Ah, the Good Bad Old Days

Those among my legions of followers who haven't been using public transportation in the Boston area for years won't get much out of this, but...remember before the Charlie Card, when you got a different-colored pass every month?

The Charlie Card is way more practical, don't get me wrong. Purely in terms of convenience, having the same card automatically reloaded with a new monthly pass is far preferable to getting a completely different card every month.

Still, from an aesthetic standpoint, Charlie is kind of boring.

Back in the day, remember how pretty the passes were? Check these out:

All those colors. I like colors.

Somebody used to have a job that involved picking out the colors for each month. That must have been kind of fun.

And yes, that represents several years worth of monthly subway passes that I have been holding onto even though we've been using the Charlie Ticket design since 2006. Because I knew that someday I would want to show them to you.

One day, when high-tech materials allow Charlie Cards to be remotely reloaded with a new pass and automatically changed to a cool new color scheme every month...then we'll be talking.