These Are The Good Old Days

I was born in the tumultuous 1960's and grew up in the cultural/political malaise of the 70's. Adulthood was reached in Reagan's 80's, but parenthood waited until the post-Cold War 90's. Now I find myself living in a post-modern world - one marked by tremendous technological advances that are directly competing with a social/cultural movement to return to "The Good Old Days".

Looking backward to the security of the past is natural. History is written and only certainty exists. The future is unknown, and sometimes contains hand-wringing anxiety. Comparatively, the past is predictable and unchanging. But "returning to the past" only works if a group's existence in - say the 1950's (The Good Old Days) - was ideal.

There is only one problem with this. The Good Old Days never were. True, Americans used to enjoy a certain degree of innocence - rural homes were often left unlocked and children sometimes played unattended for hours on end - but still, The Good Old Days were a myth. The television and advertising industry of the 1950's fabricated an image for our consumption that was untenable, through programs such as Ozzie and Harriet, Leave it to Beaver and Father Knows Best. The trouble-free lives these programs depicted never mirrored real life. In fact, The Good Old Days often looked a lot different.

In The Good Old Days many Americans could not exercise their full rights as citizens because they were not the same skin color as the majority of the population. Instead, they were assigned second-class status and treated with scorn, ridicule and violence by those same people who professed to love freedom and liberty for all mankind.

In the Good Old Days women were socially and culturally barred from going as far as their abilities could carry them. Professionally, their low-paying options consisted largely of stereotypically unfulfilling "female" jobs, where even there they could be fired for having the audacity to start a family.

In the Good Old Days schools had drills instructing students in what to do in the event of a nuclear attack. Inevitably, this "drill" consisted of directing students to crouch underneath their desks. Apparently, the desk would re-direct the searing heat, shockwave and radioactive fallout someplace else, possibly the boys' bathroom.

In the Good Old Days cancer was a death sentence. Polio stalked the land. Diseases such as measles, mumps and rubella - now taken care of with routine childhood immunizations - killed thousands of people annually.

In The Good Old Days lives and property were destroyed by natural disasters with no warning for families to protect themselves. Weather forecasting - including the now-present early warning detection systems - was left in the hands of the almanac writers.

And in The Good Old Days two full generations of Americans were fighting World Wars. Three separate times from 1917 to 1953 millions of young men were fighting and dying (over 500,000 deaths all told) in previously unknown jungles, islands, forests and beachheads. Some of these wars were necessary, others were not, but there were unimaginable losses nonetheless.

Here in the present we live in wondrous and frightening times. Many problems from the past (political gridlock, social inequality, unemployment) still plague us. New challenges (spiraling divorce rates, the death of "Main Street", an aging population) have risen. However, even though the American System is often marked by advancing three steps forward followed by two steps back, we - as a nation - still mean well.

As a country of many colors we continue to struggle to live together. But through governmental, social and cultural change, women and minorities have smashed through centuries of bias and discrimination to earn opportunities and status that seemed impossible just two generations ago.

Technologically, America is still the envy of the world. From innovations in medicine, science and communication, new advances are made at a breakneck pace. We live longer and know more about the world because of the ease with which we obtain, share and use information.

In spite of much fear and uncertainty for the future, I believe these are The Good Old Days. Despite a hard-earned loss of innocence over the last century, more Americans are able to enjoy the nation's abundance than ever before. This is true because more Americans are included in the pursuit of happiness, and because death is no longer our constant companion. We have slowly, sometimes painfully, but inexorably learned from our shared past, both its successes and failures. 

I agree with Dr. Suess when he stated through one of his timeless characters that "sometimes Progress progresses too fast". In that process, beauty and civility and decency are occasionally lost. But through the collective creativity and conscience of the American people, "the better angels of our Nature" typically reassert themselves, continually re-making the present over and over again into the Good Old Days. Hasn't it always been so?