Things Never Really Change

Back in the day when we were young and had all the answers, it was a better life. At least that’s what we thought. I harken back to a few examples. It is for you to decide if there is a valid comparison.

DRUGS

The Woodstock Rock Festival is celebrated as a weekend of love and peace and music. The description may be valid but it is not, generally the opinion of someone who was there. Why? Because folks who were at Woodstock, for the most part, don’t remember that they were at Woodstock. In our little corner of the world, which happened to be Woodstock, Georgia. A group of us staged an “Up With America” rally and parade. A good time was had by all and, other than food, nobody overindulged. Say it was a toss-up, but I would point out that this was a month after an American set foot on the moon. Truly, it was up with America.

DANCE

In 1960, Chubby Checker introduced us to “ The Twist,” and it became the rage of the age. Sock hops and church socials all over the country saw dance floors full of gyrating teen and pre-teen kids. The adults didn’t care because they knew it allowed the kids to dance without touching each other. The kids liked it because, in their minds, they were touching each other.

Then, the unthinkable happened. Parents started coming home from country club dances with “ Twist Sticks” and laughing about this fun new dance they had learned. I seem to recall that it took about a week before kids ditched the Twist. It was bad enough that the old folks didn’t object to the fad, but, when they actually started to like it, it was a goner.

I don’t even know if young people dance now. I find it hard to imagine dancing to music where even the performers can’t keep the tune.

The latest thing that changed the culture…briefly, is FaceBook, or Meta, its new alias. It changed the world for close to two decades. Now, the latest research shows that Geneation Z, whatever that is, is dumping FB almost as its advertisers are. Could it be that the tweens have figured out that having all that information at the touch of a finger is fairly useless when the info is wrong? No, it appears that they are abandoning FaceBook for sites like Instagram. ( Don’t pass the hat for Mark Zuckerberg…he owns that too.)Why? because the bs has moving pictures and it moves faster. Pretty much the same thinking as the Twist. If it’s good for Mom and Dad, I can live without it.

I have lived to see a lot of changes. AM radio was all the rage at one time. Now, we have great audio quality that we stick right in our ear…and nobody tells us what music we like. TV went from black and white to color (where available) to streaming of 500 channels of stuff we dont want to watch but we pay for anyway. Gone are the days when we had three channels and when the President was on, he was on all three channels. Kids hated that but the politicians attitude was well reflected in the song “Summertime Blues,” “I’d like to help ya’ son but you're too young to vote.”

What‘s this younger generation coming to? The same thing as us, and our parents and kids all the way back to the Garden of Eden... running away from authority, but, always lookin back, straining their eyes to make sure the old folks are watching.