You're beginning to sound like my Mama, Mama.

Everytime we tried to get her to visit a reenactment, or if she saw us dressing for one, she'd snort. To the day she passed she couldn't undeerstand why we wanted to live in the past.

"The good old days are right now!" she'd insist. "I have no reason to go back."

Now Jaffo is right in one respect. Every generation, as it gets older, complains about how things have gone downhill. Mostly what they're complaining about, though, is change itself. It weren't that way when I was a boy.

We are the first generation (or multi-generation), however, in which "progress" actually represents a degradation in the quality of life. Our fresh foodstuffs arrive poisoned. Our canned and frozen foods are filled with chemicals, and salts, and antibiotics. Livestock is factory-farmed, and force fed unnatural foods.

Clothing and furniture are built shoddily, out of intentionally poor materials. Automobiles are deathtraps (hey! Who here remembers when Americans loved their cars? Now we barely tolerate them.) The country's infrastructure is teetering.

And the folks on TV get away with calling fantasies "reality."

These aren't merely feelings and opinions. These are facts. We are in the worst shape we've ever been. Where is the tomorrow they promised me when I was a kid?

I see you point Mama, and you have a good one!
Also, I want you to know I mean the way you express yourself just tickles me, I love it when you end by saying "Oh shut up Mama"........for some reason that just cracks me up!

Cathy - sometimes I just rattle - and you get me going and I'm ready to manufacture the concrete shoes! LOL

Just think about it - being on line I can stand on my soapbox and never get hit by the tomatoes being thrown. Hell - they're contaminated anyway!

KYH - our country is the pits. We have gone from being a superpower to the bowels of hell. Take a look at this "land of plenty" - plenty of people losing their homes with the mortgage crisis, plenty of people looking for work because companies have "down-sized" or more commonly called "right-sizing". Plenty fo nothing for so many - and no relief in sight.

The kids suffer today - one parent is struggling to put food on the table - 2 parents are working twice as hard.

The education system is so full of "unions" that they have forgotten that they are supposed to be teaching. The old school marms devoted themselves to the kids and their education. Today they would rather sleep with the students and pose for them and send it to their emails and cell phones.

Our country had gotten so greedy - from the highest officials to the homeless. It's me, me, me - so sad.

After 911 I thought our country would learn something - but apparently they didn't.

Ain't getting any better - just getting worse -

and in my final days -

STOP SCREWING WITH MY FOOD!

LOL!!!!

MamaM, I know our country has problems many many many of them. I still love America and will always be thankful that I am American! It is our duty (patriotic or otherwise) to make it the best country that we can, as much as we can. Like Jafo it is my desire to be the best I can be, teach my children likewise, and demand reform when needed, vote, and there again HOPE for a better tomorrow. We all have to do our part, and hold big businesses accountbale, and support the powers that be in trying to do a better job.

mama's piece is great! At 41 (older than some- younger than others) I can identify w/ many of the things she writes of.

I hate the huge mega-stores where one has to park 3-3/4 miles away from the entrance, and hike 183 square acres of square-footage just to buy deodorant, a lightbulb, radishes and a gallon of milk!

I don't remeber "Veep" soda but I do recall various flavors of "Faygo", then there was "Green Rover Soda", and "Cream-Sickle Soda" in the red coke machines that cost a quarter and the very narrow vertical window was pulled-open so you could pull hard to release your long-neck bottle from within the claws of the machine, then pry-loose the bottlecap in the little built-in gizmo provided alongside of the window.

I don't remember "Voortman" cookies but I used to love the various flavors of "Archway" cookies Mom used to buy. My favs were black walnut icebox cookies, lemon icebox cookies and molassess w/ the huge crystals of sugar. Yum!

We were raised on Campbells chicken noodle and vegetable beef condensed soups and not the fancy gourmet chunky stuff- rather the straight, "regular" type- nothing fancy about it! We also often ate mix & roll-out pizza, and spaghetti made from the boxed-mixes put out by Chef Boy-ar-dee (complete w/ tiny cans of parmesan "dust" provided.) These were weird looking back- but yummy to a 5 yr. old! I wonder if these 2 products are still sold?

We ate sammies a lot- with the "breakable" American cheese mama describes that one had to peel from the stack of other slices, no individually-wrapped slices for our frugal household!- also bologna we cut ourselves from the red rubbery cellophane covering, as well as olive loaf lunchmeat, ham & cheese loaf lunchmeat, and liverwurst with the rubbery strip of fat running a round the perameter of the slice...

I remember delivered milk, buttermilk, butter and cottage cheese... delivered eggs... I remember free tea-towels in large boxes of powdered "Breeze" laundry detergent, and free drinking glasses from gas stations w/ a fill-up, and of course a house-full of stuff redeamed from S & H Green Stamps!

For those lonely for the olden days, you need to check-out this nostalgic magazine put out my the same folks who publish "A Taste of Home" magazine:

Reminisce Magazine Subscription - History - Magazines.com Magazine Subscriptions