BACK IN TIME

“In every age, the ‘good old days’ were a myth. No one ever thought they were good at the time”

---Brooks Atkinson   

I’m very happy to live in this time. We have technology that saves lives; we have resources that will ensure that our children will have it even better than we do and we can literally travel to any corner of the earth with ease. People used to die of diseases that don’t even exist anymore. Setting aside politics and war, which have pretty much impacted every decade since the Big Bang, it really is a wonderful time to be alive.

Except for all the other times, right? For whatever reason, people like to look back. They want to remember how it used to be before. Before what? Before I had my hip replaced, I walked funny and was in pain a lot. Now I’m bionic, sort of.  How cool is that? Before there were smartphones, waiting in the deli line meant listening to grocery store Muzak and making small talk with strangers. Now I can bury my head in the screen, stream some Taylor Swift songs and talk to strangers on the Internet.

I wasn’t born until 1964, so I missed the 1950’s, but if it were possible, that is a time I think I would like to visit. My father was a car guy; in the 1950’s he probably had a dozen cars in total. The family album (truthfully, it's just a shoe box) is full of photos of him standing in front of some big fendered iron beast with fins and whitewalls.  The cars during this decade were nothing short of amazing. Today we have airbags, and anti-lock brakes and safer is better, but a 1957 Chevy Bel Air could broadside a tree at 35 miles an house and still be driven home. I know this because Dad did just that. A new headlight and a little sandpaper and paint and he was back on the road.  The car my mother drove us around in when we were little was just slightly newer than the Chevy, it was 1961 Buick Special station wagon and it was practically a tank.

The cars are not the only part of that time that fascinates me. The clothes were just fabulous. For women, they were probably uncomfortable because of all the straps and hooks and rib-crushing foundation garments, but how do you not love every outfit Audrey Hepburn ever wore? Ok, that’s not a good example, she was beyond beautiful, if she wore a Hefty bag it would look chic, but the clothes of that time were inspired. Women wore hats and gorgeous shoes and carried tiny handbags instead of “hobo” bags. The casual clothes, like pegged pants and an oversized cotton shirt tied up at the waist, looked like a page out of Vogue.  There is a photo of my mother wearing pants, a pair of flats and a cashmere twinset and I bet that outfit would still be considered on trend today.

My cooking skills leave a lot to be desired, but photos of the kitchens in the 1950s make me think that even my pitiful culinary efforts would be delicious. First, a typical kitchen back then was larger than the entire downstairs of my house now.  The kitchen in the house we lived in until I was eight years old was a perfect example. There was a pantry. Seriously, the kitchen was two rooms. The colors were red and white, and the stove probably weighed more than a Volkswagon, but it was a great space. When my lottery ticket turns out to be the winner, I am going to duplicate that kitchen and probably buy a 1961 Buick as well.

The 1950s have gone though, but that is a good thing. Women aren’t tied to those fantastic kitchens anymore, and they can buy their own houses and cars without needing permission from their husbands. People are living longer now, probably because we aren’t all sitting around swilling Manhattans and sucking down Lucky Strikes. Schools are better, especially since kids don't have to have to practice their safety drills for a possible nuclear attack. We know now that if that does happen, hiding under the desk will not help, so there’s more time to learn.

It’s true that everyone looks back and thinks the “old days” were a better and simpler time, but someday our kids will call today one of the good old days. That’s how it should be; doesn’t everyone want their children to think back fondly of what their lives were like when they were young? No ten-year-old today is going to look back and be sad about the political world or the war. They’re going to remember how awesome it was to have a PS4 or a Wii, both of which will probably be on display at the Smithsonian. It’s OK to want to pick and chose what we remember from a time gone by; it’s not a history test. In the meantime, I wish I had kept the silver aluminum Christmas tree with the spinning colored disk, but at least I have a Polaroid of it.