Monday, November 8, 2010

Thoughts on a Monday (Can You Tell It Rained Yesterday?)

I like to think that had I been a woman in 1970something I would have been this woman, all flaunt and heel with the bitchin'est car I ever did see. That in the 20's I would have been a flapper, in the 30's a member of The Lost Generation, that in the 50's I would've been first in line to buy Howl, obscene or not, the coolest chick smack dab in the middle of whatever time, an iconoclastic poster child of something avant and slightly scary. But of course I am not that woman, not then and not now, me in my sensible flats and dependable Toyota.

For most of the twentieth century, doctors routinely operated on babies without anesthesia, believing them exempt from pain. I wonder, sometimes, what modern day norm will seem horrific to us in the future. Remember when we actually ate preservatives while pregnant? we might say to one another in the old folk's home, or for that matter remember when we used to put people in old folk's homes? Shaking our heads, how could anyone have possibly denied two people in love the right to marry, a 5-point harness the lap belt of can you believe, our children admonishing us for not putting them in helmets every time we turned the ignition.

What am I doing right this very second that will one day seem at best cutely antiquated, at worst ghastly and inhumane? What is going on to which I am not privvy? A movement, a scene? A way of thinking like an optical illusion, after which you can never not see the old lady?

But the car, yes--the car is freaking beautiful.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Outdated (or soon-to-be) technology:
Pagers
Fax machines
Pay phones and landlines of any kind
Yellow pages
Bulky televisions

Outdated cultural norms:
Lady Gaga
"Reality" shows
Mid-life crises
"Don't Ask, Don't Tell"
Gender stereotypes

Classic, always in style:
Susannah

Karena said...

Everything comes back around again!

Come read a great interview, then enter my latest giveaway!

xoxo
Karena
Art by Karena

Not Just Mom said...

I think our kids will look back and think it was [insert future equivalent word for "uncool"] that same sex couples were unable to legally marry. It will seem as unbelievable as women being unable to vote. At least here's hoping.

Oh Brother! said...

Styles change. "Style" doesn't.

Love,

bro

jennifer said...

amazing car!

Ceci said...

Yay you're back! The car is frickin' sensational!! Makes me want to paint my Honda powder pink..(not really), but yeah!

And YAY for the bun in the oven!!!

Richie Designs said...

want the car!

The Lady's Lounge said...

I remember phones going from dial to push button.

I found an old push button phone in our basement last week and thought it was the cutest thing ever.

Mustard yellow too.

Hot stuff.

Anonymous said...

Okay, I am ancient..62...here's what was scary about being pregnant back in the late sixties ;..my doctor advised me not to quit smoking, saying, "I don't want a nervous mom-to-be"..I was an idiot..It was a miracle, but I had a very healthy son, who is 42, and doesn't smoke...
We didn't wear seat belts, "how do you get out of a burning car?" my father asked (who was later killed because he wasn't wearing a seat belt)..
Kids didn't know what a bike helmet was - (funny, those "free spirits, who still ride motorcycles don't seem to understand skulls don't bounce)..
I won't even tell you that I have a photograph of me..hugely pregnant, holding a cigarette in one hand, and a beer in the other (my husband was in Viet Nam..very hard times)..GAH!! God forgive them, for they knew not what they done...

Anonymous said...

Oh, and another thing...I knew that was not proper grammer...just showing you how very ignorant we were back then.
I no longer smoke, enjoy a bit of wine on occasion, and as W.C. Fields once said, "If I'd known I was going to live this long, I would have taken better care of myself".
And, yes, great car...

Only A Girl said...

I'm kinda diggin' the pants....