Tuesday evening D1 came upstairs excitedly telling me about a television program she had just watched. “It was a TV show," she began, “with Will Smith.” Then she further clarified, “Back in the olden days before he made movies, he made a TV show.” And in mistaking my shock-induced silence for ignorance, she continued, “It was called The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.”So as I sit here pondering this, I’m uneasy. How could my otherwise bright 12-year-old not know about the olden days? The real olden days. The days when children would dip candles and churn butter for chores. Girls always wore dresses and boys all wore suspenders. You attended the one-room school house for learnin’, and attended to 'business' in the one-seat outhouse. Pa drove the horse and wagon while ma, with her hair in a constant bun, held the baby. Those, without question, were the olden days.
Will Smith’s legendary television show was still gracing the airways in 1995. I’ll admit back then Martha Stewart was an icon, not an ex-con. However, I can not sit quietly while anyone calls the year Sheryl Crow won a Grammy for Best New Artist the olden days. In the year of the remarkable Super Bowl win performance of the Steve Young led 49ers, 32 cents stamps dotted first class mail and dot com companies dotted Silicon Valley. It was also the year 150 million of us watched O. J. Simpson’s not guilty verdict being read. Bill Clinton was playing President while Newt Gingrich was remaking America. Seal was singing Kiss from a Rose, and Tom Hanks held us in suspense on his ill-fated space mission.
We all remember it like yesterday, because it practically was yesterday! In less than two years Will Smith went from a Philly teen in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air to Agent J in Men in Black. But apparently those were a ground breaking two years, as we managed to shake from the shackles of the olden days to finally emerge into modern day. And luckily for D1 and her iPod, instant messaging, and cell phone, we pulled it off. Perhaps it was even more miraculous than Tom Hanks safely returning from his Apollo 13 mission.
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What struck me as funny as I was reading your post is that your described olden days made me think of Little House on the Prairie. Is there reality beyond the time line of television? I don't think so.
ReplyDeleteYup, "the good ol' days" depends on which era you were born.
ReplyDeleteIt could be when grampa had to walk naked, uphill both ways, with snow 10 miles high in July to get to school.... or it could be back when they had cassette tapes (what's that??). Perspective, it's all perspective.
Supermom,
ReplyDeleteNow you know where I did all my research for this piece. Does it show how much Melissa Gilbert used to be my idol?
Eve,
ReplyDeleteI never knew Grandpa walked naked??? Ughhh yuck!
Deborah, what a fun writing style you have!
ReplyDeleteYeah, Eve's grandpa used to walk naked to school. That's why the family had to move to Canada, right? They probably allow that sort of thing in Alaska too, but not down here, in the lower 48.
Craver vii,
ReplyDeleteDoes Eve know you're trashin' on her home country, eh?
(southern drawl) Well Ma'am, ah shore do 'spect she'll find out 'fore too long, don'tcha reckon?
ReplyDeleteAnd when she does, eh, you're in big trouble. Know what I mean, 'cause she's Canandian, eh.
ReplyDeleteThat's it, Craver! I'm coming out of my igloo to clobber you over the head with my beaver pelt...and I will sic my pet moose on you, eh!
ReplyDelete