said the same thing when cars can to life. I have lived in several decades...and this current one...it isn't very fun anymore and there is so much that I know and was used to that is missing...people these days don't realize what they are missing.

I think a lot of beauty has gone. I am currently reading this book called 500 Things and Places to See Before They Are Gone. It tells about remarkable sites all around the world and how they may not be there very much longer due to various factors. I think it is a good example of your point. Although I have to say we drove through Colorado to Utah this past summer and I thought the mountains were all remarkably beautiful.