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I have nostalgia for ‘memory week’ at The Napkin Dad Daily and it’s not even over yet!
I am wary of nostalgia. I think about the inclinations so many people have to think back on the ‘good old days’. They have what I think is a glossy hollywood version of the past in their minds.
They may have had a perfect upbringing, but the person who says ‘when I was young….yada yada yada’, who sends out chain email extolling the grand virtues of their self-reliant generation, who recount the idyllic American life they lived is being seduced by nostalgia.
They forget that:
- Their African-American friends, if they had any, couldn’t sit on the bus with them.
- Their mothers didn’t get anywhere near equal pay for equal work.
- Their father was not given any rights when their parents got divorced.
- Their brother was shipped off to Vietnam.
- Their sister overdosed on drugs.
- The Jewish kid down the street was called a Jesus killer.
- The Mexican kid at school was called a wetback.
- Their effeminate cousin was bullied mercilessly at school and his father disowned him.
- *Some of these things unfortunately still go on, and when they happen today we hopefully recognize it as negative.
Don’t be fooled by looking backwards with rose colored glasses. Each generation has its triumphs and burdens. Each generation has its shame and its glory.
Even the greatest generation had its weaknesses.
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Drawing and commentary by Marty Coleman of The Napkin Dad Daily
Quote by George W. Ball, 1909-1994, American Diplomat
>I tell my son about the good ole days when I hid under my desk in 2nd grade preparing to be nuked. The buttons are still there but we no longer burden our kids with the hope that they'd live thru it…progress I say!!
>I am with you, Marty. The past is past and we make our future 🙂