posed shoes. They have prompted the manufacture and marketing

posed shoes.

They have prompted the manufacture and marketing of at least one new product, now advertised on television, to neutralize or offset the odor of walking or running shoes. This is a product needed 50 years ago when, in late summer, the season’s “Keds” were so rank that mothers ordered them put out of doors at night along with the cat.

Undoubtedly there is more and better sound these days, technically speaking, as a result of the five or six sound-affecting inventions included in the report. These include long playing records, hi-fis, compact discs, magnetic tape, etc. It is hard to identify their truly revolutionary character, however.

On the other hand, television and videotape recorders have eliminated the small town movie theater, and all but eliminated conversation, checkers, dominos, card playing, and the family piano as family recreation.

Perhaps the most revolutionary innovation, although it is only marginally included in the book, is the power lawn mower, without which suburban development as we know it might not have taken place. Great principles of community living, such as “Never trust a neighbor who offers to cut your lawn, or trim your side of the hedge” might never have been pronounced. Nor would Saturday in the suburbs have become a lost day of the week.

Significant revolutionary innovations missing from the Consumers’ Union list are the ball point pen and variations of it (far cries from Parker’s Life Time pen, once popular as a high school graduation present), which have become common property beyond what Karl Marx anticipated; the hard hat, which has reduced construction accidents, spun-off into motorcycle and football helmets, become a trademark for those who do physical work, and replaced the old pith helmet for colonial and post-colonial wear, and the plastic garbage bag, whose usefulness is legendary and which makes modern urban and suburban life possible.