Ain't it the Truth

[Hollis]

Good morning Anne,

Given that my next milestone will be my 60th birthday (if I should make it that far) I can remember (and agree with) just about all the salient points in the list you posted. Unlike some others, I don't remember seeing this particular one in the past. The only real exception would be wearing high top Keds to school on gym days. In Philly, you simply weren't part of the "in-crowd" if you weren't wearing Converse Chuck Taylor All Stars on your feet. Some of us went so far as to lace each shoe with two sets of laces denoting our particular school's colors. And what became of our "Chucks" when it was time for a new pair? Simple! We'd lace the two old "sneakers" (does anyone still call them by that name anymore?) together and throw them into the air at our corner hang-out until we'd successfully wrapped them around one of the overhead power lines! It was like hoisting a flag showing that that the corner was ours! Oh for the days of "pimple balls" and staying out until you heard mom or dad calling you (and not on a cell phone) home to your house. I fear those days are gone forever, and that's not such a good thing in my eyes.

As always,

Hollis

p.s. It's a well known fact the people recall their youth as their defining years. By the time a person is 17, his/her personality is pretty much set in place and unlikely to change a lot no matter how long they may live. It seems to me that the "children" of today are loathe to admit that the "olden days" that they hear their parents and grandparents speaking about could be in any way better than the age they find themselves living in. Anyone who isn't willing to admit that there might just be some things about the past that were "better" or less complicated than the way those things exist today is in for a rude awakening , because somewhere down the line they'll find themselves recalling their own younger years with a sense of nostalgia for the way things "used to be."

[bryce]

Hollis, I for one am more than happy to admit there are things about the past which I greatly admire. For example, the complete lack of CCTVs and warrantless wiretapping. Nevermind the fact that the past equivalent is basically Hoover and the FBI infiltrating domestic organizations and destroying them from the inside. Nevermind that Hoover wiretapped politicians and blackmailed them.

Nostalgia is dangerous. It is the least objective opinion on an all ready totally subjective topic. For instance, my wife has taught children before that have never, and likely will never, hear a dial-tone. Is this bad? Is this good? No, it just is. In my day children can be born with AIDs - not so 100 years ago. That's frankly horrible, but so is dying of polio, and that's the exact opposite - unheard of now, frequent then. Which is better? Which is worse? I for one grew up as part of the last generation not raised on all things digital - I can remember buying CDs and listening to the radio, while kids younger have iPods and downloads. The band we saw last night likes to poke fun at this - "are you enjoying those downloads kids? have you memorized all our lyrics on those tiny 1" tweeters you call speakers?" - but it's all a joke. Do we all probably wish people had actual stereos and weren't internalizing their life by turning off the outside world, always wearing their headphones? Sure we do! But more people than ever are listening to music, stolen or not, and there are more bands than ever making music, regardless of whether they make money. It's a trade-off, and that's what life has always been and what it will always be. Where would blind nostalgia put me if I looked down on these people? I suffer from the same phobia as Hemingway and Thompson - fear of irrelevancy, of getting old and wistful and losing touch with what makes us all young and genius - ie, I'll be nostalgic when I'm dead!

I love it when people recall their memories of past times. I love reading their stories. Can't we have those memories without them being wistful? That is why I enjoy reading your posts so often, Hollis. Despite the fact that you're being nostalgic, you don't come across as it, and thus your posts are fascinating. I could have Friday night beer nights with you for years and never get tired of hearing your stories. Thank you for them!

[Hollis]

Thank you for the platitudes Bryce. They're more than generous. Even though I sometimes "wax nostalgic," I don't know that it's such a bad thing. Looking back at the past, taking stock of the present, or looking ahead to the future are times when we can afford to be less objective and compare our subjective views on said times. As a case in point, I offer you one Mr Walt Disney. Without his subjective view of the future, his empire would have never grown into one of the dominant entertainment franchises of this or any era. I don't know that it's even possible to look at the future with an objective eye given that there's nothing there to measure it by or fairly compare it to. We'll just have to wait and see what it brings, and Nostradamus be damned! That's the fun part of it all. At least that's my opinion. If anyone has a problem with it, it's just that - their problem and not mine. Fair enough? Take care my friend. I enjoy reading what you bring to the table as well.

As always,

Hollis

[mrsl]

Lordy, Lordy:

In the first place, I never published this on the site, I just e-mailed it to a couple of people, I thought it might interest - I guess I was wrong.

Bryce:

That was just a fact for fact piece about old truths vs. new truths, simply saying we endured without all the extra trimming of today. I lived just inside the SW border of Chicago, (semi-farm country), so the polio epidemic was barely known to us, and including, it was discussed on the 10:00 p.m. news when we were fast asleep, and it was second nature for adults to scoot us out of the room when they started to talk about ' things not for tender ears '. I'm sorry about the polio and other fatal problems, but my life did not include them, just as in other neighborhoods kids had better bikes, clothes, houses, etc, but they didn't touch me either.

That piece is not a hunk of nostalgia, it is quite the opposite. It asks the question WHY? Why did we manage to evolve without the use of a DS, computer, color TV, etc. It doesn't say it was BETTER, just DIFFERENT. It's true, when I cut myself, Mom brought out the Mercurochrome, today, it's off to the doctor's to make sure your Tetanus shot is still in effect (I'm not talking about a deep gash, I'm talking about a paper cut). If you brown hamburger, peel potatoes and carrots, and cut up an onion then put it all in a pot to stew all day, it's not necessary to wash and scrub between each veggie. Germs don't have time to become harmful in 15 minutes. I rinse after the potatoes because my hands are slippery from the tater juice, and I don't want to cut myself while working on the onion. But today, you're supposed to wash WITH SOAP after each step - hogwash. After 2 husbands, 4 kids, 6 grandkids, and 18 step-grandkids for countless meals, I never had a single case of salmonella, or even a bad tummy ache.

I may not be all that readable, but when I read those people you were talking about, and I'm pretty sure we all know who they are, I also read it with a bit of knowledge that they may very well have had 1). better educations, 2). jobs that gave them opportunities to study more, 3). less personal problems in their lives, 4). simply the natural gift and flair for writing. And I say, more power to them, they make my days much more enjoyable.

So, when you think someone is waxing nostalgic again, check it a second time.

Anne

[bryce]

I'm glad you have such an intimate knowledge of what all families in America do. As usual, I defer to your obviously superior knowledge of parts and people unknown; knowledge obviously gained through the use of your omnipotent superpowers. How did you gain those?

After 2 husbands, six children, and uncountable grandchildren, my grandmother (on my mother's side) couldn't claim to know anything about anyone else she wasn't family or good friends with, nor would she even try to. She is the perpetual optimist - the future is always brighter than the present, the present always brighter than the past, and the past shines brightly still. Even the negative side-effects of progress don't get her down, as she knows we'll work through them, and life will be better for it. She was raised in a kitchen, daughter of a family that owned a diner, and she still managed to give me stomach aches with her cooking. I'll be sure to let her know she's a crap cook because you personally have never ever, not once in your entire life, gone too heavy on the butter.

My other grandmother has survived three types of cancer, is 85, still cares for her 55 year old former drug addict son (my father), and greets every day with a smile. You want to tell this woman that health care was better way back when? If you do, leave out the utterly sexist aside about nurses in hats - as sexy as I may find them, I'm sure she doesn't give a damn what they're wearing as long as they're good at what they do.

Education, job opportunity, their personal lives and natural talent have not a damn thing to do with this. Some of the most talented people in history have had the most messed up personal lives in the world, were wholly uneducated, or were virtually unknown until long after their deaths. Don't give me that cop-out. We're talking about cynicism and bitterness here, nothing else.

When Orson Welles railed against supposed expertise this is exactly what he was speaking of. Fact wasn't even in the same galaxy as that piece of condescending opinionated know-it-all tripe.

[SSO Admins]

I have pretty strong feelings on the school prayer thing as well as the corporal punishment thing. It goes back to a childhood issue, but it was an experience that taught me that government endorsement of religion is as wrong as could be.

My dad is a Methodist minister. Methodists believe in an itinerant ministry, so it's not at all unusual for them to move every few years. In 1968 we moved to a small town in Oklahoma. The practice in the town was to have monthly religious assemblies. The town ministers would take turns preaching to the school children in the auditorium.

Dad was NOT ok with this. In the first place, this was after Murray vs. Curlett, which theoretically ended the practice of prayer in the public schools. In the second place, he really didn't want his children listening to the scriptural interpretations of some of the more fundamentalist churches. Not only did he refuse to preach at the school, he refused to let us attend.

I was 9, and really didn't get the gist of the argument. I did know that it set me apart from the other kids, which mortified me. What I didn't understand was the level of anger that Dad had raised in the town.

During one such assembly, I was told to sit in my chair and do nothing. I didn't realize that by "nothing" they meant "absolutely nothing." And I caught hell when the teacher poked her head into the room and saw that I was reading a book.

I was given 10 swats with a wooden paddle. For reading a book. In a school.

I didn't mention the incident to my parents until I was an adult, who were appropriately horrified.. For one thing, I had been told that if I got swats in school, I'd get twice as many at home. In retrospect my parents would have raised hell with the school over this, but that subtlety was way beyond me. At the time I was just glad that they didn't find out.

But once I was older and more able to understand the issues involved, I was furious. Even now it angers me. I was hit by a teacher for reading in school.

I have no problem with anyone's faith. But I do not want it promoted by staff or faculty in a public school.

[movieman1957]

I agree that schools have no business leading these kinds of things. For one thing they are probably unqualified if they did and secondly anyone runs the risk of having something taught that goes against their own beliefs whatever they may be. That is why we have churches.

I always liked Bill Bennett's quote (or at least that is where I heard it) that as long as there are math tests there will be prayer in school.

[klondike]

We'd lace the two old "sneakers" (does anyone still call them by that name anymore?) together and throw them into the air at our corner hang-out until we'd successfully wrapped them around one of the overhead power lines! It was like hoisting a flag showing that that the corner was ours!

Hollis!
You need to find a copy of Stephen King's "Hearts in Atlantis", and read the novella from there entitled "Low Men in Yellow Coats"!
Back in the Day, we, too, used to do the 'phone line wrap' with old sneakers (ours usually being P.F. Flyers), and we thought we knew what it meant . . but we were all wrong!

[mrsl]

Gee, Jon, what an awful memory for you. Lucky you were able to return to school and just basically learn anything. I must have started school after some sort of 'thing' about prayer in school because at our public school, there was never any sign of any kind of prayer. I was, however in school when some worthy jerk decided we should add 'Under God' to the Pledge of Allegiance. Those two little words took months to get used to, and now again, they have rightfully removed them.

My four years in a Catholic, all girls high school, every day, as well as every class was started with a prayer which quickly became equal to saying hello or good morning - no meaning, and no expectation of a response, purely rote. Additionally, the nuns could no longer hit for any reason.

A few years ago, upon reading an explanation, I understood why Easter Week is now Spring Break, Christmas vacation is now Winter Break etc. These are just two of the many 'facts and truths' which have been changed by time and education. As a child (5, 6, 7), I doubt many had much trepidation over saying the words 'Under God', or saying 'Christmas' vacation. I can however, understand Jewish pre-teens and teens resenting such things, but change takes time, and shortly after WWII, those changes started to take shape, along with new heroes to revere. Space walks, freedom walks, and peace talks woke us up to things we had always just taken for granted for years, and thus took years to correct. No offense was intended when such things were put in place, and old habits (even bad ones) are hard to break, ask any ex-smoker, or ex-drinker, and acceptance eventually takes over, but a little understanding during the transition is nice.

Now, I'm going to go and watch a classic movie.

Anne