"And we liked it that way!"

Comic Dana Carvey had a recurring character on Saturday Night Live back in the early nineties,
"The Cranky Old Man".

Dressed in a tacky cardigan, with a wild crazy man wig, he did hysterical rants on nonsensical memories of how tough things were when he was young, always capped with
"And we liked it that way! We loved it!"

Eating rock soup, walking so far to school that our feet bled, having such lousy light to do our homework by we are all blind now, etc.

It was always incredibly funny, and at the same time insightful.
Dana and I are within a year of the same age, and he would probably agree with me that it is difficult not to allow ourselves to turn into some semblance of that mad old man.

The longer we live, the more foolishness and base behavior we witness.
We have watched our popular culture degrade to the point of animal crudeness.
Just because a show is on during the so-called "family hour" (I wonder which family, the Manson Family?) doesn't mean you should let your kids anywhere near it.
Movies have become degenerate to the point that unless we know exactly what we will be seeing before we go, we just stay away from them.
So that automatically eliminates 99% of the garbage Hollywood churns out these days.
It does save money!

The generic term "The Media" may seem trite, but they are the obvious culprit.
But they only reflect the degradation of the human animal in general.

I had a wise old Uncle myself, he went on across the bridge several years ago to rest with our ancestors.
My Uncle, Bob Hill had a good conversation with me just before I married.
This was just after Jimmie Carter left office, before any of RWR's policys had the chance to effect any real changes.
Interest rates were so high that we despaired of ever owning our own home.
I made the comment "No wonder so many of us are angry young men. Looks like we will never be able to work and achieve what your generation has"

He was a big man, with a deep, pleasant laugh.
Putting his ever present pipe down, he laughed and told me
"You have to be my age to warrant really becoming angry! Just wait, someday you will be an angry old man!"

Boy, Uncle were you right on!

Now I understand why my Dad was so P'O'd most of the time.
In his youth, most of America still lived in small towns, or in poor rural areas.
He was born in a log house, built over 100 years before his birth.
With no indoor plumbing, and only two Franklin stoves and a fireplace for heat.
And it gets cold in West Virginia, especially at night.
One pair of shoes purchased in the late fall had to do you all winter.
It was 1938 when they moved into the current farm house before they had electricity.

Fast Forward to today, when even the poorest of our poor have electricity and plumbing.
Most also have TV, and other standards still considered unattainable in a great portion of the world.

Our communications, medical technology, and standard of living has increased far past what I ever invisioned when I was in college over 30 years ago.

But are we better off as a people than we were then?

You think that over and get back to me.

Bet you'll be pretty mad, though!