7. The Good Old Days

Maybe we are just spoiled, but it does seem as though life is getting harder and drugs are becoming the easy way out.  Life is getting more complicated.  There is way too much stress, demands, and expectations.  We need to be "tech savvy" in order to communicate.

I grew up in the 1950s and my selective memory has convinced me, life was perfect back then.  Food was organic before all of the pesticides and preservatives; and before it became a luxury to buy "real" food.  Needless to say, it tasted delicious.  Today, fruit and vegetables taste like what I imagine cardboard probably tastes.

We got dressed up and wore white cotton gloves when we went shopping at one of the big department stores.  When you rode on the bus, you didn't talk because it might bother other people. If you absolutely had to talk, you whispered.  People were very polite and respectful of each other.  Those really were "the good old days."

Remember the movie, Pleasantville?  Reese Witherspoon and Toby Maguire were siblings who regularly watched a TV program in the afternoons after school, that was about life in the 1950s.  With the help of a mysterious stranger, Toby's character is able to insert himself and his sister into the TV program and they find themselves back in the 50s living in Pleasantville.  It was a fascinating premise.  The town of Pleasantville was all black, white and grey.  There were "colored" people, but not what you think.  They were actually in color and were misfits from society because they were free thinkers and wouldn't go along with all the rules that the town had enforced on everyone.  The 1950s did have a lot of rules of etiquette that were considered acceptable behavior.  I guess you can't have everything, but I strongly recommend the movie.