Everyday Canvas

What I Miss from an Earlier Time

PROMPT: Is there a trend or short-lived fad from your childhood you secretly (or maybe not-so-secretly) wish would become popular again for a little while?

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Let me count the ways:

Not really short-lived, but I would like to have Elvis alive and singing again, plus another doggie series like Lassie, which the whole country would watch. In fact, I would like those fewer TV channels again, from 2 to 13, which had decent programming that united us. Also, the newscasters on TV were true newscasters who didn’t alter the news, newscasters like Walter Cronkite, Chet Huntley and David Brinkley who honored their profession rather than their personal political agendas.

In addition, I liked the transistor radios through which I could listen to a great number of stations. Those stations would play exquisite music, like classical, pop, or country, and didn’t try to push their version of religion or politics on us. Best yet, they were free. Today, nothing like those comes through the internet or Sirius and XM.

It seemed with so many different options during the later years, we have become culturally distanced and disunited. This may not be such a bad thing since it makes personal choices more possible and varied, but too many options might have caused the division we are experiencing today.

On the other hand, I am of two minds here. I love the new and evolving technology but do not like the feeling of separation from some of the people I only meet on the street or in public places. I recall, in my earlier days, when someone would start talking about the latest episode of —for example- Andy Griffith show in the supermarket or in any other public place, people who had never known one another before would offer their input on the show. This caused some kind of a bonding of the citizens in some way. The truth is, I mostly miss that kind of a comfortable bonding between citizens in public places.