20 THINGS

Tonight was the 3rd out of 4 "LETTERS FROM DAD" meetings where about 70 men gathered together to learn about how to write a letter of honor to their mothers and fathers. We've already written to our wives -- and our children -- and now it's time to write to our parents. It will be one of the most important, yet one of the toughest letters by far for many of the guys to write.

Along those lines, I saw something not long ago that listed "20 THINGS THAT ARE ABOUT TO GO EXTINCT IN THE U.S." They were:

The Yellow Pages. What with the rise of the internet and all, I get that. My wife tells me I'm a Neanderthal every time I reach for them now.

Classified Ads. Ditto. Hello Craigslist.

Movie Rental Stores. Blockbuster is closing stores left and right and their stock is way down.

Dial-Up Internet Access. In 2001, they had 40% of the market. Today? 10%.

Phone Landlines. They will go the way of the Stegosaurus. The number of homes that only use cell phones jumped 159% between 2004 and 2007.

VCRs. Some of the people reading this blog ALREADY don't know what these are. 'Nuff said.

The Swimming Hole ... a.k.a. Public Neighborhood Pools. Thanks to our litigious society.

Answering Machines. This is directly tied to the decline of phone landlines.

Cameras That Use Film. Seriously. Already we're saying, "What's film?" Nikon, one of the biggies, announced in 2006 it would stop making film cameras. 75% of its sales are from digital cameras and related equipment.

Incandescent Light Bulbs. Before a few years ago, the standard 60-watt bulb was the mainstay of every U.S. home. With the green movement crowd, the Compact Fluorescent Light bulb(CFL) is largely replacing the older, Edison-era incandescent bulb. And according to USA Today, a new energy bill plans to phase out incandescent bulbs in the next four to 12 years.

Stand-Alone Bowling Alleys. There are still 60 million Americans who bowl at least once a year, but many are not bowling in stand-alone bowling alleys. Most new bowling alleys are part of facilities for all types or recreation including laser tag, go-karts, bumper cars, video game arcades, climbing walls and miniature golf.

The Milkman. Again -- WHO?

Personal Checks. 23% of consumers plan to decrease their use of checks over the next two years, while a net 14% plan to increase their use of PIN debit. Bill payment remains the last stronghold of paper-based payments.

Drive-in Theaters. Honestly, I hope not, but alas. During the peak in 1958, there were more than 4,000 drive-in theatres in this country, but in 2007 only 405 drive-ins were still operating. Exactly zero new drive-ins have been built since 2005.

Mumps & Measles. In 1964, 212,000 cases of mumps were reported in the U.S. By 1983, this figure had dropped to 3,000, thanks to a vigorous vaccination program. In 2005, only 66 cases were recorded.

Honey Bees. Perhaps nothing on this list of things disappearing in America is so dire - and so necessary to the survival of our food supply as the honey bee.

News Magazines & TV News. Please.

Analog TV. Hi-Def and BlueRay, baby.

The Family Farm. According to the USDA, 5.3 million farms dotted the nation in 1950, but this number had declined to 2.1 million by the 2003 farm census.

Hand-written Letters. Which is what brings me to this "LETTERS FROM DAD" blog tonight. Two million emails are sent every second in the US. I'm sending about half of those myself. In 2004, half-a-trillion text messages were sent. But we are fighting against that trend at KFA to revive the elegant, hand-written letter to say "THANKS" to those people we love - our wives - our children - our parents - in the pen of our own hand.

Try it with us.

And be blessed.