At my age, there is a lot of talk about the "good old days." But you won't hear it from me. I may be no spring chicken but I definitely do not want to turn back the clock. Well at least not as it affects modern living. I wouldn't mind being say 45 again if it could be in the 21st century.
When I hear people talking about wishing for the good old days, I want to say really? You really want to go out and catch a chicken, wring it's neck, pluck the feathers, and cut it up before you can have fried chicken? Ok, but I will just go to the freezer and take out my bag of frozen chicken breasts. And I don't even want to think about what you will go through to prepare Thanksgiving dinner. No, thank you.
Let's talk about laundry which I am doing right now. I can put the clothes in my washer and while I'm waiting for the washer to do all the work, I can do other things, like typing this blog. You nostalgic lovers on the other hand, have to heat your water, hand wash your clothes, and put them through a hand wringer if you are lucky enough to have one. Watch out your little ones don't run their arms through it. In the good old days, one day of the week was set aside for laundry because it took an entire day. When my washer stops, I can throw my clothes into the dryer and go about my day. The dryer will stop automatically when the clothes are dry. I admit that I still have to fold them and put them away. You on the other hand have to hang them up to dry. On a good day, that would be outside on a clothes line. Where I admit they smell wonderful when you take them down. But I have frozen my fingers taking down clothes that were stiff as boards on a wintry day. And don't get me started on ironing. I still hate to iron but 90 percent of today's clothing is wrinkle free. If I do have to iron, I have a light weight iron that steams the wrinkles out.
And how about communication? Do you really want to go back to the early days of the telephone? Some of you nostalgic types will remember the party line. People say that the internet destroyed privacy which I agree with to some extent, but the party line could do the same thing. I love my cell phone which allows me to get a call anywhere. I no longer have to be home to wait for the plumber or repair man to call back. I can keep in touch with my family and friends when I travel through my cell phone or even the internet. I can send and receive pictures in just minutes. If you want to go back to sending postcards that take days to arrive, be my guest.
Travel improvements are another thing I wouldn't give up. Yes we may have to spend an hour in an airport security line, but compare that to the time it would have taken to get somewhere in the "good old days." I can hop on a plane in Springfield Il and be in Ft Myers Florida in two hours, two hours, just imagine. And it is not just flying that has improved travel. Our highways are a vast improvement over the old macadam roads. I watched a special on early travelers to Yellowstone park and was amazed at what those first visitors had to go through to get there. We have it so easy compared to the "good old days."
Yes, the 21st century has it's own set of problems. Progress always comes with hiccups but our lives are so much easier in so many ways. So I say to those people nostalgic for the "good old days", you may think you want to go back but do you really?
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