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Wednesday, January 11, 2006
 
The Good Old Days
It seems that things were always better in the Good Old Days.

Riding down the elevator from my office this morning, an elderly gentleman is conversing with someone else on the elevator.

"The Fifties were the good old days, not today."

I interject:

"Not the good old days thing again, tomorrow you'll say that today was better than tomorrow because it will have become the good old days."

He replies: "No, today is wild and crazy. The good old days were in the 1950's."

To which I reply: "How can you say that? The 1950's were full of fear, the Red Menace, nuclear annihilation, Joseph McCarthy, etc."

"Son," he says, "I fought in the Korean War in the 1950's. I was seriously wounded and ended up at Walter Reed Medical Center outside Washington, D.C. Senator McCarthy came to visit me."

"Really." I said.

"Yes, he wanted me to sign an oath of loyalty."

"Interesting. So what did you do?"

"I told him to go f#%& himself."

And he walked off the elevator.

Aside from the enjoyment I derived from seeing an 80 year old using the f-word, it struck me as amazing that despite the fact that he went to war, despite the fact that he was wounded and despite the fact that the country was in a state of suspicion and fear, he still felt that those were the good old days. Why is that?

Why is it that we are never satisfied with the here and now? Things were always better before, and of course, they can only get better in the future. Or maybe they're not always going to get better in the future. To quote Jack Nicholson "What if this is as good as it gets?"

I can understand being optimistic about the future more than I can understand the notion that things were always better before. I think part of the way our mind works is to focus on the good stuff in our life, and suppress things that were bad. I've said before that our memory for events can be selective, but does that apply to emotions, feelings and our sense of well-being? Are the emotions and feelings actually more important? There are parts of my life I can look back on and say those were the good old days (year I spent at Hebrew University in Jerusalem), and other parts were the bad old days (11th Grade). I assign them as good or bad based not entirely on what happened to me, but based on the emotions I remember I had at the time. So maybe elderly elevator guy went to war and was wounded, but he was happy to do it, felt good about himself at the time, and that's why they were the good old days. Either way, I hope to live to an age where I can recount to a young whippersnapper that I once told someone like a United States Senator to go f#%& himself! The Good Old Days indeed!
- posted by wanderer @ 1:50 PM
Comments:
You're full of crap. The 80's were the good old days.
# posted by Blogger PsychoToddler : 1/11/2006 2:39 PM
 
Here's the deal...when you hit old age, there is nothing to look forward to...only backward. So even if things were lousy, the past looks great compared to the future. Boy, doesn't getting old sound depressing? Unless, as my husband always says...he hopes to die at the age of 90, shot in the back by a jealous husband (assuming I'm already dead, of course)
# posted by Blogger cruisin-mom : 1/11/2006 3:35 PM
 
Dennis Prager says that conservatives romanticize the past, liberals romanticize the future, and both crap on the present. The truth is that life overall has never been objectively better than it is now, though certain specific things have gotten worse. It will be better still in the future except that we'll either all be speaking Arabic or we'll all be in group marriages and using legalized recreational drugs.
# posted by Blogger Doctor Bean : 1/11/2006 3:45 PM
 
There is a correspondent to the present - when people say, "This is (enter year here)." As in, "I can't believe he said that, this is 2006!" As if just because it's the current year it should necessarily be the best ever. Like no one ever said, "This is 1916!"
# posted by Blogger Ralphie : 1/11/2006 9:01 PM
 
PT - hmmm. 11th Grade was in the 80's - sucked. Hebrew University was also in the 80's - great! Its a mixed bag. Overall I'd say the 80's were a loopy decade - Reagan was President for most of it...

CM - if you're not dead, maybe you'll be the one shooting him and not the jealous husband!

Bean - By the sword of the prophet, this is the best pot I've ever smoked. Allahu akbar!

Ralphie - they probably did say that in 1916...
# posted by Blogger wanderer : 1/12/2006 11:44 AM
 
Thanks Wanderer, i'm not sure if that just made my day or not!
# posted by Blogger cruisin-mom : 1/12/2006 4:36 PM
 
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