A little out of the ordinary
This week my column is going to take on a new face. In the past I have looked at the lighter side of life, but this week I would like to give you my feelings about some of the more serious problems that we seem to be faced with. I promise I won’t make a habit out of being serious in future columns, but this week after watching 45⁄85 on TV. I have been thinking about the past and present and I would like to share my thoughts with you.
In my opinion, the program 45⁄85, (based on years), that was aired on channel nine last Wednesday, was one of the best programs of it’s kind that I have ever enjoyed watching. The time span of years from 1945 to 1895 are the years of my life Many things that they talked about were things that I was not fully aware of at the time.
In the forties, I was in grade school, so many of the topics that they talked about were the topics that I heard my parents discussing. Being a typical child. I did not comprehend what they were talking about and also being a child I was not expected to understand. Life was good…my family was not trying to rebuild their lives from the ruins of war like the families overseas were.
In the fifties. I was a newlywed and a new mother. Life was busy just learning how to be a housekeeper, cook and mother. Again. I did not comprehend the problems that were being created around the world, I was too busy and still too young to think about it.
In the sixties, My daughter was school age. It was never a problem to give her the freedom to walk back and forth to school or to a friends house. I remember the devastated feeling that I had when President Kennedy was assassinated and wondering how something like this could happen in a country like America. Still being young and naive I paid no attention to the events going on around the rest of the world.
The seventies were when we saw the price of just living day to day, get completely out of hand. Inflation, unemployment and recession were the most talked about subjects They affected each and every one of us. The normal forty dollar grocery bill soon cost us sixty dollars or more and it cost a twenty dollar bill just to fill the car up with gas. These were very hard times for business and individuals alike.
Now we are living in the eighties. Seems we have gotten used to high prices. It has all turn ed into a way of life. We make more money and it cost more money to live from day to day. Just like the old days when you made a dime you spent a dime, now we make a dollar and spend a dollar. Also in the eighties, we have what we have been building up to for the past forty years…great nuclear strength. The cloud of a possible nuclear war that has been hanging over the heads of the world, never seems to go away. Although our national and international problems are frightening. I feel some of the problems facing us in our everyday lives are terrifying. Problems that are not without solution, we just have to find a way. The problem of missing children. Unlike in the past years, parents now have to watch their children like prisoners for fear of abduction. It is unfair to children and parents. Why? Who are these faceless people? Will we ever be able to trust strangers again? Will we ever be comfortable giving our kids the freedom to be trusting kids again? What is the answer?
Another frightening subject that we hear more and more about is AIDS. On television, in newspapers and magazines, we are constantly reminded of AIDS and it’s horrible consequences. I must say that I have not heard or read one thing about AIDS that is not vague. I do not know if some of the reports are sensationalism or are to be believed. I just wish someone could come up with some solid information, I am tired of hearing about the horrors of the disease and not really knowing the facts.
In the eighties we have also seen the birth of pornographic rock music and videos. This is the newest way to “entertain” our young people. Rock music with lyrics about sex, violence and devil worship is what some record producers think our kids should be listening to. I always thought music was a feeling, why are they trying to “entertain” young minds with such trashy lyrics. Now groups of concerned parents are forming to try and tone down or censor the offensive lyrics in the rock music that our kids are listening to. Why can’t the producers just stop producing the albums? Or is the call of the big bucks too much for them. You can bet if they would tell the rock groups to clean up their act or no money, the rock groups would have the same music with acceptable lyrics.
These are just a few of the problems that I am aware of these days. Maybe in forty years we can watch a program on television called, 85⁄25 and say these were problems in the eighties, thank goodness they are not problems now.
As the years pass me by. I start understanding more and more the concerns my parents had about the times. At the time I thought they were so foolish to be so concerned about the things that were not concerning me…Now I understand what growing older is all about.
