"I Wish a Buck was Still Silver.."

"I wish a buck was still silver

And it was back when the country was strong

Back before Elvis..and before the Vietnam War came along

Before the Beatles and Yesterday, when a man could still work and still would

Is the best of the free life behind us now

Or Are the Good Times Really Over For Good?

Are we rollin downhill like a snowball headed for hell

With no kind of chance for the flag..or Liberty Bell ?

I wish a Ford and a Chevy..would still last ten years like they should

Is the best of the free life behind us now

Or Are the Good Times Really Over For Good?

I wish Coke was still cola, and a joint was a bad place to be

And it was back before Nixon..lied to us all on TV

Before microwave ovens ..when a girl could still cook..and chop wood [ sic..or maybe sick]

Is the best of the free life behind us now

Or Are the Good Times Really Over For Good?

Stop rollin downhill like a snowball headed for hell

Stand up for the flag and let's all ring the Liberty Bell

Let's make a Ford and a Chevy that'll still last ten years like they should

The best of the free life is still yet to come..the good times ain't over for good. "

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The above was written and released by Merle Haggard in 1982. The interrogatory theme is still applicable in many ways today, especially if one is a bit older while viewing assorted acts of asshattery/ douchebaggery that occurs in this country  of late. At first perusal, the lyrics don't suggest hopefulness; but that condition is certainly included in the main intended theme at conclusion.

Rather than throw barbs and rocks at my political opponents here, I thought I'd just post some corny old song lyrics that ask a few questions ( with intended relevance  for today's situation than anything to do with Elvis, The Beatles,  Nixon, or the flag and/or Liberty Bell, etc.).  Most of you old gummers have probably forgotten those tenets anyway. *l*.

Cheers...

Funny, 1982 was when my Ford Escort died horribly and my Ford Pinto flew apart...and I rented a Chrysler K-car, and found out that it stood for "Kaput"...so I can identify with that lyric. How about "I wish they lasted as long as a Toyota"...which we still haven't managed, but the disparity isn't quite as stark now.

The Good Old Days actually sucked in many ways, and the Good Times weren't all that good all that often, and certainly not for a lot of people. However, lotsa folks look at the past through the rose-tinted glasses of nostalgia. That's an Old Person Trap I personally don't fall into. Back then:

1. Every fuckin' body smoked. Or so it seemed. And smoking prohibitions were far in the future.

2. When you retired at 65, from an actuarial standpoint, you had three years of leisure coming before you croaked.

3. If you developed cancer, you were dead. And often agonizingly so.

4. The goddamn stinkin' banks closed at 3.

5. We had a mortal enemy who had about five thousand nuclear weapons and was on a crusade to take over the world. Oh, fuck, wait...we still do.

6. There was no video poker.

7. A phone was a big clunky thing with wires attached to it.

8. And it cost beaucoup bucks to talk to your Aunt Sadie in Kansas for ten minutes.

9. Gay people were regarded as subhuman and killing them was condoned.

10. There was no interblab, and no way to instantly find out what the capital of Mongolia was without going to the library. (Ulan Bator)

I think the theme of "has everything gone to hell for good?" is so hackneyed as to be a tired trope. The truth is, things have been getting slowly better for centuries. Just because that upward progress hasn't always been a smooth slope doesn't negate that basic fact.

Of course, it was hard to see how we could top the invention of Cheez Whiz. But we did!

Geeze, I didn't intend to inspire disparagement of Cheez Whiz..or anything else as sacred..like Haggard.  He was the Cheeziest of all Whizzes, even though he was an old school Democrat politically. I forgave him for that.*l*

 "The good ole days weren't always good and tomorrow ain't as bad as it seems"'

-billy Joel 

Approximately, yeah..as observed through another prism's perspective.

Well, yeah, perhaps, but not everyone views the past as Happy Fun Sunshine Time. In fact, I surmise that most people don't. One casino in Vegas endlessly plays selections from the "Music From When You Could Still Get it Up Channel," and I think its target audience is indeed the nostalgia crowd. But they're a shrinking demographic.

I just had another mental image from the past--standing on a sidewalk in downtown Los Angeles, and not being able to see more than about half a block before everything dissolved in a dank, brown haze. That was the good old days, before all that liberal smog control nonsense.

Yeah,well...it's my nostalgia built on my conditions / experiences..partially earned / partially granted like the rest of the population. So, you can't take it away...and you can keep your own, as well. BTW, some of the most attractive women on earth can chop wood..I've seen em do it.

I don't doubt it, but that would be far, far down on my list of desirable attributes; furthermore, any man for whom that ability would be anywhere near the top of his list has his priorities seriously out of joint--unless, of course, he's looking for a domestic servant rather than a wife--speakin' of good ol' fashion' traditional values. Besides, if she's skilled with an axe, she'll have the ability to dispatch you in a flash should you do something that gets her peeved at you--and silently, at that.

Viewing the past through the lens of nostalgia is like looking at something distant through a telescope. It looks bigger than it should.

I've been with  my wife a long, long..long time. The truth is, we are in effect each other's domestic servants. We both suffer equally..as a pair. It's a common relationship, believe it or not. She's still cute, maybe partially because I can't see as well as I once could. The rest of it can perhaps be explained by semi-pleasant habit. Thirty some odd years of occasionally sporadic bliss and perpetual life experiences; besides, I can still outrun her should she make the decision to come at me with an axe.

Do you argue with inanimate furniture pieces ( I can visualize you screaming at a coffee table)..just for the sake of argument itself? Are you the quintessential contrarian eristic you appear to be, stirring up contention just for the sake of stirring it up? I think you probably intentionally watch Fox News just to load up your ammo box for your Sink contributions. Am I wrong? Regardless, it's your business. Have fun.  

People with whom one disagrees and expresses such disagreement frequently deploy a tired old tactic: try to devalue one's arguments by saying that one is arguing for the sake of arguing, not to make any specific point. You ain't the first person here to accuse me of that, which is kind of rich, considering that you've surely seen Millerscum's ten-whines-a-day posts and Boilerboob's frequent "Libs-blah-blah" screeds and not said a word about them. But selective perception and resultant reactions are your inalienable rights.

I strongly disagree with the recent horrifyingly popular anti-democratic ideology and policies of the "Republican" party and yes, the idiotic, evil clowns who still, unbelievably, worship the Orange Turd. So that gives me a LOT to be "contrarian" about. Feel free to attach that label to what I say. Be thankful that you live in what will soon be known as the pre-fascist times. And whatever you do--don't attach any culpability for that to yourself.

You're wrong about how much I watch Fox News--since you asked--but I don't ignore them, either. Can't afford to. When someone here or the Breakfast Bloviator at the local cafe babbles something that makes no sense whatsoever, I can usually decode it by having watched two minutes of Fox News and discerning what "issue" is making them turn purple.

And I don't need to seek out confrontation. I get it effortlessly simply by expressing heresies such as "nonwhite people are human," "the Fourteenth Amendment applies to women," and "the Second Amendment doesn't grant you the right to mow down schoolchildren."