So what did you do to celebrate the New Year?  Did you ignore the medical experts, had a whopping good time without masks – and came to rue the day? Or did you make sensible promises for the immediate future, like:

– I won’t plan any long trips.

– I won’t visit high risk friends in their homes.

– I will automatically practice the 6′ distance with everyone.

– I won’t stop washing my hands frequently.

– I won’t throw a party or hit the bars.

– I won’t go to exercise in a gym without a plan.

– Mask and gloves will be my daily dress in all appropriate situations.

Actually, when you come right down to it,, what’s the big deal? The leap from 2020 to 2021 was a bare millisecond. But we did try make a big deal of it.

Instead, let’s take a ride back a few decades and enjoy reminiscing about the “good ole times” that, by comparison, really were good old times, while cautioning with what the writer Isaac Azimov profoundly said in 1980:

There is a cult of ignorance in the United States,

and there always has been.

The strain of anti-intellectualism

has been a constant thread winding its way

through our political and cultural life,

nurtured by a false notion that being democratic

means “My ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.”

Or Hitler, who said in Mien Kampf, (My Fight) “If you tell a lie loud enough and long enough, people will sooner or later believe it.”

Do you recall when life was simple; when as kids we were taught right from wrong,  when we knew that rules were made to respect one another in our democratic ways,  and when we believed in allowing for differences and respected the rights of others? 

Do you remember when we hired people on the basis of the best person for the job and not to fulfill quotas? Or when we chose our governmental representatives democratically and accepted the winners whether we liked them or not?

And do you recall Christmases without hugely expensive gifts – when a stocking filled with goodies could be enough? 

Do you recall communicating by writing a letter or, in emergency, making a long distance call? Getting a hand-written letter had a personal touch that no computer can ever match.  In a real rush? A telegram worked just fine.

Do you remember when life was simpler, when few of us owned a car, when we didn’t mind walking, when it was quieter in the streets?

Do you remember when you bought something you could count on it lasting a good long time? Even Henry Ford’s idea of planned obsolescence went just so far. And if something did wear out or break, there was always a repairman to put it together again, without costing you a week’s paycheck. 

And advertising! Sure, it was everywhere, but limited by rigid government rules, like no hour long TV or radio program could take up more than ten minutes in advertising. 

Ah, those were the days. Sit back and recall more:

– There was a time when you’d search forever for a penny dropped.

– When a quarter was a decent allowance.

– You got your windshield cleaned, oil checked, and gas pumped without asking, for free.

– Laundry detergents had free glasses, dishes or towels hidden inside each box.

– Eating out at a restaurant was a real treat.

– No one asked where the keys to the car were because they were always  in the ignition – and the doors were never locked.

– Stuff came from the store without safety caps and hermetic seals.

– Things were more formal; teachers wore suits and dresses; play clothes were for after school and Saturdays only.

-Your mom wore nylons that came in two pieces.

– Telephones had party lines, fun for sneak listening.

And do you remember candy cigarettes, wax Coke-shaped bottles filled with colored sugar water, soda pop machines that dispensed glass bottles for a nickel, nickel candy bars, black jack gum,  movies that cost a dime to see and were always G rated)?

What about peashooters, Howdy Doody, 45 rpm records, Green Stamps, Hi-Fi’s? And drive-ins, erector sets, Lincoln logs, tinkertoys, 15-cent hamburgers? Washtub wringers, the Fuller Brush man at the door, penny candy?

Remember when race issues were about who could run the fastest?  When being caught in school with a weapon was a slingshot? When we announced with pride, “I pledge allegiance to the flag”? When war was a card game?

Don’t  let go of the past – bring the best of it up to date and savor it.

And pass these on to those pessimists worrying about the future. I double-dare-ya.