For two decades, I have volunteered as a voice actor and reader for Sun Sounds of Arizona, a radio reading service for the blind and print disabled. For one of my programs, called “Reminiscing,” I read from a magazine titled, “The Good Old Days.”
When I think about the “good old days,” I’m thinking of the 1930’s, 40’s, and 50’s. What bothers me is that the magazine – and I suspect the rest of society – define the “good old days” as the 1970’s and 80’s. What?!! What happened? When did I get so old that my young adulthood is now considered only a nostalgic memory?
Today, I’m sitting here in my hairdresser’s salon, my hair smeared with red hair dye, hoping the dye is sufficient to cover all the steely grey hairs, while listening to the typical hair salon discussions going on around me. The topic of conversation seems to be a general condemnation of the younger generations. You know the typical complaints – they’re self-centered, unwilling to work hard, expecting instant success, requiring everyone else to accede to their demands, blah, blah, blah.
I couldn’t help but remember something I’d read once upon a time. One of the Greek philosophers – maybe Aristotle or Plato – made a similar remark about the young people in their Greek society. So, it must be a universal truth that each generation thinks the one that follows is flawed and doesn’t measure up to the “good old days.”
Wait a minute! Didn’t our generation raise the next generation? So who’s at fault, us or them?
In my opinion, no one is at fault…unless you want to blame Mother Nature. All creatures come out of the womb with the inborn desire to explore, find their own unique place on the planet, and test the boundaries of this new and fascinating environment. We who have done all that long ago, and have found our “comfort zones,” seem to have forgotten our own past struggles to achieve our unique (and sometimes flawed) personal identity.
My grandson, when he was three years old, was often testing his boundaries. His mother tried to teach him how overstepping those boundaries could have negative consequences. She recounted an incident to me in which her son wanted to do something he was not permitted to do, and she told him, “No.” She also gave him valid reasons why he could not do what he wanted.
He shouted at her, “I don’t love you anymore!” A few minutes later he dropped a toy in the back seat of the car and couldn’t reach it. He asked his mother to get it for him.
She replied, “I only pick up toys for people who love me.”
Her son thought a minute, and then responded with a glum “I love you.”
“How much?” his mother asked.
He thought about that for several seconds. “Two or three times, I guess.”
Looking back on my own “good old days,” I don’t recall ever being that clever.
Humor she wrote 