Times have changed so much and its not really for the better ( no politics)

[HeatherLynn]

Grandpa, tell me 'bout the good old days
Sometimes it feels like this world's gone crazy
And Grandpa, take me back to yesterday
When the line between right and wrong
Didn't seem so hazy

Did lovers really fall in love to stay
And stand beside each other, come what may?
Was a promise really something people kept
Not just something they would say?
Did families really bow their heads to pray
Did daddies really never go away?
Oh, Grandpa, tell me 'bout the good old days

Grandpa, everything is changing fast
We call it progress, but I just don't know
And Grandpa, let's wander back into the past
And paint me the picture of long ago

Did lovers really fall in love to stay
And stand beside each other, come what may?
Was a promise really something people kept
Not just something they would say, and forget
Did families really bow their heads to pray
Did daddies really never go away?
Oh, Grandpa, tell me 'bout the good old days
Oh, Grandpa, tell me 'bout the good old days


I got to thinking about this song tonight and it gets you to thinking. What am I teaching my kids. What are they learning about life when they watch us or watch their friends families. Its no wonder our government or economy or whatever is so messed up because really the foundation of it all is the American people. We the people are pretty sad right now.( literally have you seem the depression rates) Just makes me want to show my kids that it doesn't have to be what they see on the news or what they hear about. I want to do better and live better. I would give them a few extra hugs but they are already asleep. We have been working on it but ya know, we should spend more time with them. You get caught up in working all the time and the kids are watching half the family going through divorce, depression, alcoholism. Man they need us more. I keep listening to the song and remembering what I learned when I was little when times really were different. Not perfect but different.( and I do know life wasn't perfect but I think it was better than this) It just has me thinking. Makes me long for a time when I could sit on a knee and be told it would all be all right. No more grandpa's for me to sit on their knee and well my dad would break if I sat on his. I guess I just will listen to the song again. Just thought I would share. Maybe its a night for idealistic dreaming.

 

[mississippifarmboy]

Nothing wrong with a little idealistic dreaming Heather.



Sometimes it's all we have... The Dream.

 

[chickened]

Have not heard those words in a while... dad would whistle that song from time to time. I am with you though.

 

[newfoundland]

I think this strikes a chord with all of us. Nothing seems as it was and some things have changed for the better, but others for the worst. Ever heard the quote, 'the past is a foreign country,' it certainly feels like that. You love your children and trust me when I say that is all the security they will ever need. Hang on to your values and you will not go far wrong.

 

[thaiturkey]

The 'good' old days for many include:

The First World War

The Second World War

The Korean War

The Vietnamese War

The Holocaust

The A bomb

The 1930's Depression

Hunger

Lives controlled by military, authoritarian governments. clergy and outmoded laws and customs

High rates of infant mortality

Premature death because of lack of health care

and as many more examples as you care to mention


The world is changing and always has been. There have probably always been older people who bemoan the changes that the don't like or don't understand. It's part of the process of their generation losing its previous social status.

You must decide whether your glass is half empty or half full. I'm a baby boomer and have, amongst many others, the following that I didn't have when I was living in my 'good old days':

Respect for and understanding of some other cultures, despite the Empire propaganda at school in the early 1950s

Some amazing music

Freedom to dress as I wish

Internet access to knowledge. Retirement would not be so interesting without it.

Freedom to express my views about the establishment and most other things

Better food

Colour television, dvd's and hi-fi

A better social environment where people can be themselves and not have to fit some restricting model persona

Freedom to leave a failed relationship

Ability to communicate with people all over the world with ease and at little expense. learning from them and about their way of life

Enough money

Some wonderful memories


Try starting your own list of what you have that you didn't have. The 'good old days' weren't always so good and the summers weren't always sunny and warm.

 

[mom'sfolly]

Let me give you some other song lyrics to illustrate an opposing position. But just let me say, things were bad in the past as well, but you didn't have every possible venue telling you how bad off you were. You didn't have social media, websites, 24-hour news channels, talk radio, etc re-enforcing the view that the world and everyone in it sucks. You had your peers, the evening news program and a local paper, and maybe a national news magazine. You didn't hear about suicides from military families, economic indicators, Nancy Grace's pet little white girl lost, national divorce rates, sexual scandals in the churches and all the other junk we get pounded with. Our unhappinesses were those of ourselves and our communities, not the woes, literally, of the world shown to us daily.


Now some lyrics

Another day older and deeper in debt
St. Peter don't you call me 'cause I can't go
I owe my soul to the company store

or a Woodie Guthrie classic

It's a mighty hard row that my poor hands have hoed
My poor feet have traveled a hot dusty road
Out of your Dust Bowl and Westward we rolled
And your deserts were hot and your mountains were cold

I worked in your orchards of peaches and prunes
I slept on the ground in the light of the moon
On the edge of the city you'll see us and then
We come with the dust and we go with the wind

California, Arizona, I harvest your crops
Well its North up to Oregon to gather your hops
Dig the beets from your ground, cut the grapes from your vine
To set on your table your light sparkling wine

Green pastures of plenty from dry desert ground
From the Grand Coulee Dam where the waters run down
Every state in the Union us migrants have been
We'll work in this fight and we'll fight till we win

It's always we rambled, that river and I
All along your green valley, I will work till I die
My land I'll defend with my life if it be
Cause my pastures of plenty must always be free

This being said, we all dream of better for our kids than what we have. We all wish for the world to line up and be easy for them. We hope and dream that they will not have to struggle and that the horrors of the world don't touch them. This is as it should be. We want all the best for those we love, and for our children most of all. The only danger in dreaming or thinking that another time might have been easier is deluding yourself. No time was really easier. Socrates complained about the "youth of today" so to speak, saying they were different from when he was a kids and so disrespectful now days. Humans are what they are, they do stupid stuff, they hurt one another, they make bad choices for themselves and their governments; but they also help others in need, love desperately, create music, art and dance, inspire, create and care. By looking backwards you can diminish the wonder of today.

 

[thaiturkey]

If anyone really thinks he or she has got it hard, PM me and I'll arrange a two week home stay with some families in the villages around here. Jeez, count your blessings and get on with life as you find it.

 

[HeatherLynn]

Oh i don't think my life is bad. I know I have it good. I think its just a fondness for the times when i grew up. Running around in a field by our neighborhood with the other kids. Playing ball in each others yards. The world really is different. Attitudes are worse. People just are not the same. Family is not the same. Guess I was just remembering how I used to see the world. Its not the same. It was softer. My kids see a different one. Its harder and sharper. Not that it was perfect when I was a kid either. We had the creepy guy in the van who offered everyone candy that everyone knew to avoid. A little girl went missing and we later found out her step mom killed her. I understand it wasn't all soft and fuzzy happy. I'm just saying it was a bit softer. We had other moms in the neighborhood pulling us into their house and calling our mom to pick us up when the creepy guy was on the prowl. It was nothing to have a mom running out with bandaids if we fell in front of her house. I was just remembering what used to be. Just makes me want to try even harder to show my kids some of the same.

I am still young enough and the kids are too, to change how they see the world. I have to warn them but I can also encourage them. They hopefully will see marriage through the eyes of their parents and not the world around them. Maybe they can learn to take the time to appreciate whats around them instead of whats on the tv screen or at the mall. Maybe even enjoying the satisfaction of real work. I just was thinking guys. It was not some huge commentary on anything in particular. Just remembering how I once viewed the world and thought maybe it would bring back some memories.

 

[ScottnLydia]

Oh i don't think my life is bad. I know I have it good. I think its just a fondness for the times when i grew up. Running around in a field by our neighborhood with the other kids. Playing ball in each others yards. The world really is different. Attitudes are worse. People just are not the same. Family is not the same. Guess I was just remembering how I used to see the world. Its not the same. It was softer. My kids see a different one. Its harder and sharper. Not that it was perfect when I was a kid either. We had the creepy guy in the van who offered everyone candy that everyone knew to avoid. A little girl went missing and we later found out her step mom killed her. I understand it wasn't all soft and fuzzy happy. I'm just saying it was a bit softer. We had other moms in the neighborhood pulling us into their house and calling our mom to pick us up when the creepy guy was on the prowl. It was nothing to have a mom running out with bandaids if we fell in front of her house. I was just remembering what used to be. Just makes me want to try even harder to show my kids some of the same.

I am still young enough and the kids are too, to change how they see the world. I have to warn them but I can also encourage them. They hopefully will see marriage through the eyes of their parents and not the world around them. Maybe they can learn to take the time to appreciate whats around them instead of whats on the tv screen or at the mall. Maybe even enjoying the satisfaction of real work. I just was thinking guys. It was not some huge commentary on anything in particular. Just remembering how I once viewed the world and thought maybe it would bring back some memories.

Child, it's O.K. What folks are trying to say is that there has always been trouble in the world. What has actually changed is you! You no longer see the world with a protected childs eyes. You're now a mom. A good mom, who cares! That gives you new eyes, a protectors eyes. Watching for the troubles and ever alert to protect your brood!

You won't ever be able to go back to 'softer', I'm so sorry. Life just doesn't go backwards. But since you've taken on the noble calling of motherhood I doubt you would want it to. But there are joys to be seen, focus on them and ignore the pestilence. To paraphrase scripture, "If the T.V. offends thee, chuck it out!" The news gets ratings by focusing on the bad and lurid, not the good and uplifting.

So remember your childhood with warmth, and speak of it with your children. Remember, they are viewing these days with a childs eyes, and will remember them as being 'softer'.

Now give yourself a hug, drink a glass of milk, and know you are loved!

~S

 

[WinklerFarms]

There are some values of the past tat have been lost though. Sense of community Has been lost. There are few people who hold this value. People don't help each other enough . I am not saying nobody does but it is a fading from our society and it is all driven by greed, materialism, and overpopulation. People won't help put their neighbor because they see no benefit for themselves.