Grandson to grandfather, perhaps eager to hear evidence of a better America: "Do you think your times were better than mine? People were kinder, gentler and more willing to give back to their country...?" Grandfather to grandson, eager to be honest without self-serving: "Not always, but a lot more than what I see today..."
Now I could have smugly reported some of the irrefutable statistics from "my times" (circa 1930s,40s,50s). Fewer crimes of violence, sexual assault, drugs, handguns; fewer unwed mothers, abortions, divorces, sexual predators. All this coupled with safer homes, safer schools, higher church attendance and more frequent public service.
But no...! Stats aren't the best way to prove a point so diffuse and important as the one Ben just presented me. Besides, numbers can always be sliced and diced and disputed. The best -- actually the only -- evidence for defining the times is to look elsewhere. Don't list the laws and the GNP. Instead, tell me the stories. The stories people were reading, singing and watching on their screens!
Our best-sellers included "The Good Earth," "Grapes of Wrath," "How Green Was My Valley," "Mrs Miniver," "The Nazarene," "The Cardinal." What might they have most in common? Unlike today's harder, darker themes, we were collectively moved by their basic valor, sentimentality and good endings. Not exactly the stuff that hooks readers today, Ben, but they spoke to our times and our tastes.
Our songs and singers...? Well, usually they too were distinguished by a simpler more sentimental ethos. "Happy Days Are Here Again," "Sunny Side of the Street," "Coming In On A Wing & A Prayer." Glenn Miller, Bing Crosby. Perry Como, Doris Day. By today's Presley-Beatles-Rap zeitgeist, most of this was pretty tame and gooey. But you see, Ben, it sold. To hardened Depression workers and toughened GIs alike. To touch our times you have to sing our music.
Hollywood, of course, is easily the best pulse reading of the times. What are people crowding in to see, and laugh, and cry over....? There was "You Can't Take It With You," "Sullivan's Travels," "Mr Smith Goes To Washington," "Gone With The Wind," "Sergeant York," "Gunga Din," "Best Years of Our Lives," and "High Noon." Just a few of the movies which won our hearts in those times, largely because each itself had such a large good heart. Hearts and feelings and visions and love of country were perhaps more common then. Corny, true; but it was the kind of corn we relished.
So, Ben, lets just say your times are exciting and pregnant with possibilities. My times helped make your times possible. Ours weren't always as rich and comfortable, but I'd like to believe we heard the trumpets of decency, honor and service clearly. Trumpets which have become more muted in today's jangle of gold and guns.
My suggestion -- try listening to them again
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A beautiful piece...both the theme and what you wrote about. I agree with you as well!
ReplyDeleteI appreciate that, dear anonymous!
ReplyDeleteAnonymous # 2 disagrees with the above.
ReplyDeleteIts a good thing you decided not to rest on stats because you well know you would have been run oer by a Mack Truck dealing with health, life expectancy, education, greater toleration, civil rights.personal opportunities for women, gays and groups far more limited in "our time".
So lets talk about the stories folks read. As a matter of fact lets talk about a few of your selections.
The Good Earth was more about another country at another time. The Grapes of Wrath hardly affirmed the virtues of the time. On the contrary criticized the social structure and injustices of the time.
Yu may reply the point is they were best sellers. So what? Do I have to furnish a list of best sellers of the day to reflect the virtues and values they herald or like true great literature call attention to the vices and foibles of the time as well as the virtues?
C'mon.old prof. Your lists of stories prove not a thing.
That goes double for the movies you also list that by and large were overly sentimental wish fullfillments fed on by a population living through ecomomic times worse then our own and a war that truly was about the preservation of our ideals as well as the usual ecconomic factors.
To tell the truth I don't know if then was better then now or vice-versa. Who does know? The one real argument we old-timers have over Ben is the simple truth that then we were his age with all the fire and energy we no longer can even recall but sure miss when we see it in him.
On second thought that proves nothing except wouldn't it be nice to have it again--or would it?
LF
LF ~ when you write "your lists of stories prove not a thing," proof isn't the point. When one remembers the past -- fancifully as well as factually -- it is a personal (and for some, a shareable) moment. Nothing to prove -- either you share it or you don't.
ReplyDeleteDear Jack:
ReplyDeleteYour words belie your response. Ben is rebutted with the claim "stats don't prove" his contention. Instead you submitted "stories."
It seems you concede they also fail to prove your rebuttal but were modestly offered to be "shared." Were they not offered to be shared in opposttion to Ben's opinion?
Hey old friend-let's give your grandson a break!
LF
Dear LF ~ If you would read the original essay, it was surely NOT a rebuttal. It was a response to a question from Ben who wondered if maybe my times were not better in some ways (now that he is looking at his times with a bit of skepticism). So what this grandpa did was what most grandpas (not all) do -- remind him anecdotally that there were indeed some wonderful securities and moorings back then in our less complex and more innocent years. As it turned out, Ben didn't need "a break" but kindly accepted an old man's reverie as something worth thinking about, not dismissing out of hand. But then I was only there whereas you have reached a judgment from afar
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