The Passage of Time
Some perspective, for the kids of the 60's and 70's ... and maybe even the 80's.
Originally composed in the quiet of a study hall on January 19, 2022. What a wonderful opportunity to be alone with your thoughts in the midst of a wonderful group of ninth graders … gb
A little stroll down memory lane – just for some perspective …
I seem to be hearing a lot of nostalgia these days of the bygone childhood days of “my era.” The days when we walked to school without parents, were kicked out of the house on warm sunny days and told to make our own fun in the neighborhood – and could only come home when we heard the ding, ding, ding of the dinner bell. When we rode our bikes when we needed to get somewhere (your bike opened the entire world to you – and it had to be cool, usually with playing cards clothespinned to the front fork so they clicked as the spokes hit them). When you could create a whole new world with a stick and a few rocks (you could be doing battle against anyone and anything. When roofs were things to be climbed on and jumped off. When a baseball, kickball, basketball, dunk ball, or football game were simply things that happened in the course of a day – regardless of how many people were, or space was, available. When that nasty cut or slightly broken bone was simply a thing you dealt with. When you settled, or at least tried to settle, scores in the schoolyard. When guys were guys and girls were girls – and the tomboy was welcome to play the game, and the boy who wanted to play with dolls was welcome to do that (granted, with some ribbing from the crew). When you first dreamed of holding hands with that cute girl who sat at the desk in the corner (not realizing that the girl you really wanted to hold hands with wasn’t even born yet, but would someday be your partner in creating and raising a family of your own). When the world was your oyster, and you didn’t even know it!
Those are the types of nostalgic stuff we hear all the time these days, but let’s think about time for a moment. When we were in grammar school, the “atomic age” that had already shaped our world was in its mid-late 20s and only approaching it’s 30th birthday. Computers were enormous and existed only in strange and remote government facilities. Cable TV? Remote controls? No – we got up, crossed the room and turned the dial to one of the 5 TV stations available to us. We laid on the kitchen floor talking on the phone (for entirely too long) because that's where the phone was attached to the wall and the receiver was tethered to it by a wire that was curled and always twisted upon itself. Merry Christmas hadn’t yet given way to Season’s Greetings and Happy Holidays.
It was a different day and time. We’ve grown and things have changed – possibly even for the better. We can accept that and still celebrate the good old days, because …
When my Dad was teetering on the ripe old age of 48, I had just turned 10 and had probably just finished 4th grade (Mrs. Limbacher rocked!) – it was 1972, and I didn’t even know the world was going to hell in a handbasket. Vietnam, burning cities, protest, counter-culture, and assassinations had been a part of our growing up to that point and the wonders of Watergate, the Bicentennial, fear of sharks, OPEC and the oil crisis, disco, and hostages in Iran were all on the very near horizon. Dad was the aged pillar of wisdom through all of this – the guy who always had the answers, the perspective, the advice, and the sage humor you always needed. After all, he had grown up in the Roaring 20’s and Great Depression, and had come of age During WWII and Korea (heck he was already married and had begun a family by the time Korea rolled around). Those were the ancient times – the times that forged great men and women, had changed the world, had saved freedom and the economy, had given birth to the world that was our oyster.
But all of that was ancient history. I remember thinking of the roaring 20’s as such a distant past, seeing pictures of FDR, of young men on battleships in WWII, of the “Bomb”, of Ike, of the Nixon/Kennedy Debates, of the assassination of JFK and thinking of how remote in time all of that was. The stuff of stories and ancient history. Come on, Happy Days and The Fonz were stories of a time LONG past.
To today, and here’s the perspective part. Picture the 10 year old. We know they’ve grown up in a much different world – one of video games, safety, and a world of terror and internet that has robbed them of the innocence that opened up the world of childhood to us. Our 1960 (the Nixon/Kennedy Debates) is their 2010. Our 1963 (JFK assassination) is their 2013 with Obama finishing his 5th year in office. Our Ike is their Bill Clinton. Our “Dewey Defeats Truman” headline is their Clinton defeats Bush (GHW, that is) headline. Our Great Depression is their Watergate and Jimmy Carter. Our FDR and WWII is their “Miracle on Ice” and Reagan Resurgence. Our Roaring 20s is their Sixties…
We are now the aged pillars of wisdom – let’s act like it …