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"Sounding Off" I decided to include this page on my web site because there are times that I just want to rant and rave and express myself about something. This is my space where I either defend or offend; but luckily, we have the right to do this here in America! I add this or that from time to time, but my most recent rantings will be at the top of the page, with older rants and raves as you scroll down. Should you happen to agree or disagree with any of this material to the extent you wish to express yourself, go ahead and drop me a line at joannahudsonmail@aol.com 'cause I would love to hear from you! ********** SUBJECT: THE GOOD OLD DAYS? I'm sure most of you have gotten one or more of those "Remember The Good Old Days" e-mails that float around incessantly, praising the way it used to be and how terribly we suffer today because technology has "taken over everything" and all that blah-blah-blah. Yes, I'm old enough to remember those "good old days," and after reading a good many of these e-mails, I decided it was time that this little baby-boomer wrote a few words to defend the way we live today. So, here 'tis: I can remember my ugly gym uniform, with much DISDAIN! Unflattering outfits do not do any good for the psyche of the teenage female. If it still took 5 minutes for the TV to warm up, I might miss my favorite video or important news event. Well, I was a latchkey child, so my mom brought me home from school and then went to work. But you know what? I learned how to entertain myself. I learned how to sew and make my own clothes. I got all my homework done first because I was proud to be independent and not having to have my Mommy around to prod me into doing the right thing. And I learned that Mom actually preferred earning a good living as a nurse as opposed to scrubbing floors and toilets for no pay! A contribution from Dave Roberts follows: Here is one for your “Good Old Days” collection. You have heard the contemporary term giving a child a “Time out” when they are misbehaving, acting up or being unruly. Well, I grew up in the 60’s, long before that term’s existed. However, my Mama exercised time outs way back then. If I was misbehaving, my Mama would take “Time Out” of her busy schedule to come find me and beat my little ass. Ah, the good old days....Take care......Dave Roberts Here in this new century, I have 4 dogs, and none of them are purebred. I still collect them off the streets like I did in the "good old 1950's" and know plenty of people who love their mutts as much as I love mine, then and now! A quarter was a decent allowance only because $50 a week was a decent paycheck. And thanks to the invention of panythose, Mom no longer has to try to figure out why she has an uneven number of nylons. One less problem for Mom, thank God. I never found anything desirable about my male teachers' neckties; however, I found it very attractive to run into them in the grocery store and see them wearing shorts and T-shirts. Made me want to go to class, if you know what I mean.........especially the math guy, Mr. John Gambogi, oo-la-la........... Yes, I remember my female teachers' bad hairstyles. Teased and sprayed into rock-hard helmets. Do you really think they went through that process daily? Hell, no! It was a once-a-week event and they did not wash or comb it for the entire week. I always wondered what might be nesting in there.....???? Oh, and the high heels??? Does anyone know what a bunion is? What causes a bunion? How painful they can be? How ugly they can be? (Yeah, right, the good old days.) At least now most women are smart enough to take care of the feet that they need to carry them around throughout their lifetime! Do you really think that gas-pumping and oil-checking and windshield-cleaning was FREE??? Believe me, those people got paid. I did that exact job in the 1970's and made some pretty good money. Where do you suppose that money came from? Free? I don't think so. It was built into the price of gas. Now we can go to the drive-through car wash and get the whole car cleaned in 5 minutes. I'll take that over a crusty old man cleaning my windshield, any day! I can pretty much live without free glasses and towels hidden in the laundry detergent box. I'd rather have the extra detergent it displaces. I've got plenty of glasses and towels, thank you. I still consider ANY trip to a restaurant a great privilege, parents or not! I remember the kids that failed a grade and repeated that grade. They didn't learn anything the 2nd time around, either. Let's face it, either your kid is smart and wants to learn, or they're not. You're pretty much born with that. There were just as many illiterates then as there are now. Ah, yes, the '57 Chevy. Great car! A lot of girls got pregnant in the back seat, it was bigger than most of the beds they slept in at home! While we're on cars, remember your friends you grew up with, or their parents, or anybody for that matter, who went through the windshields, were ejected, died and were out of your life forever because there were no seat belts? Hmmmmmmmm.................. You mean you can't find a place to keep your keys so they can always be found? Too much trouble to lock your doors? Come on, you act like there was no crime back then. I lived in a little tiny one-horse town growing up, my next-door neighbor was stabbed to death for $50. Also, doesn't anybody remember gangsters? Al Capone? Did you ever read the book "In Cold Blood" by Truman Capote? If Mr. Klutter (?sp) had locked the doors on his remote farmhouse, his whole family would probably be alive today. How about Richard Speck? How about the Boston Strangler? Think about it. I don't know about you, but I still look up at the clouds and imagine I see animal shapes in them. And you know what's even better? I can download pictures from the Hubble on my computer. I even have one as wallpaper. Parents playing the game for the kids? I don't remember when that was not the case................... In fact, parents used to demand that their children take over the family business, whether they had any interest in it or not, as opposed to actually maybe following their own dreams??? If it wasn't for Jackie O, John Jr. might have become an actor and we'd still be watching his movies, instead of reading his epitaphs. What a loss. I find comfort in those hermetically-sealed products. You say no one had yet tried to poison a perfect stranger? You must not have heard about the holocaust............... I was sent to the principal's office once. They called my mom. She came in and gave the principal a piece of her mind. Case closed. I still admire her for that. It was a ludicrous accusation to begin with, and I won't even go there..... Drive-by shootings, drugs, gangs? Ditto above (Al Capone, heroin addicts of the 1940's, 1950's, etc.) And a brand-new beverage called Coca-Cola that actually contained cocaine when it first was put on the market??? Spare me. Nothing's changed. Sure, we're on drugs, but at least we know what we're getting and we don't have to get them from the streets. Yeah, the good old days, you say? I notice that most of the items in these e-mails are referencing things occurring in the 1950's. I am now 50+ years old and have a pretty good perspective on the state of our world. I can link a gross majority of our current-day problems to the carelessness and inconsideration of the 1950's. Use it and throw it away instead of recycling. Don't worry about the garbage, they'll find a place to put it. We'll be gone by the time it becomes a problem. And if it wasn't for our home computers, how would you be able to spread these e-mails around??? I think the current times get a bad rap. I'm thrilled with every little gadget that gets invented. Sure, we may work more, but all these little gadgets that we have to do our work with, I actually find them so fascinating that I enjoy my work. Do you understand that? ENJOY MY WORK. I sit in my OWN OFFICE in my OWN HOUSE, do my work and send it to my clients with the click of a mouse. NO UNREASONABLE BOSS BREATHING DOWN MY NECK, NOBODY CONTROLLING MY EARNING POWER, NOBODY TELLING ME I CAN HAVE ONE WEEK OF VACATION THIS YEAR!!!! Yeah, the good old days when heart disease and cancer were pretty much a death sentence. Yeah, the good old days when criminals got away with it because they could not be linked to the crimes by their DNA, nor could those falsely accused, convicted and executed be cleared by the same method. Yeah, the good old days when my dear aunt worked as a secretary on a manual typewriter and ruined her wrists by age 60. She spent the last 27 years of her life struggling to open jars and hold the pen to write letters. Yeah, the good old days when divorce was rather taboo and women spent their lives with rotten men because they thought they "had to" to survive. I'll take this century over the last one ANY DAY! I have gotten so many of these E-mails praising the good old days. I just wanted to praise TODAY for a change. There, I feel better now. Thank you for "listening" and have a nice TODAY! |