Remember When?
Tim Williams
May 02, 2009
The "good old days" as my father called them. Lately now I am beginning to think like my father in that I now reflect back to my child hood as the "good old days". So many fine memories of my youth come back. Maybe it is because I live in such a fast and turbulent time now. The days fly by while I work hard to get by. Working and laboring trying to make a living. Paying bills that are constantly increasing in amounts and frequency. No longer am I able to sit idle and frolic away time in innocent play as I did when I was a young boy. The constant plight of my generation is all consumed with existing and not living. When it takes two jobs and 16 hours a day to almost make "ends meet" there is no time left practically for anything else, let alone spending time with your children or grandchildren.
What went wrong? My parents were able to live life while I on the other hand can only exist. Both my parents worked but there lives intermixed with everyday pleasures as well as bringing up two children. They took the time out of every day to as I would but it "smell the roses". Of course the inventions of today's modern world were not in place 50 years ago but maybe that was the best thing because without these convinces of today like blackberry's and computers I would not have such fond memories where my parents had the time and took the time to interact with us. Technology is only partly to blame for the intrusion upon the family. The other is business and governmental policies of the past forty years have undermined the sanctity of the family unit to where families are splintered in that the individual child is all to self absorbed to interact with their parents and the parents are too consumed with work just to be able to put food on the table. Today's disposable incomes are not sufficient to take care of the rising cost of living like they were growing up during my generation.
The major industrial nations today practically have the same labor and business policies in that they all assimilated the technologies of today into their working environment. The individual worker is all to swept up in what in generating the most profit in the shortest amount of time for their corporations. This produces little or no time to enjoy what life has to offer. Before all these technological innovations appeared business were run at a slower pace. Quality, pride, reliability, durability and trust were the greatest strengths in our economic structure. Families were able to bond together which contributed to the economic stability and growth of the United States primarily because of a much slower working environment. Inflation, technology, more profit at any cost, and an apathetic attitude toward others has replaced the philosophy of business of yesterday and the economy of my youth.
Of all my fondest memories most were the summers on Lake Geneva where I became a young man. Each summer had special moments to remember. They all lingered on almost endlessly. Now, almot a half century later, in a different era, and a different place the days flyby ever so swift as I too am caught up in the whirlwind of every day survival. Maybe, we all should Remember When!
What went wrong? My parents were able to live life while I on the other hand can only exist. Both my parents worked but there lives intermixed with everyday pleasures as well as bringing up two children. They took the time out of every day to as I would but it "smell the roses". Of course the inventions of today's modern world were not in place 50 years ago but maybe that was the best thing because without these convinces of today like blackberry's and computers I would not have such fond memories where my parents had the time and took the time to interact with us. Technology is only partly to blame for the intrusion upon the family. The other is business and governmental policies of the past forty years have undermined the sanctity of the family unit to where families are splintered in that the individual child is all to self absorbed to interact with their parents and the parents are too consumed with work just to be able to put food on the table. Today's disposable incomes are not sufficient to take care of the rising cost of living like they were growing up during my generation.
The major industrial nations today practically have the same labor and business policies in that they all assimilated the technologies of today into their working environment. The individual worker is all to swept up in what in generating the most profit in the shortest amount of time for their corporations. This produces little or no time to enjoy what life has to offer. Before all these technological innovations appeared business were run at a slower pace. Quality, pride, reliability, durability and trust were the greatest strengths in our economic structure. Families were able to bond together which contributed to the economic stability and growth of the United States primarily because of a much slower working environment. Inflation, technology, more profit at any cost, and an apathetic attitude toward others has replaced the philosophy of business of yesterday and the economy of my youth.
Of all my fondest memories most were the summers on Lake Geneva where I became a young man. Each summer had special moments to remember. They all lingered on almost endlessly. Now, almot a half century later, in a different era, and a different place the days flyby ever so swift as I too am caught up in the whirlwind of every day survival. Maybe, we all should Remember When!
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