Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Wishes for another time


So, I've been prowling Netflix's instant watch categories to find something to do for next month's theme and I came across an old movie that I used to watch constantly as a kid called The Sandlot. I mean, when I was a kid, I think I liked it because it was, well, a kid's movie, but even to this day, I still find it chuckle-worthy and watching it when there's nothing else to watch makes me feel young again.

But, that's not the point of this post, to be honest.

The point of this post is, well, the fact that I sometimes think I was born during the wrong era. Sure, I like all the shitty pop music of today, work on computers for a living, and really enjoy video games and dislike the outdoors like a vampire dislikes the sunlight (sometimes, I think I'm allergic to sunshine with how little I go outside), but that doesn't mean that I wouldn't have fit right in during the 50's or 60's.

I'm sure I would've ended up as the bookish little dweeb that hung out in the library during the summer instead of going to the pool with the other girls, but that doesn't mean I wouldn't have enjoyed it any less than I enjoy my current activities.

I think the thing that draws me so much to the 50's and 60's isn't so much as the favorite pass times, but more of the innocence of the times; Mom tells me that, back then, you didn't have to worry about locking your doors, didn't really worry too much about kids getting nabbed by creepazoids in vans with candy, and because of stuff like that, times were far more innocent, sweet, and just a hell of a lot more fun. Nowadays, you HAVE to lock you door, you don't let your ten-year-old out of your sight without a damn cell phone, and people are so goddamned worried about OTHER stuff that REAL fun and friends just seem to be dying. I mean, I know I'm a computer geek and I HATE being outside, but you just don't see kids playing outside anymore. I think that was starting to die when I was still a kid, because I remember playing outside all the time and enjoying the HELL out of it until we got our first home computer and video game system. Once that happened, my enjoyment of the outdoors was only because I was grounded from said electronics and my social life went down the shitter.

I like to think that, if I had been a kid during the 50's and 60's, that I probably would've had a frikkin' blast. Movies like The Sandlot, Shutter Island, and Stand by Me make me sometimes wish I was alive back then; I really think it would've been fun and I oftentimes grow jealous of Mom when she tells me all of her childhood stories. One of these days, I think I'll get her to tell me some of them, record them, and then write a few of them down, because Mom's got some of the best stories and experiences from her childhood and I simply can't help but be jealous of her a lot of the time.

1 comment:

  1. Yeah, today's way of life is WAY to panicky and rushed and paranoid and greedy and...Mm, let's just say I am not a fan of the way life has become. Even JOBS were better back then. If I am not mistaken, those were the times when employers actually cared about their employees and people could AFFORD basic necessities...I think everyone wishes to go back to those times...minus the racism and super-development of the time...sometimes I wish we were back in the twenties and thirties...

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